The MB@ blog

English language MBAs in Brazil attract international schools to learn more about management practices in Brazil.

2012-01-30T18:55:00.001-02:00

FIA Business School leads the way with its full time MBA in English, and with an international program for integrating working executives from the four largest economies in the region: the Americas MBA for Executives - with FIA in Brazil, Simon Fraser University in Canada, ITAM in Mexico and Vanderbilt University in the USA. Read a newly-published article by The Economist "Samba Management", which looks at how Brazil is inspiring business schools from beyond its borders.

Program Director's comments

2012-01-30T16:22:00.005-02:00

We begin 2012 with great expectations, mixed with some apprehension about the state of the world, and in particular the economic crisis is Europe and its impact on the global economy.

Brazil expects to grow at least 3% in 2012; a steady and safe growth; not spectacular, not speculative, but firmly based on improved income distribution continuing to drive consumer demand, international investment in local markets and in major projects, as well as a significant but moderate global demand for commodities.

In 2011, Brazil was surpassed only by China as a recipient of foreign direct investment, driving demand for jobs in projects and infrastructure, much of it stimulated by the investments for the 2014 World Cup , with 12 brand new stadiums and the required transportation and tourist infrastructure, as well as for the 2016 Olympics. Huge offshore oil findings, growing energy needs and increases in food production help fuel demand for investments and job opportunities.

PROFUTURO, our Future Studies Program supported by FIA, helped the city of São Paulo develop SP2040, a long term strategic plan designed to enhance São Paulo’s role as the center for business services and headquarters for international companies in Latin America. Maintaining its current position as the main commercial and logistic hub in South America, São Paulo aim to improve its educational system, social infrastructure and quality of life, as well as improving the climate and ease of doing business in Brazil. Numerous large and small scale business opportunities are identified and can be developed as SP2040 in implemented.

The FIA international MBAs will start our new academic year in March, with new sections in the Executive MBA, the International MBAs in English (Full Time and Part Time) as well as the Americas MBA for Executives, in partnership with Vanderbilt University (USA), Simon Fraser University (Vancouver, Canada) and ITAM in Mexico. Besides these new students, we welcome back this year four distinct classes of our current MBA students, which are going into the final part of their programs.

I look forward to seeing you in March 2012, and be prepared for a exciting and demanding experience !

A great 2012 to all !

James Wright

ALGORITHMIC & HIGH-FREQUENCY TRADING (HFT)

2012-01-16T14:41:00.003-02:00

Evento gratuito oferecido pela Fundação Instituto de Administração.

Programação
20h00 - 20h05
Roy Martelanc (FEA/USP) e Felipe Turbuk Garran (FIA)
● Boas vindas e introdução

20h05-21h45
Edgar Perez,
Professor adjunto do Polytechnic Institute da New York University.
Foi vice presidente do Citigroup, consultor da IBM e da McKinsey & Co.
Autor do livro The Speed Traders, An Insider’s Look at the New High-Frequency Trading Phenomenon that is Transforming the Investing World.

● High-Frequency Trading (HFT) é um conjunto de ferramentas que inclui diversas estratégias que priorizam a velocidade, a baixa latência, o volume, a liquidez e estruturas temporais rápidas.

● O HFT tem sido citado como a progressão natural da tecnologia aplicada ao mundo do investimento e do trading.

● O HFT explicitou questões estruturais nos mercados acionários dos EUA, que atualmente se encontram sob exame dos legisladores e reguladores do mundo.

● Os speed traders continuarão a encontrar oportunidades de geração de alfas por meio da negociação de novas classes de ativos em novos mercados, utilizando ferramentas cada vez mais sofisticadas.

21h45-22h00
Edgar Perez.
● Perguntas e respostas.

Idioma: A apresentação será em espanhol, sem tradução simultânea. Os slides estarão em inglês.

Data e hora: 31 de janeiro de 2012 das 20h00 às 22h00

Local: FEA – USP (Cidade Universitária Armando de Sales Oliveira), Av. Professor Luciano Gualberto, 908 - Sala da Congregação, FEA 1, 1º andar - Veja mapa.

Investimento: seu tempo (sem custo de inscrição)

Confirmação e reserva de vagas:
e-mail para pos_prod_financeiros@fia.com.br

FIA International MBA Football tournament

2011-12-09T10:49:00.003-02:00

The finals of the International tournament took place last weekend. Third place was decided with exiting penalty shoot-out after a one-one draw, and International team A took second place, in the final, losing only to the “all star” (all Brazilian) FIA team.

A great showing by our international MBA, with 13 nationalities represented, including at least one excellent female player in each team.

Marise Barroso

2011-12-09T10:39:00.003-02:00

Marise Barroso, President of the Mexichem Brazil and a member of the Strategic Committee of the FIA International MBAs won the “Woman Executive of the Year” award by the “Valor Econômico” newspaper, one of the top business publications in Brazil. With an International career background and a strong focus on marketing and human resource development, her participation in our strategic committee brings a great contribution to our MBA programs.

A new Latin America Initiative

2011-12-09T10:26:00.004-02:00

Brazilian companies will increase and improve their role in Latin America market, according to outstanding business leaders such as Ingo Plöger, president of CEAL-“Conselho Empresarial da America Latina”, and Roberto Teixeira da Costa, member of the board of “Sul America Seguros” and eminent entrepreneurs and businessman.

A FIA-ProFuturo Seminar held this week discussed these and other prospects for Latin America businesses, coordinated by Professor Ricardo Sennes, of GAcint/IRI- the Institute for International Relations of the University of São Paulo. The occasion marked the launch of a new specialization course- “Geopolítica, Estratégia e Negócios Latino Americanos”, to begin in March 2012, to prepare our participants for these increasing international challenges.

Click Here for further details.

GE Brazil Case Competition

2011-12-09T10:08:00.002-02:00

FIA International MBA was chosen by GE to be the first Brazilian school to take part in their global ECLP Case Competition.

The ECLP program involves a two year career program in various GE businesses around the globe, as a project to prepare high potential international executives.

Our teams met with the directors of various business units in Brazil and in our fist presentation at GE headquarters in São Paulo, the business case proposals were evaluated by 4 directors from Brazil and the USA, as well as 3 FIA faculty. Five creative new business propositions were presented and discussed with great results and the FIA students have been invited to take part in a Latin America “webnar” to explore employment opportunities in ECLP program.

Congratulations to all the FIA International MBA teams.

Book Launch!

2011-11-29T18:21:00.001-02:00

Creative People Must Be Stopped! 6 Ways We Kill Innovation (Without Even Trying)

Everybody Wants Innovation—Or Do They? Creative People Must Be Stopped shows how individuals and organizations sabotage their own best intentions to encourage "outside the box" thinking. It shows that the antidote to this self-defeating behavior is to identify which of the six major types of constraints are hindering innovation: individual, group, organizational, industry, societal, or technological. Once innovators and other leaders understand exactly which constraints are working against them and how to overcome them, they can create conditions that foster innovation instead of stopping it in its tracks.
The author's model of constraints on innovation integrates insights from the vast literature on innovation with his own observations of hundreds of organizations. The book is filled with assessments, tools, and real-world examples.

The author's research has been featured in Fast Company, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, London Guardian and San Jose Mercury News, as well as on Fox News and on NPR's Marketplace.

Includes illustrative examples from leading organizations.
Offers a practical guide for bringing new ideas to fruition even within a previously rigid organizational culture.

This book gives people in organizations the conceptual framework and practical information they need to innovate successfully.

Publisher: Jossey-Bass / Wiley
Web: http://creativepeoplemustbestopped.com

David Owens is a professor at Vanderbilt University

Debate: Estratégia para Empresas Brasileiras no Mercado Latino Americano

2011-11-29T12:25:00.004-02:00

Faça a sua inscrição: aqui

Americas MBA

2011-11-29T11:04:00.003-02:00

The FIA Business School International MBA is a graduate program in business management specially designed for a multicultural group of students from Europe, Latin America and Asia. Entirely in English, the program offers a unique perspective with an immersion in a business-oriented environment in Sao Paulo, Brazil’s most dynamic city.

The Full-time and the Part-time International MBA are conducted in Brazil giving you the opportunity to study up to date business concepts and cases, exchange experiences for one full year with other students and executives from diverse nationalities and enhance your qualifications for a successful international career. International MBA students may enroll additionally in the Executive MBA international study trips to the USA, China and India, subject to availability.

The Americas MBA focuses on the challenges of leading business organizations in the Americas region, where the majority of multinational companies have headquarters and important operations. During the first year you will study modern concepts and cases of the core MBA subjects, with classes on Friday-Saturday every 15 days. During the second year, you will study advanced topics together with Executive and part-time MBA participants in Canada, Brazil, Mexico and the USA, in four intensive one week modules, one every 3 months. The second year is jointly conducted by top ranked universities in the four largest economies in the region, and a cross cultural project will also be conducted across borders over the final year. Each school will admit a select group of up to 15 students only to take part in this program.

The FIA International MBA program, based on the successful experience of the FIA Business School International Executive MBA created in 1992 for senior executives, is offered in three formats:

* The one-year Full-time International MBA
* The Part-time International MBA, meeting Fri-Sat every 15 days over 20 months in Brazil
* The Americas MBA, in 2 years part-time, with one year of Fri-Sat classes every 15 days in Brazil, and one year with four intensive study modules in Canada, Mexico, Brazil and the USA.

Objectives:

On concluding the program the participants should:

* Have a clear understanding of how companies compete in an globalized economic environment.
* Develop the fundamental managerial skills required in the core areas of marketing, strategy, finance, human resources, organizational behavior and operations management.
* Develop the ability to create a strategic vision and lead your team in implementing the strategy to fulfill it.
* Gain a broad view of management in diverse industries through an intense exchange of experiences among participants.
* Understand the contemporary challenges and opportunities for doing business in emerging countries and in the Americas.
* Create a plan for self development and be prepared to embark on an international management career.
* By preparing high potential students to take increasing responsibilities in the decision-making process, the courses promote continuous self-development and leadership so that innovative concepts and strategies are implemented efficiently and successfully in the your organization.

Download the brochure Americas MBA

Redução de danos nas relações de consumo

2011-11-08T20:45:00.002-02:00

Desvios no padrão de compras associados a efeitos socioambientais negativos apontam para a necessidade da compreensão do consumo para além do uso dos produtos.

Nosso ex-aluno do MBA Executivo Internacional, José Onofre de Araujo Neto, escreveu o artigo Redução de danos nas relações de consumo para a revista Ética.

Clique aqui para ter acesso ao artigo.

Boa leitura!

Booming Brazil adds thrust to corporate recruitment International MBA Job Fair - FIA

2011-11-07T11:28:00.000-02:00

Over 20 companies sought the opportunity to promote their companies career plan and recruitment at FIA´s International MBA Job Fair on October 20th. The event integrated the students from the International MBA Full-Time 3rd group with an expressive number of multinational companies. The students had contact with HR managers and directors between the companies’ presentations and individual interview sessions. The HR representatives evaluate the meeting as an excellent opportunity to hire the International Students.

"All organizations are focused on upgrading their talent" argued Breno Wottrich of Frost & Sullivan the ICT consultants leading their own company to offer increasingly deeper and forward looking research.
Derick do Rosario of argued that daring, routine-shy candidates should prefer BIP over any of the big-five precisely because “BIP being small and flexible offers a faster and more attractive career.”

While Guilherme Cebran of Accenture stressed the fast selling of their proven brand.
A booming infrastructure sector requires that corporations seek managers with a global mindset and language skills to support their expansion in the region.
ABB, strong provider of automation services and power transmission will hire eight thousand new workers until 2015, over half of them in Brazil, according Edise Toreta, Talent Acquisition Manager at ABB Brazil, who argued that “ABB continuously offers of opportunities for fresh talent."

Specialty chemical corporations such as Bayer, better known for their B2C products showed it draws over half of its revenues from agricultural inputs and offers a plethora of opportunities for young talents in various sectors and positions. Amanda Oliveira argued that Bayer has been in Brazil for over one hundred years, having my now employed several generations of Brazilians.

GE was also there through a former FIA graduate, Cristina Varela, selling the diversity of carrier prospects for those that joined a mega corporation such as GE. Cummins and Grace stressed the attractiveness of their strong focus on the Americas.
Cummins stressed their versatility in small to large diesel engine market while Peugeot emphasized their profile as an aspirational brand for the emerging consumers in booming Brazil.

Brazil´s executives are now among the best paid in the world and FIA’s International MBA fosters the development of a global mindset, as shown in its capacity to attract students from over 15 countries.

MBA Executivo Internacional da FIA leva alunos à China

2011-10-04T17:57:00.003-03:00

Iniciativa pioneira da FIA promoveu viagem de intercâmbio para importantes universidades e empresas locais

Conhecer uma das principais potências mundial é premissa para qualquer executivo de sucesso no ambiente corporativo de hoje. Porém, são poucos aqueles que, além de estudar a distância o fenômeno da economia chinesa, têm a oportunidade de viajar até lá e conhecer de perto o que faz da China a nação com maior crescimento econômico do mundo.

Esta oportunidade foi dada aos alunos do MBA Executivo da FIA. Eles viajaram em junho para o país asiático como parte da formação para o curso. No total, embarcaram 50 alunos, dois professores e um assistente de coordenação, todos de olho no desenvolvimento de conteúdo e análises, visando os trabalhos do Seminário de Competitividade Internacional. Lá, tiveram palestras em universidades, visitas a empresas chinesas, multinacionais e empresas brasileiras lá instaladas além de contato com a cultura e turismo locais.

“A capacidade de execução, disciplina e empreendedorismo do povo chinês está fomentando a construção de um país com economia vibrante, moderna e cosmopolita. Nossa visita foi importante para entender como está sendo desenhada a maior economia do planeta no século XXI”, diz o aluno Eduardo Monteiro, diretor financeiro da Mosaic Fertilizantes do Brasil.

Roteiro marcante
Os alunos estiveram em Pequim, Xangai e Guangzhou, onde, além de poder conhecer locais importantes de cada cidade, como templos, monumentos, parques, museus, lojas e mercados populares, visitaram alguns dos mais emblemáticos pontos turísticos chineses, como a Muralha da China em Pequim e o trem de levitação magnética, o Mag-Lev, em Xangai.

“O que mais impressiona na China são as proporções gigantescas em infraestrutura, aeroportos, avenidas ou edifícios. Tudo parece estar em construção ou recém-construído. Há certa similaridade com o Brasil, como a improvisação e um certo laissez faire por parte dos chineses”, descreve o aluno Wagner Porcelli, diretor geral da TIBCO Software.

Os visitantes tiveram contato direto com a cultura local, podendo saber mais sobre as principais atividades econômicas de cada cidade, assim como visitar seus polos industriais e se deslumbrarem com seus pontos turísticos.

Visita a empresas inovadoras
Além do contato com a cultura local e o entorno que possibilita à China toda a expansão apresentada ao longo dos últimos anos, os alunos do MBA Executivo da FIA puderam ainda visitar algumas empresas alocadas no país.

Em Xangai, o grupo esteve na sede local da ALCOA, multinacional norte-americana e uma das empresas bem-sucedidas em território chinês. Lá também estiveram no escritório chinês da Vale do Rio Doce, no Business Tower Intercontinental Hotel, onde conheceram um pouco sobre a estrutura da multinacional brasileira no país asiático, que é atualmente o maior importador de produtos da companhia no mundo.

Para o aluno Marcos Awad, diretor superintendente da São Francisco Clínicas, o contato direto com as empresas chinesas conferiu aos viajantes uma noção clara da economia local. “Uma viagem inesquecível. A interação com os profissionais e empresários dá uma ideia precisa do que é de fato a China”, destaca.

Em Guangzhou, com organização do Escritório de Comércio Exterior e Cooperação Internacional local, os alunos visitaram algumas empresas chinesas instaladas na cidade, a maior do sul da China e a terceira em tamanho de todo o país.
Só para se ter uma ideia, a pouco conhecida por aqui Guangzhou, capital da província de Guangdong, é uma das mais importantes regiões comerciais chinesas, responsável por cerca de 60% das exportações do país, banhada pelo rio Pearl, que deságua em Hong Kong.
Em Pequim, eles tiveram a oportunidade de visitar a Beijing Auto Works, montadora estatal chinesa, que exporta atualmente para toda Ásia, África e América do Sul – exceto Brasil – com preços de veículos em torno de US$ 7 mil.

Na capital chinesa, conheceram também um pouco do trabalho da multinacional brasileira do setor de soluções para refrigeração, Embraco, líder mundial no mercado de compressores herméticos. Lá puderam saber um pouco mais sobre o que levou esta companhia a se tornar uma das maiores do mundo ao erguer uma fábrica de 60 mil metros quadrados no distrito industrial localizado próximo ao aeroporto de Pequim.

“A viagem à China foi um misto de aprendizado do modo chinês de fazer negócios, verificação in loco de como está ocorrendo a acelerada inserção daquele país na economia de mercado e um mergulho na cultura e civilização milenar do império do meio”, resumiu o aluno Rogério Henrique Miranda, gerente de coordenação de segurança da Itaipu Binacional.

Intercâmbio de conhecimento
O intercâmbio levou os alunos ainda a palestras sobre negócios em algumas das mais conceituadas instituições de ensino da China, como a Tonji University - International Cooperation Office, School of Economics & Management, a China Normal University, em Xangai e a Lingnan University College, em Guangzhou.

Em Xangai, tiveram acesso a palestras variadas, sobre o crescimento da economia chinesa e as projeções para os próximos anos, o modelo de trabalho chinês e a forma pela qual ele se sustenta no mundo moderno, a forma como os chineses se relacionam comercialmente com o mundo e a cultura das companhias do país, tanto locais quanto multinacionais.

“Na Tonji University, nos apresentaram com clareza os objetivos para 15 e 20 anos do país: 90% da população nas cidades, atuando preferentemente em indústrias de alto valor agregado, altas tecnologias (especialmente biotecnologia) e serviços”, conta Getúlio Ponce, diretor-geral da Ponce & Associados Ltda.

Já em Guangzhou, eles conheceram um pouco mais sobre as ideias da China quanto à relação comercial e econômica com o Brasil para os próximos anos. Para se ter uma ideia da importância disso, o país asiático é atualmente o maior importador de produtos nacionais em todo o mundo.

“O que mais me marcou na viagem, além do contato com uma cultura milenar e o intercâmbio das visitas técnicas, foi descobrir um país de contrastes, onde a tecnologia do século XXI convive com costumes de séculos passados. E uma constatação surpreendente, que o Brasil poderia importar dos chineses: a capacidade de planejamento e execução de obras de infraestrutura no país”, frisa o aluno Luis Gonzaga, diretor da Tempestade Comunicação.

Excelência em ensino de negócios
A viagem ressalta todo o pioneirismo e excelência de ensino da FIA em seu MBA executivo. Em cerca de dez dias, o grupo teve a oportunidade de entrar em contato com um seleto roteiro de viagem, marcado pela passagem por importantes universidades chinesas e algumas das mais distintas empresas locais e multinacionais, além de ter contato com companhias brasileiras instaladas em solo chinês e aprender a fundo com suas experiências.

Iniciativas como esta fazem do MBA Executivo da FIA uma referência nacional e internacional em business e um investimento de retorno garantido para executivos que buscam ampliar seus horizontes e abrir frente para novos investimentos, empreitadas e inovações em suas carreiras e companhias.

Luis Gonzaga
Tempestade Comunicação

Developing a management team of high performance: a pharmaceutical industry case

2011-09-14T16:59:00.004-03:00

Depoimento: Mario Souza, MBA Executivo Internacional

2011-09-01T19:38:00.001-03:00

"O curso de MBA Executivo da FIA me proporcionou uma reflexão construtiva e eficaz sobre a minha carreira. A qualidade do curso e dos docentes me permitiu argumentar a visão critica sobre a sociedade em que vivemos e por consequencia pensar na trajetória de carreira para o futuro".

Mario Souza
Turma 38

Depoimento: Ayslan Anholon, MBA Executivo Internacional

2011-09-01T19:36:00.001-03:00

"A abrangência do curso MBA Executivo Internacional permitiu-me aprimorar a comunicação com todas as áreas da empresa, através de um melhor entendimento do contexto em que atuam".

Ayslan Anholon
Turma 38

Depoimento: Eneamir Vieira, MBA Executivo Internacional

2011-09-01T19:31:00.002-03:00

"O curso permitiu uma reflexão mais aprofundada da minha carreira e me proporcionou maior segurança para decidir rumos no campo pessoal e profissional. Reciclou e ampliou meus conhecimentos e habilidades para assumir novos desafios".

Eneamir Vieira
MBA Executivo Internacional
Turma 38

Depoimento: Sebastião Duarte, MBA Executivo Internacional

2011-09-01T19:27:00.002-03:00

"O MBA Executivo Internacional me proporcionou uma visão mais clara do ambiente competitivo global com as viagens internacionais. Ao mesmo tempo consegui fazer as correções das demais disciplinas com a questão da inovação e competitividade".

Sebastião Duarte
Turma 38

Depoimento: Guilherme Koga, MBA Executivo Internacional

2011-09-01T19:21:00.002-03:00

"O curso MBA Executivo Internacional me ajudou a refletir sobre o rumo de minha carreira profissional, de forma a rever conceitos, aprofundar conhecimentos, expandir minha relação profissional e principalmente, repensar sobre meu futuro e o meu papel na sociedade."

Guilherme Koga
Turma 38

Depoimento: Lindolfo Brasil Neto, MBA Executivo Internacional

2011-09-01T19:15:00.003-03:00

"As mudanças mais duradouras são aquelas que mudam as pessoas de dentro para fora. O MBA Executivo Internacional, mais do que ampliar os meus conhecimentos acadêmicos, amplia a minha visão das organizações e das relações internacionais".
Lindolfo Brasil Neto
Turma 38

Depoimento: Luiz Gonzaga, MBA Executivo Internacional

2011-09-01T18:10:00.004-03:00

"O curso MBA Executivo Internacional foi muito Importante na ampliação do conhecimento, estabelecimento de network, contato com novas tecnologias/aplicativos e na amplicação da visão de negócios de forma holística, na confirmação de atitude ética em todos os relacionamentos pessoais e profissionais.
Acredito que saio uma pessoa melhor do quando cheguei.
Uma experiência de vida marcante".

Luiz Gonzaga
Turma 38

FIA will travel to India in February 2012 to learn firsthand about current trends in this Asian giant.

2011-08-09T11:02:00.004-03:00

Join our study trip to Delhi, Bangalore and Agra!

The other Asian giant
Companies are scrambling to decode the Indian consumer

Click here to read a text about India from The Economist

For further information about our international trip to India in February, please send a email to Mrs. Ana Paula, anapaulao@fia.com.br

La agitación social nace de la frustración colectiva

2011-08-03T18:38:00.000-03:00

Por Alfredo Behrens, profesor de Liderazgo y Administración Intercultural, FIA Escola de Negócios. Autor de “Shooting Heroes and Rewarding Cowards...”

Click here

Depoimento viagem à China 2011: Wagner Porcelli

2011-07-13T09:49:00.002-03:00

O que mais impressiona na China são as proporções gigantescas de tudo que seja infraestrutura, aeroportos, avenidas ou edifícios. Tudo parece estar em construção ou recém construído. Há uma certa similaridade com o Brasil, como a improvisação e um certo laissez faire por parte dos Chineses. Uma certa resignação em trabalhar muito e se divertir pouco. Muitos problemas são similares aos nossos, embora a escala seja desproporcional. Nota-se a pobreza "varrida para baixo do tapete" nas grandes cidades.

O Chines, de maneira geral não parece um povo feliz mas, resignado e ao mesmo tempo grato com a chance de finalmente ter acesso a alguma liberdade, seja ela um "google parcial" ou a chance de abordar um ocidental na rua e discorrer livremente sobre o que está acontecendo no país.

A imagem da foto não deixa de ser antagonica ao depoimento mas, mostra a China do futuro, com um potencial enorme de uma geração nova que deve fazer a diferença e conquistar de vez o mundo.

Wagner Porcelli, aluno do MBA Executivo Internacional

CHINA 2011: PERCEPÇÕES E OPORTUNIDADES

2011-07-12T14:31:00.007-03:00

A simples interação com um povo que em menos de 60 anos viu morrer milhões de compatriotas de fome, que não tem escola nem saúde grátis, que não possui um sistema previdenciário que permita alguma independência dos idosos em relação a família e ainda assim, nesta década, é capaz de refazer-se e retomar uma história de grandeza através de uma jornada diária de dez horas ou mais, sem a quantidade de dias de descanso – ou a balada - a que estamos acostumados no Brasil.

Para exemplificar um resultado isso, lembro um jovem amigo brasileiro que mora em Guangzhou, os jovens chineses são iguais aos brasileiros e aspiram as mesmas coisas, mas com uma diferença: os brasileiros querem realizar os sonhos sem perder conforto, balada e outras vantagens que a sociedade lhe propicia enquanto o jovem chinês trabalha 10 horas para dia durante 7 dias da semana, contente, para construir o mesmo!

Os chineses que conhecemos, e convivemos, são um povo disciplinado, focado, capaz de viabilizar o que está sendo catalogado pelos estudiosos como as novas tendências nos mercados: a customização, com afastamento contínuo da produção em massa. que passou por agruras da natureza e por domínios estrangeiros ao longo de sua história recente e que,depois de tudo, trabalhar com tenacidade para alcançar suas metas já se constituiria em uma experiência agregadora.

Mas a experiência propiciada pela FIA, através do Prof. James e sua equipe, deu oportunidade e muito mais do que isso, especialmente em comparações que se pode fazer com o Brasil. Se não, vejamos: Como ainda estamos festejando os resultados dessa década para o Brasil, 2010, como uma das melhores de nossa história, a experiência vivida vai estimular algumas reflexões para revermos nossas posturas e métodos de auto avaliação. Essa década foi uma das mais favoráveis a economia
mundial, especialmente a um conjunto de países catalogados como BRICs, depois transformados em BRICS. Pois bem, a China foi a que mais usufruiu dessa fase, a que mais cresceu, enquanto o Brasil não conseguiu crescer a metade do que ela e ainda ficou muito abaixo do penúltimo colocado.

Isto nos permite afirmar que, para o Brasil, foi outra década perdida, como a de 1980, pois além desse dado, foi a economia que mais perdeu competitividade/produtividade entre todos os países que compõe esse grupo. E devemos lembrar ainda que o contexto mundial, durante os anos 1980, não foram boa referência para a historia econômica mundial!

A habilidade do povo chinês fica evidente em coisas simples e grandes. Nas simples, esculpindo nossas fisionomias em feiras ou ateliês, ou construindo-as a partir de fotografias, por presença ou encomenda de todo o mundo. Ou dois chinezinhos chegam ao seu Hotel à noite para anotar suas medidas e no dia seguinte trazem ternos, blazers ou camisas para você e sua esposa experimentarem, retocarem e a noite desse dia entregarem guarda roupa novo!

Em Xian pode-se conhecer milhares de estátuas construídas por milhares de chinezinhos há muitos séculos, que foram redescobertas nos anos 1970, que se diferenciam de monumentos semelhantes - no mundo - por não repetirem um só rosto entre essas dezenas de milhares de estátuas. Essa capacidade deles produzirem peças, e réplicas, dificilmente encontrarão similaridade em outras culturas.

Costumamos valorizar o chamado jeitinho brasileiro - ou latino porque aparece em países como Cuba, Paraguai e outros – mas não observamos que em geral ele está a serviço da manutenção do statu quo, como conservação de um velho carro, a simplificação de um processo que leva apenas a sobrevivência, ou se não, pior: em benefício próprio.

Voltei com a convicção de que o melhor que temos a fazer é tentar, com eles, aprender novas formas de tratar o conceito de direito autoral porque a questão da chamada pirataria chinesa não parece ser apenas uma questão jurídico-econômica, devidamente sustentada pelo maior mercado de produtos pirateados do mundo: os EEUU.

Por outro lado, nosso sistema de previdência social – ocidental - baseado no modelo bismarkiano, lá não existe por isso não necessitarão de reformas radicais como as que estão sendo implementadas na Europa e que estamos postergando. Na China também não irá funcionar a base da cálculo atuarial que usamos porque eles tem um índice de natalidade negativo. Certamente criarão outro e o melhor que podemos fazer é estar atento para aprender.

Outra diferença que registramos se refere ao modelo de socialismo. No Brasil socialismo é sinônimo de paternalismo, mantido por um infantilismo coletivo onde o estado-pai é responsável até pela felicidade do cidadão! O modelo de socialismo deles implica em trabalharem 10 ou mais horas por dia durante os 7 dias da semana. Certamente estão reinventando a economia de mercado e o melhor que podemos fazer é estar atento para aprender.

Já o discurso deles inclui preocupações com o meio ambiente e certamente, daqui a 20 ou 30 anos eles sofrerão pressões internas e externas para gerar alternativas a todos esses conjuntos de 10 ou mais torres de apartamentos de mais de 30 andares cada que tenderão a se transformar em cortiços por falta de recursos de seus integrantes – envelhecidos – devido aos custos de manutenção que serão necessários.

Uma questão a destacar e que tem influência na área de negócios é a forma de estabelecerem os vínculos. Certamente o desenvolvimento cultural, o tempo e as tecnologias produzirão menos controle sobre a população mas esse traço, de fortalecer relações, é algo que está na cultura e não mudará em menos de um século. E precisamos lembrar que diante de culturas assim não se improvisa!

Outro fato que destaco é que nossa estada coincidiu com as comemorações dos 90 anos do Partido Comunista, no dia 3.7.2011.Pelo que vimos fica claro que do comunismo, como aprendemos no Brasil, eles tem apenas a estrutura de um regime que pode planejar muito bem as áreas básicas porque controla os fluxos de pessoas com relativa facilidade, dado o modelo implantado de fornecimento de identidade – que lá é municipal - versus assistência médica e educação.

Na Tonji University nos apresentaram com clareza os objetivos para 15 e 20 anos: apenas 90% da população nas cidades, atuando – preferentemente – em indústrias de alto valor agregado, altas tecnologias (especialmente biotecnologia)e serviços. Pouco vai restar, portando do símbolo foice e martelo.

O pragmatismo deles, em favor do coletivo, apresenta o caminho inverso do que ainda tentam movimentos latino americanos, tipo MST, Hugo Chaves etc. com custos que inviabilizam qualquer estado no longo prazo.

Também devemos ter presente que eles tem um sentido muito aguçado de hierarquia, sendo difícil imaginar uma psicologia ocidental, individualista e social, onde o estado fica com o ônus e os indivíduos com o bônus é diferente da de lá, onde se exige que o bônus seja social (grupo), ficando o ônus do individual.

Mas saímos com a dúvida sobre como eles poderiam interagir dentro de um regime que não seja fechado. A rigor, dentro de seu processo histórico só viveram assim, mas certamente inventarão algo coerente com sua estrutura neuro psicológica para a próxima fase histórica, novamente como líderes em economia que é um de seus principais objetivos.

Até agora o governo vem usando a poupança forçada da população, ao não assumir o ônus
tradicionalmente de governos ocidentais, em termos de saúde, educação etc. Eles evidenciam preocupação com isso devido ao distanciamento progressivo entre ricos e pobres, mas o que vão inventar para não repetirem os erros do modelo ocidental já em agonia na Europa?

Exceto na alta burguesia, que é igualmente pasteurizada em qualquer lugar do mundo, eles ainda não absorveram o conceito de grife como temos. A referencia da família e o estágio atual de migração campo-cidade (que a revolução cultural tentou inverter) exigem outro conceito quando se estiver falando a respeito de brand.

Acredito que eles serão criativos e encontrarão meios diferentes de nosso processo histórico evolutivo. Até porque, se não o fizerem, correrão o risco de se transformar em um novo Japão, que vive em recessão porque perdeu a competitividade, mas eles parecem sempre querer aprender com os erros dos outros.

Neste momento, eles nos oferecem cerca de 42 milhões de chineses ricos enquanto nós
disponibilizamos cerca de 5,8 milhões de brasileiros nessa condição. Eles estão colocando no mercado 300 milhões de nova classe C, enquanto nós estamos disponibilizando cerca de 30 milhões. Coloco então as questões que me estão desafiando:Qual os espaços de nossas marcas, justamente em segmentos onde ainda não competimos (Armanis, Bulgaris, Ermenegildos, etc.) e que ainda não estão ocupados?

Nesse contexto, o que mais ocupa a mente dos Empresários brasileiros? Parece que para muitos seriam os custos dos salários, que para mim não representam a principal variável no processo de competitividade deles, mas quanto tempo essa variável poderá ser usada? E os mercados que os chineses desenvolverão, no âmbito dos mercados de sua nova influência política, que oportunidades vão criar?

Continuaremos apostando em que eles vão necessitar, cada vez mais, de matérias primas e alimentos de que somos bons produtores ou vamos escutá-los para saber o que precisarão, já que disso eles já estão providenciando novas fontes de matérias primas e alimentos na África?

Como povo, nós temos a grande vantagem de não estarmos na lista negra deles nem de termos desavenças históricas. Dentro do BRICS só nós e a África do Sul dispomos dessa condição. É um bom começo, mas certamente não bastará porque eles privilegiam, sempre, as relações estáveis, históricas. Conseguiremos algo improvisando e dando um jeito em cima da hora?

Onde estarão nossas Empresas, no contexto mundial, se continuarmos priorizando a identificação de nichos, entre os chineses, de fornecimento de produtos com baixo preço para garantir lucros (apenas) para o ano que vem?

Voltei pensando nisso e em muito mais. Pensando na minha postura em favorecer um pensamento de curto alcance, quase como se estivéssemos andando orientados pelo próprio umbigo!

Meus agradecimentos aos colegas pela agradável convivência e oportunidade de aprendizagem sobre objetivos de uma nova geração. Ao James e Equipe o reconhecimento pelo trabalho em favor do Brasil.

Getúlio Ponce é Ex-Aluno do MBA Executivo da FIA e Sócio Diretor da Ponce & Associados e do Consórcio Empresarial Tekowam, com atuação nas principais capitais brasileiras, Assunção, Buenos Aires, Montevidéo e Santiago.
www.tekowam.com

Depoimento viagem internacional à China: Marcos Awad

2011-07-07T16:27:00.003-03:00

Uma viagem inesquecível.

O contato direto com a realidade local, com os profissionais e empresários dá uma idéia precisa do que é de fato a China.

Parabéns também pela perfeita organização.

Marcos Awad, T39
MBA Executivo Internacional

Depoimento viagem internacional à China: Rogério Miranda

2011-07-07T10:16:00.002-03:00

A viagem à China foi um misto de aprendizado do modo chinês de fazer negócios, verificação "in loco" de como está ocorrendo a acelerada inserção daquele país na economia de mercado e um mergulho na cultura e civilização milenar do império do meio.

Sem dúvida alguma as palestras nas universidades e as visitas às empresas, tanto públicas como privadas, e em diferentes estágios de automação, contribuíram sobremaneira para o entendimento desse intrincado mosaico vermelho e dourado de tradição e modernidade.

Rogério Henrique Miranda
MBA Executivo Internacional Turma 39

Depoimento viagem internacional à China: Eduardo Monteiro

2011-07-07T10:00:00.005-03:00

A capacidade de execução, disciplina e empreenderismo do povo chinês estão fomentando a construção de um pais com economia vibrante, moderna e cosmopolita. Nossa visita foi importante para entender como esta sendo desenhada a maior economia do planeta no seculo XXI.

Eduardo Monteiro, Turma 38 do MBA Executivo Internacional

Do we listen to opinion leaders?

2011-07-01T17:14:00.004-03:00

A base da pirâmide não é apenas um nicho de mercado, é o próprio Brasil. Uma das características mais importantes de ser brasileiro é o personalismo através do qual estabelecem suas relações, inclusive as comerciais. Este aprendizado acontece na escola, nas famílias e também na tendinha da esquina. Onde uma mãe atribulada poderá deixar a chave da casa que será apanhada pelos filhos ao voltarem da escola. Quem sabe até ganhem um café com leite...

Num supermercado não dá para fazer isso porque as relações pessoais foram cortadas. Nem nas farmácias. Assim como não dá para tomar um café na Nova Faria Lima porque os prédios foram feitos para serem vistos, não vividos.

Preservar os alicerces da cultura nacional é imprescindível para assegurar sua reprodução, se gostarmos dela. Quem não gosta pode mudar para os EUA. Lá as relações objetivas são velozes, na dá para parar e tomar um café indo de um lugar a outro; a eficiência predomina sobre as relações pessoais. A beleza do trato pessoal só sobrevive na propaganda dos supermercados, porque a racionalidade do seu negócio suprime as relações pessoais e com isso contribui a socavar a cultura nacional.

Não há nada de errado ter uma tendinha na esquina prestando serviços alheios à sua função. Vendem caro? Permita abrir duas, mas não um supermercado. É para se pensar, porque não esta em jogo apenas o dinheiro dos Diniz nesta empreitada contra o Casino.

Alfredo Behrens
Professor do International MBA da Fundação Instituto de Administração

Participe do MB@ Blog com seus comentários

Depoimento viagem internacional à Europa: Tom Gerth

2011-06-28T18:44:00.004-03:00

A oportunidade de dividir nosso tempo entre as ótimas aulas de Cambridge e Lyon e os passeios/eventos programados fez desse módulo internacional mais uma experiência diferenciada proporcionada pelo MBA Executivo Internacional da FIA.

Tom G. Gerth, Turma 38, PricewaterhouseCoopers

Depoimento viagem internacional à Europa: Guilherme Koga

2011-06-18T15:35:00.003-03:00

A Viagem para a Europa foi espetacular! Uma viagem onde história, tecnologia, cultura, conhecimento e tradições se misturaram formando uma deliciosa experiência de vida.

A incrível experiência de hospedar-se e jantar num College de Cambridge, ter aulas de alto nível com professores renomados, arte e cultura de Lyon ficarão para sempre na minha memória.

Sem dúvida, estar junto com a turma 38 do MBA Executivo Internacional intensificou ainda mais essa experiência, contribuindo para deixá-la ainda mais marcante.

Guilherme Koga, T38.

Depoimento: Viagem internacional à Europa 2011

2011-06-17T12:06:00.001-03:00

A viagem internacional do MBA internacional à Europa com visita a centros de excelência em educação como Cambridge, Inglaterra e Lyon, França proporcionou uma experiência global única da troca de conhecimentos com atualizações em temas de marketing, aquisições e inovação.

Luiz Fernandes, M.D.
Director of Medical Affairs – Pharmaceuticals
Latin America
Bausch & Lomb
MBA Executivo Internacional - T38

Palestra Aberta: Leadership Case

2011-06-16T21:59:00.002-03:00

O International MBA convida: Palestra Aberta: Leadership Case com Ricardo Bressiani, Diretor Executivo da Onduline do Brasil

Data:01 de julho de 2011– das 18h às 20h
Local: FIA - Unidade Butantã – Rua José Alves da Cunha Lima, 172 - Butantã
Coordenação: Prof. James Wright

Por favor, preencher os dados solicitados para participação no evento - Inscrições até 29/06/2011 - Palestra em inglês (não haverá tradução simultânea)

MBA FIA Information Sessions

2011-06-16T21:55:00.000-03:00

Information Session – International MBA – China Jun, 23th 2011 on 07:00 pm at hotel Bai Yun Hotel 367 East Huanshi Road – Guangzhou - phone: 86-20-83333998

Click here to join

Hindus and Muslims aim higher with more determination

2011-04-25T10:34:00.003-03:00

"Shoting for the stars..." comes from Confucius, as does "Adjust the tactics not the goals"; while "Little by little..." comes from Aesop.

From my paper
"Relevance of religion for Leadership styles and Innovation" to be submitted to Athens conference
http://www.leadershipclassics.org/athens.html

Alfredo Behrens

Americas MBA

2011-04-13T11:49:00.007-03:00

A FIA convida para o lançamento do Americas MBA

Inscrições: clique aqui

Convidamos os alunos interessados e profissionais de RH para conhecerem o Americas MBA, curso totalmente em Inglês com 1 ano no Brasil (FIA) e módulos internacionais no Canadá (Simom Fraser University), EUA (Vanderbilt University) e México (ITAM).

International trip to Europe

2011-04-08T16:40:00.004-03:00

More news about our International Executive MBA group:

Paternoster Square - visiting the London Stock Exchange

Students and staff having their gala dinner at Cambridge’s Corpus Christ College Great Hall

Executive MBA study week in Cambridge

2011-04-07T11:29:00.009-03:00

Arrived in England, for the start of the 2011 Executive MBA study week in Cambridge and EM Lyon

First day of lectures in Cambridge 2011

Our group in Cambridge

Global leadership in a new era of competition

2011-03-09T16:51:00.010-03:00

In the new, multipolar world a new type of leadership is requires.

The USA is a great country; big, democratic, entrepreneurial, successful, innovative and offering opportunities and an excellent standard of living for all. It has, like most countries, several defects; materialism, arrogance, too many guns, violence and many others. However, its institutions, capital markets and innovative companies have ensured its position as a center of excellence in management and business and a stalwart of democracy for the last sixty or more years.

China has caught the world’s imagination by its rapid growth during the last three decades, focusing on becoming the global centre for basic manufacturing, and last year became the second largest economy in the world, surpassing Japan, which shows low growth because of an aging population, but still has a high standard of living.

China has another long march ahead of it; it still must provide decent living standards for the majority of its population, who will not long accept much lower incomes than that of the prosperous coastal cities like Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing.

India has a huge potential which must be put to work in a coherent manner. It will soon have a population greater than China’s, with a huge internal market, and it has advantages in its English speaking educational institutions and a competitive approach to many services and industries. It faces enormous challenges in integrating its many distinct internal cultures, languages and beliefs, and in bringing its huge rural population into a high growth modern economy. Both India and China have a focus on improving education at all levels which will be a fundamental advantage in the long run.

Brazil has recently risen in the global public’s awareness; a recent BBC poll conducted by the University of Maryland, answered by over 28 thousand people worldwide, placed Brazil ahead of the USA, China and India in regards to a positive opinion on our country. Brazil has great potential for sustained growth, with global leadership in biofuels and 45% of renewable energy in it’s energy matrix, the deepest and largest offshore oil production systems in the world, huge expanses of arable land available for food production (without having to encroach on the Amazon), abundant water, sunlight and top level agricultural technology. Democratic and institutionally stable for over 30 years, Brazil is a multiethnic country, but with one common language and relatively small minority and racial issues. Challenges and problems abound; corruption and crime rates, although falling, are still too high, basic education is inadequate, infrastructure investments are required, and bureaucracy is endemic. But all of these challenges are also opportunities, and Brazil has a long tradition of domestic and international entrepreneurism and creativity, and the upcoming FIFA Football(soccer) World Cup and Olympic games provide a showcase for that. Brazilian companies have grown and conquered international markets , and new leadership is emerging.

FIA Business School provides international programs to create the leaders required for global competitiveness. The International Executive MBA for senior executives focuses on global strategy, with study trips to the USA, China, Europe or India giving a local awareness and sensitivity that is essential to the modern corporate leader.

The International MBA , taught entirely in English, brings in managers from four continents together to study full time or part time, in a multicultural setting within Brazil, with over 10 different nationalities represented, obtaining international awareness and knowledge of the challenges and opportunities in Brazil and other emerging markets .

The new Americas MBA brings together a select group of students from part time and executive programs in the USA, Mexico, Canada and Brazil, who study part time in their home countries for one year, and then come together in intensive one week programs at top universities in the four largest economies of the Americas. This program gives you an in-depth view of management in the Americas, the largest business region in the world, and a chance to study together and network with working professionals in all four countries.

We strongly believe that investing in top level education, creating a global mindset and preparing managers to lead businesses all over the world FIA Business School is making a significant contribution to Brazil and to global understanding and prosperity in our region.

James Wright
Dean International MBA
5511-3732-3519/20

Cómo surgirá el líder empresarial del 2025

2011-02-23T09:51:00.000-03:00

Los nuevos instrumentos de social media han cambiado el panorama cívico, y creo que en un futuro próximo, también podrán cambiar la selección del liderazgo de las empresas.

La media social democratizó las fuentes de información, y al mismo tiempo permitió también que el mercado de una respuesta más rápida. Así vimos como cayó el jefe de gobierno de Egipto pocas semanas después de la caída del jefe tunecino, al tiempo que toda una región está agitada por una juventud instruida y sin perspectivas.

Si bien estas son renovaciones políticas aplaudibles, también es cierto que ha habido resultados preocupantes en diversas elecciones y en demasiados países -no árabes- como para que lo ignoremos.

Vea, por ejemplo, el interesante artículo de Moisés Naim, "Payasos, brujas y democracia" en El País. Asimismo el Daily Show, desde la cuna de la democracia republicana, sugirió que un candidato habría ganado las primarias del partido Demócrata en South Carolina apenas porque su nombre era el primero de la lista: "Alvin Greene Wins South Carolina Primary". En Sâo Paulo un payaso que se presentaba en la televisión fue elegido diputado federal, según puede comprobar en este artículo de Correio Braziliense: "Palhaço Tiririca torna-se fenômeno e deve conquistar um milhão de votos".

Además de la falta de utopías, son dos los movimientos tecnológicos que contribuyen a estos resultados electorales, por ahora sólo bizarros, pero ciertamente preocupantes:

- Las técnicas de mercadeo, que homogenizan los mensajes de las opciones electorales.

- El advenimiento de la social media, que permite la rápida aglomeración del fastidio en torno a los candidatos de protesta.

Antes el líder debía proponer una visión para atraer adeptos a ella. Hoy los candidatos buscan auscultar a los votantes para decir lo que el electorado quiere oír.

Compartir
El resultado es que todos prometen casi lo mismo y hoy se vota en candidatos como se compra sal, sin pensarlo mucho porque los candidatos perdieron su marca. No debería sorprender que en las elecciones la población vote por cualquiera de ellos.

Creo que esto contribuye en algo a explicar la elección de "payasos y brujas", así como también explica resultados electorales muy relevantes, como los que llevaron a un casi empate entre Gore y Bush en EE.UU en el 2000, cuando 13% de los colegios electorales se definieron por un margen inferior al 5% de los votos.

Hay un nuevo factor tecnológico que contribuye a estos resultados. La formación de la opinión pública hoy es más democrática, y la social media permite que rápidamente afloren aglutinaciones en pro de candidatos que serían impensables en la época de la media centralizada como la de los periódicos y la televisión. El mismo Barack Obama, un candidato inesperado, supo usar los nuevos instrumentos que le llevaron a la presidencia de Estados Unidos.

En cuestión de liderazgo, las corporaciones están rezagadas. Es cierto que en ellas los líderes son ungidos aún hoy de una forma mucho menos democrática que en las elecciones, pero no creo que pueda seguir así por mucho más tiempo.

En breve se irán jubilando los más habituados al liderazgo autocrático de los ungidos y crecerá el peso la opinión y la práctica de la generación Y. Estos jóvenes son saludablemente más insubordinados, porque se formaron en sociedades más libres que las de los que sufrimos la Guerra Fría.

Los que hoy son jóvenes pedirán más voz y se alinearán con quien se las de. Esa es la lección que debemos aprender de lo que está pasando en los países árabes.

No creo que demore mucho más que una década para que comencemos a sentir los vientos el cambio. Valdría la pena que fuésemos pensando en cómo serán elegidos los líderes de empresas en los próximos 10 o 15 años, porque no sería saludable que todo cambiase menos la forma de dirigir a las empresas.

Alfredo Behrens es profesor de Liderazgo Intercultural en FIA, São Paulo.
America Economia
22/02/2011

India, gracias por una conferencia sin Power Point

2011-01-27T18:20:00.000-02:00

Alfredo Behrens es Profesor de Liderazgo y Gestión Intercultural en FIA, Sao Paulo
Autor: Alfredo Behrens

Un poco a lo Marco Polo les cuento que vengo de New Delhi de la reunión anual de la red de Recursos Humanos de la India (NHRD) donde fui moderador de la sesión de cambio organizacional.

Comparto esto porque lo que aprendí podría ayudarnos a tornar nuestras conferencias más productivas e interesantes.

Las conferencias suelen frustrarnos de varias maneras. Una de ellas es que los conferencistas no parecen muy interesados en comunicarse sino en leernos sus Power Points en voz alta. Son los peores, lo sé, pero son muchos y nos inducen a ignorarlos por completo, inclusive lo que podrían tener de novedoso y útil.

La principal diferencia visual de la conferencia en la India con nuestras conferencias en el mismo ramo es la grandiosidad y la relativa ausencia de mujeres en la reunión, compuesta de hombres en más del 90%.

La conferencia fue realizada en el Kingdom of Dreams, con lo cual la ambientación tuvo algo de onírico, a lo que también contribuyó la recepción a los conferencistas con bandas de música, danzarinas y otros espectáculos.

La ceremonia de apertura consistió en el encendido de la lámpara de fuego, simbolizando la luz de la discusión que iluminaria a todos los presentes. Durante la ceremonia, cada una de las autoridades invitadas encendió su vela en la fuente de luz y la llevó consigo a su lugar, mientras que la fuente de luz permaneció encendida durante toda la conferencia.

Los conferencistas fueron invitados a hablar sentados en sillones frente a la platea con más de 1.000 personas. Los sentaban de a tres o cuatro. No eran propiamente conferencias lo que presentaban. Más bien respondían a preguntas de moderadores bien informados.

Entre los conferencistas y la platea no hubo más que el espacio que los separó, o los aproximó. En los sillones se sentaban académicos, profesionales autoridades estatales o miembros de organizaciones no gubernamentales.

FIA nominada como escuela más innovadora de América del Sur

2011-01-27T18:19:00.001-02:00

La escuela de negocios brasileña FIA fue nominada como la más innovadora en América del Sur por los lectores de la revista European CEO, que ahora será evaluada por un panel de expertos.

El reconocimiento está relacionado con el interés de los lectores por el desarrollo de la educación y la intención que el personal de las empresas estén formados bajo altos estándares, mismo motivo por el cual surgieron los "Global Business Education Awards", que entragará European CEO.

FIA desarrollará curso gratuito para ejecutivos desempleados

2011-01-27T18:18:00.001-02:00

Con el objetivo de ayudar a aquellos ejecutivos que se encuentren más de cuatro meses fuera del mercado laboral, la Fundación Instituto de Administración (FIA), en Brasil, desarrollará un curso gratuito con el fin de capacitarlos.

Durante los diez meses que se extiende este programa, se les instruirá en: la creación de empresas, espíritu empresarial, gestión financiera, matemáticas, márketing relacional y orientación profesional.

Para participar se debe acreditar haber completado una licenciatura en cualquier campo de conocimiento y estar hace, por lo menos, cuatro meses sin trabajo, se explica en la página web de la revista Exame.

Behrens: El profesor que cuestiona paradigmas de RRHH en América Latina

2011-01-27T18:08:00.003-02:00

Alfredo Behrens dice que todos los modelos de gestión han sido importados y que no se adaptan plenamente al ser latino. "¿No es hora de pensar desde la propia identidad?", se pregunta quien ejemplifica con el Correcaminos y el Coyote un buen dilema cultural.

Autor: Andrés Almeida

Alfredo Behrens, un profesor uruguayo de la escuela de negocios FIA de la Universidad de Sâo Paulo, es un académico inusual, con pensamiento lateral y contraintuitiuvo, podría decirse.

Su caballo de batalla en el márketing de sus ideas es la tensión que se produce en el hecho -investigado por él mismo- que los MBA latinoamericanos prefieran al Correcaminos por sobre el Coyote (los personajes del tradicional cartoon) a diferencia de los estadounidenses, quienes optan al revés.

¿Por qué el Correcaminos? y ¿Por qué debería importarnos tal preferencia?
Pues tras eso, según Behrens, se encuentra un profundo resorte cultural que explica por qué el modelo de gestión de las empresas y de educación ejecutiva que llegó a América Latina en la década de los 50' importado desde Estados Unidos, no termina de adaptarse ni asimilarse, con la consecuencia que -en la comparación- siempre los latinoamericanos aparecemos por debajo de los estándares.

Vamos a lo del Correcaminos y el Coyote ¿Qué hay detrás de esta provocación?
Los latinoamericanos prefieren el Correcaminos pues se identifican más con su espíritu libre y alegría provocadora, lo que se condice con su identidad cultural, pero más importante es que se resisten a tener por jefes a Coyotes, pues éste personaje representa cierta obsesión y perseverancia individualista que se identifica un modo de ser más anglosajón, y que a ellos atrae, pero a los latinos no.

El problema está en que las grandes compañías, cuando tienen que nombrar jefes de filiales en América Latina seleccionan Coyotes, como ellos, lo que produce perturbación y afecta el trabajo sin que se den cuenta.

Asimismo, las escuelas de negocios -creadas en los 50' bajo los paradigmas de Estados Unidos, para crear un grupo de profesionales locales capaces de conducir filiales de compañías internacionales bajo los estándares modernos- no contemplan que la educación que ofrecen está adaptada a un molde cultural anglosajón y no uno latinoamericano.

¿Por qué las compañías deberían adaptarse a un estilo que va en contra de un lenguaje global que se torna cada vez más imperante?
Los procesos de cambio cultural son lentos y no son completos. El horizonte de acción de las empresas está más cerca de ahora que del momento en que ese cambio pueda producirse. Es decir, hay que hacer algo, porque en la práctica estos paradigmas modernos rebotan con la realidad cultural, pues se sienten como foráneos. Además, puede ser mucho más eficiente hacer la adaptación.

¿Cuál es la realidad que hay que contemplar?
En los esquemas culturales latinoamericanos, heredados de la tradición ibérica y aristocrática de la Colonia, el liderazgo se ejerció bajo los principios de la lealtad, ofrecida de manera desmedida a cambio de la protección por parte de la autoridad.

Esto se transfirió a la vida urbana moderna y republicana, en la forma del populismo y bajo la dirección económica del Estado, y en lo micro, bajo la asistencia de la Iglesia.

Es por eso que los líderes de América Latina, cuando tienen éxito, son magos o santos, pues logran cambiar protección a cambio de lealtad. Es el caso de Lula, a quien en Brasil nadie critica, pese a que hay casos graves de corrupción que -sin afectarlo directamente a él- afectan su gobierno. Por eso puso en la presidencia a prácticamente una desconocida, Dilma Rousseff, quien -a ojos de los electores- está guardándole el puesto a Lula para que vuelva a ser electo.

Esto sucede también a nivel microeconómico, pues las personas esperan de sus jefes protección y a cambio son capaces de dar desmedidamente. Pero, cuando las jefaturas y liderazgos se ejercen bajo esquemas racionales y despersonalizados, en que se paga por ciertas horas de trabajo y se saca la gente cuando deja de ser necesaria, se rompe un pacto tácito que repercute el trabajo.

Por ejemplo, cuando los seguros de salud modernos sacaron como beneficiarios a los padres de los trabajadores, se rompió una lógica de lealtad, pues ese sistema responde a una realidad anglosajona, en la que la solidaridad entre generaciones no es la misma que en América Latina, lo que causa mucha perturbación.

International MBA: what you get is more than what you see

2011-01-17T11:35:00.003-02:00

Obtaining an international MBA in an emerging country is a courageous decision.

It is probably a very good decision for an ambitious and entrepreneurial young person, but not an easy one. Even if the course is entirely in English, you will have to deal with a foreign language in your day to day life, navigate a foreign culture, and learn to adapt to a new work and study environment.

What should an MBA candidate expect when signing up for a program?
They usually cite learning modern management theories and tools, studying practical cases and exchanging experiences with a group of international students, and of course, improving their career prospects and building a network.
Typically, learning more about finance, general management systems, business strategy and entrepreneurship are some of the main interests expressed in the interviews during the selection process.

When you take part in a truly international MBA in an emerging country like Brazil, you get something more. The students who come from very distinct cultures, like those from the USA, Europe, Asia or even other Latin American countries, find that they will learn to work with a culture that is flexible, tolerant of differences, innovative, happy and pleasant, but also works hard and gets the job done, even if the concept of time is more fluid than in many other places. For them and for the Brazilian students, taking part in such a program provides an opportunity to work with ten or more different nationalities during the course, as well as socializing with young and dynamic people from all parts of the world. Learning to overcome the differences among multicultural work teams is an invaluable experience for life, both personal and professional.

Why do this in an emerging country?
Because that is where future opportunities are. Over 90% of population growth for the next 30 years will be in the emerging market countries. That is a huge portion of the entire span of your career, and the business leaders of the future must have first hand knowledge and practical experience of these emerging markets, which are today already responsible for over half of the global GDP growth. Brazil is a top choice for that; dynamic, creative, multiethnic, challenging and diverse, it has at once a 100 year old tradition of multinational investments, as well as booming local companies spreading their operations globally. With solid growth, it needs qualified personnel, and offers a wide range of opportunities in areas such as energy, biodiversity, health, finance and personal services and technology.

In the FIA International MBA, you have a chance to interact with faculty and alumni who are involved with these exiting developments, and to work and study with companies and people who are making change happen at a fast pace. Not by chance, was FIA chosen in 2010 by European CEO Magazine as the most innovative school in South America. What you get is definitely more than at first meets the eye !

Programa de empreendedorismo da Shell tem inscrições abertas - PME

2011-01-14T13:56:00.001-02:00

O Shell Iniciativa Jovem apoia empreendedores de 20 a 34 anos

São Paulo – Os jovens de 20 a 34 anos que tenham uma ideia de negócios têm até o dia 6 de fevereiro para se inscrever no Shell Iniciativa Jovem. O programa ajuda no desenvolvimento e na construção de novos negócios.

Os participantes precism ter o ensino fundamental completo e perfil empreendedor, que é testado durante a seleção. Serão selecionados 120 inscritos que participam do programa no Rio de Janeiro, no centro e na zona oeste.

Depois da inscrição online, os participantes fazem um teste de perfil e uma avaliação pessoal. Os selecionados passam por uma etapa chamada Laboratório de Ideias, que avalia os jovens na prática. Em seguida, eles terão aulas de empreendedorismo, inovação, marketing, finanças e ética, entre outros. Passada esta fase, uma banca avalia e seleciona 30 projetos, que vão para a fase de incubação em si.

Baseado no Shell LiveWire, projeto internacional da empresa que acontece em 20 países, o Iniciativa Jovem completa 10 anos no Brasil. Nesse período, 57 negócios foram incubados e mais de 37 mil jovens envolvidos.

O programa é operado pelo CIEDS Brasil e tem apoio institucional do Instituto Euvaldo Lodi do Rio de Janeiro (IEL/RJ) e parceria com o SEBRAE/RJ.

Macunaíma no escritório

2010-11-12T00:57:00.002-02:00

Como a chefia autoritária resulta na malandragem – e por que herança ibérica é solução para males corporativos

Por Alexandre Teixeira

Palavras fortes como malandragem, medo e trapaça têm sido usadas através dos tempos para descrever o ambiente de trabalho em empresas brasileiras. Na opinião de Alfredo Behrens, professor de Gestão Intercultural no MBA Internacional da Universidade de São Paulo, isso é fruto de uma hierarquia exagerada que produz chefias autoritárias, das quais os subordinados “escapam” por meio de subterfúgios pouco nobres. Mais ou menos como se transplantassem a saga de Macunaíma para o mundo corporativo. "Resolver esta tensão prejudicial à produtividade nas nossas relações trabalhistas requer não apenas reconhecer a profundidade das suas raízes culturais mas também a audácia necessária para por em prática soluções tão antigas quanto as razões que provocam os resultados indesejados", afirma Behrens em "Para se entregar ao trabalho é preciso gostar do chefe", um texto inédito com potencial para provocar polêmica.

O personagem de Mário de Andrade está em boa companhia nas raízes dessa espécie de resistência não agressiva à tirania das chefias. Do Jeca Tatu, de Monteiro Lobato, ao João Grilo, de Ariano Suassuna, heróis sem nenhum caráter inspiram-se no Leonardo Pataca de Memórias de um Sargento de Milícias, de Manuel Antonio de Almeida. Se há um pouco deles em cada trabalhador brasileiro – e muito do espírito de capatazes de fazenda em seus líderes – que chances têm de prosperar no país as técnicas administrativas americanas, baseadas na autonomia que pressupõem concedida a cada indivíduo? "Sem essa autonomia, mas coagidos pelo poder de uma hierarquia exagerada, os empregados buscam proteção driblando os processos, buscando se congraçar com os chefes dos seus chefes; ocultam erros seus e os dos seus cúmplices, e trabalham sem entusiasmo", escreve Behrens. "Técnicas estrangeiras, tais como os incentivos individuais, perdem eficácia diante de indivíduos que não são autônomos; e a frustração diante dos magros resultados favorece os recalques autoritários, reforçando as atitudes evasivas dos empregados".

Economista formado pela PUC do Rio de Janeiro, com mestrado pela FGV e Ph.D pela Universidade de Cambridge, Behrens descreve essa cultura organizacional gestada entre o autoritarismo e a sabotagem como opressiva – e impermeável a soluções da moderna administração de empresas. "As raízes do temor e a desconfiança são tão antigas que nenhuma ação de relações públicas ou integração de equipes, por parte da empresa, conseguirá resolver satisfatoriamente", afirma. "A desconfiança leva ao desengajamento". O resultado são escritórios povoados por funcionários que arrastam os pés, fazendo apenas o mínimo necessário para escapar de uma reprimenda. Processos e hierarquias são desrespeitados, às vezes substituídos pela busca de laços pessoais que assegurem proteção. Lealdades são geradas pelo paternalismo, interesses compartilhados entre chefes e subordinados resultam, por exemplo, na ocultação de erros das instâncias superiores. Ou, no sentido inverso, de cima para baixo, no uso do favoritismo para cooptar aliados entre os subordinados.

A solução para interromper esse ciclo vicioso não parece estar nos manuais de administração americanos e europeus. A sociologia rural e o estudo de movimentos camponeses sugerem que a resistência passiva observada nas empresas brasileiras pode ser eficaz quando a confrontação aberta não é uma possibilidade, na medida em que prejudica os resultados pretendidos pelo patrão. "Seria surpreendente se no Brasil, país de urbanização tão recente, as estratégias de resistência passiva não tivessem migrado para as cidades junto com as pessoas", escreve Behrens. Ele argumenta que, como essas estratégias têm raízes culturais profundas, os possíveis instrumentos para promover a mudança devem também incorporar a tradição. Se é verdade que nossa formação cultural "autoritária, intolerante e paternalista" é tipicamente ibérica, é certo também que – depois do período de dominação árabe – as explorações portuguesas e as conquistas espanholas resultaram em recuperação de território e expansão do poder.

"Quem sabe precisemos da audácia de buscar inspiração nas formas antigas de gestão de pessoas que produziram esses grandes feitos, no lugar de imitarmos formas de gestão de pessoas, desenvolvidas observando outros povos, que entre nós produzem resultados medíocres, frustração e subdesenvolvimento", afirma Behrens. Ele sugere, por exemplo, incorporar nos mecanismos de resolução de conflitos das maiores empresas brasileiras um sistema inspirado na administração da Justiça de Isabel, a Católica. A primeira instância ali era administrada por corregedores, transferidos de comarca a cada dois anos para evitar que caíssem na influencia dos poderosos locais. Assim como a Rainha Isabel conseguiu limitar o exagerado poder dos senhores feudais, as empresas modernas conseguiriam limitar o caráter autocrático da média gerência, incorporando corregedores selecionados dentre seus aposentados mais respeitados – que se tornariam guardiões da cultura organizacional e árbitros independentes. "Esta e outras soluções", escreve Behrens, "podem ser desenvolvidas em sintonia com a nossa cultura para promover o bem-estar no trabalho".

Revista Época Negócios, 11 de novembro de 2010.

The impact of mining on some rural populations of North East state of Brazil

2010-11-09T16:53:00.007-02:00

The geographical distribution of Brazil’s population is highly uneven, concentrated mainly on its coastline. Since the 50's until 1980, a noticeable effort was made to try to reverse this trend. Some progress has been made mainly in the southern half of the country. Nevertheless, a large part of the territory remains fairly empty of population

The Brazilian Northeast is no exception to this rule, and has a few aggravating problems. It is above all, a great weakness in--or a chronic lack of--infrastructure, a consequence of low investment and poor development planning. This makes this deprived area of Brazil one of the few areas where it is still possible to see deprivation, poverty and despair.

One of the most common ideas is that these inner parts of the states of Ceara, Piaui, Maranhao, Alagoas and, to a lesser extent, Pernanbuco and Bahia are subject to systematic droughts that prevent local people access to food self-sufficiency. The problem of these areas is not lack of water, what with spectacular advances Agro science has made these past 15 years. The problem is the terrible consequence of the irregular rainfall. Precipitation averages over the last 10 years are sufficient to develop an agriculture that is semi-arid and would feed a much larger population than presently exists. This poverty is much more the result of a social structure based on the local, ‘paternalistic’behavior of a few families.

These are local potentates involved and introduced into all levels of Brazilian society, often the elected representatives of the people they keep in poverty. The solution for 80% of this population is, more than ever, much more political than economic. The Federal Brazilian government has often been cautious in never directly confronting these families. The action of these governments is usually limited to making basic direct assistance to these populations. This aid is just sufficient to enable them to survive.

Over the past six years, the only comprehensive and planned investment in infrastructure was the establishment of an energy grid, unfinished to this day. This allows the main free broadcast television channels (Rede Globo) and some competitors to reach most household and provide formatted information to a population that, in its vast majority, is illiterate. Consequently, they have no other way to access information.

In this context, any economic activity that creates jobs that require little skill is perceived by local populations within these States as a divine manna. Over the past five years, numerous mining sites (precious and semi precious colored stones) have been created, noticeably in Ceará. This type of mining activity affords basic infrastructure and needs labor-abundant, low-skilled manpower.

A positive point is that the people living within those inner states areas are of great integrity and honesty. This contrasts clearly with growing problems of violence and crime in most major Brazilia cities. These families, with one or more members working in the mines, have multiplied their family income two to four times.

Jean Gombart
Europe, Asia, Australia, South America and the United States--from 1999 to 2005, Jean Gombart put Noble Systems Corp on the world wide map. Jean thinks and sees globally. From 2005 to 2008, he offered sophisticated consulting to the Brazilian market for clean energy to GIS, CIM Software and the mining industry.

FIA Business School has been nominated as the most innovative business school in South America

2010-11-08T19:04:00.002-02:00

FIA Business School has been nominated as the most innovative business school in South America by readers of European CEO and has now been shortlisted by our judging panel.

Education development issues have been increasingly highlighted by our readers as a topic of great concern. They appreciate that to develop a modern business their staff must be trained to the very highest possible standards. In recognition of this we are introducing for the first time our Global Business Education Awards. These awards will provide recognition of the world's leading centres of excellence.

Unlike other Business Education award programmes, our judging panel are seeking out institutions large or small that truly add value to the total development of corporate executives - and not just in terms of their salary expectations. The judges are not swayed by perceived reputation.

About European CEO: European CEO enjoys a global distribution network that includes the most prominent decision makers worldwide. The magazine has built up a coveted reputation for excellence throughout its pages. European CEO is dedicated to all areas of global business leadership and keeps its finger on the pulse of the latest developments. European CEO is produced by an award-winning editorial team of journalists and correspondents worldwide, who provide authoritative news and features supported by up-to-the-minute, reliable data collected from trusted media organisations such as Reuters and Financial News, and detailed analysis of the most complex, dynamic and innovative issues facing business today.

The magazine is delivered bi-monthly to 50,000 decision-making executives who serve on the boards of companies throughout Europe. The magazine reaches highly affluent executives at their homes as well as their primary businesses. Secondary distribution consists of 20,000 copies in select First/Business class lounges across Europe, with 10,000 copies going out to select properties and newsstands within the EU. European CEO is published by the World News Media Group.

Award criteria:
European CEO’s award selection panel has used a wide range of criteria to inform its decision over its 2010 Global Business Education Awards, lending the critical eye of a collective 205 years of business journalism and business experience to the exhaustive information gathered by the award body’s research team. The panel are very keen to recognise top performers who have bought their own unique stamp to business education. Some of the more important factors taken into account are as follows:

Accreditation
Accessibility
Value for money
Diversity of curriculum and methodology
Size (student to teacher ratios)
Graduation rate
Admissions procedures
Placement potential
Training in technology
Research
Holistic approach
Sustainability

The panel’s decision will be announced in the December 2010/January 2011 issue and the judges' decision will be final.

Testimonial: International MBA Alumni

2010-09-29T15:37:00.005-03:00

Read in Portuguese

The universe is infinite and immeasurable and I believe that human knowledge is but a drop in the midst of this vast environment. As our knowledge expands so does contact with the unknown and one becomes increasingly aware of how little we know and how much more there is to be known. I look upon the question of professional improvement from the same standpoint.

When I took on the electrical engineering course, the prime objective was to graduate as a good engineer and seek a successful managerial career at companies devoted to technology or infrastructure. Whilst half way through the course I began to add on a handful of characteristics to my professional aspirations: I also wanted an international career, to become acquainted with different countries, with peoples of several nationalities, varied tongues, distinct cultures; to enrich my knowledge in the world around me and increase my own contact with diversity, with the unknown.

That was when, as an undergraduate, I sought to become a trainee abroad and thereafter began to pursue an international career at Schumberger Technology where I remained during 6 years as an ex-pat, having been assigned to several countries such as USA, Canada, Scotland, Mexico, Cuba and El Salvador deploying engineering and technical management activities in the oil and gas industry.

During this period of my life, I found myself awfully attached to far too technical activities and taking on a high level MBA was becoming a personal and professional growth plan so as to expand frontiers towards a more strategic perception concerning the management of large corporations. Once back in Brazil for over one year and somewhat restless with the comfort zone I dwelled in, I decided it was high time to stop and press the reset button on my career. I left the position I held at Weatherford Drilling Services and joined the first group of full time International MBA students at the Administration Institute Foundation (FIA).

I chose the International MBA full time format so as to seize the opportunity to dedicate myself intensively during a year to the enriching of my knowledge in business administration. I was extremely satisfied with the fruits of the decision I took. During that year I opened up my perspective of the corporate world in an indescribable manner. With the course I added on loads worth of learning to my style of leadership and strategic vision of management. I acquired extremely valuable insights in marketing, international competitiveness, negotiation, corporate governance, sustainability, innovation, value creation and people management. The consulting project was an unique opportunity to test internalized theory and the acquired networking was essential to my re-entering the market.

Having concluded the MBA I went through several processes at different companies. The International MBA prove to be impressive and of great relevance to those whom I talked to and during interviews. By the end of the MBA two solid offers were made: one at Weatherford as Business Development Manager in Rio de Janeiro and another with GE Oil & Gas as Brazil Service Manager, the latter being that which I effectively accepted.

Finally, know how is vital to the broadening of our borders but knowing people (Know Who) is fundamental to showing us the pathway. The International MBA aggregates both.

Matheus H. Scudeler Vilela

For further information concerning the International MBA and other courses: click here

Brasil é 3º país preferido para investimentos, diz ONU

2010-09-09T22:02:00.001-03:00

Para as multinacionais, nove dos 15 países preferidos nos próximos dois anos para investir estão nas regiões emergentes.

Genebra, Suíça. À frente dos Estados Unidos e da Europa, o Brasil é o terceiro destino favorito de multinacionais que planejam realizar investimentos até 2012. Os dados foram anunciados no domingo (6) pela Conferência da ONU para o Comércio e Desenvolvimento (Unctad) a partir de uma pesquisa feita anualmente com 236 empresas multinacionais e 116 agências de promoção de investimentos pelo mundo. Segundo o levantamento, empresas multinacionais apostam em uma alta importante no fluxo de investimentos no mundo nos próximos dois anos, em mais um sinal de que o mercado estaria retomando confiança depois da crise. Mas a crise deixou seu legado. Para as multinacionais, nove dos 15 países preferidos nos próximos dois anos para investir estão nas regiões emergentes.

Pela primeira vez desde que o levantamento começou a ser feito há dez anos, o BRIC (Brasil, Rússia, Índia e China) está entre os cinco locais preferidos do setor privado para investir. O interesse de multinacionais por investimentos no setor de commodities e o crescimento do mercado doméstico brasileiro é o que estaria colocando o País em uma posição de destaque.

Com base em uma expectativa de crescimento econômico mundial de 3% em 2010 e de 3,2% em 2011, a ONU estima que o volume de fluxo de investimentos pode chegar a US$ 1,5 trilhão em 2011, passando para algo entre US$ 1,6 trilhão e US$ 2 trilhões em 2012. Em 2010, o volume deve ser de US$ 1,2 trilhão. Depois de dois anos de queda, grande parte da expansão deve ser atribuída a uma alta no número de fusões e aquisições. Já o investimento em novas plantas e nova produção ainda deve ser limitado. Diante da crise mundial, a taxa de investimento caiu 50%.

Das 236 empresas multinacionais que participaram do levantamento, mais de cem apontaram a China como uma prioridade em seus investimentos. Pequim, portanto, foi de longe o local preferido pelas empresas para investir nos próximos dois anos. Em segundo lugar vem a Índia, com pouco mais de 70 empresas indicando o país como o destino preferido. O Brasil vem então na terceira colocação, uma posição acima da classificação que havia obtido em 2009 e com 70 empresas indicando o País como sua prioridade. O Brasil, assim, supera os Estados Unidos, que aparecem pela primeira vez na quarta posição. Em 2009, o País recebeu US$ 25,9 bilhões em investimentos diretos. Nos primeiros sete meses do ano, o Banco Central calcula que o Brasil já tenha recebido US$ 14,7 bilhões em investimentos.

A lista dos cinco primeiros colocados na avaliação das multinacionais é completada pela Rússia, outro membro dos BRIC, mas com menos de 40 multinacionais colocando a nação como prioridade. Pelo levantamento, a classificação ainda conta com o México na sexta colocação, seguido pelo Reino Unido, Vietnã, Indonésia e Alemanha.

O grande interesse de multinacionais nos emergentes é o setor primário e de commodities. Segundo a Unctad, o setor de mineração e outros de exploração de recursos naturais conseguiram manter os mesmos níveis de investimentos dos últimos anos, apesar da crise. Já o setor automotivo, de produtos químicos e eletrônicos sofrem com uma produção acima da capacidade de consumo hoje dos mercados ricos. O resultado foi um corte importante nos investimentos.

Mas os países emergentes também aparecem cada vez mais como origem de investimentos. Entre os 20 investidores mais promissores em 2010, quase metade era de países em desenvolvimento. O primeiro lugar ainda é dos Estados Unidos. Mas a China já vem na segunda colocação, com a Índia na sexta posição e os russos no nono lugar.

Fonte: America Ecomonia
http://brasil.americaeconomia.com/notas/brasil-e-3-pais-preferido-para-investimentos-diz-onu

IPADE has developed two short but intensive one week seminars to the Top MBA students

2010-08-31T16:37:00.008-03:00

IPADE has developed two short but intensive one week seminars to give Top MBA students from around the world the opportunity to interact and enrich their business culture through an experience in Mexico.

With the MBA International Weeks foreign students have the opportunity to experience Mexican business culture in an intensive week. They can also enrich their interaction with other Mexican and foreign MBA participants and explore the situations that affect Mexico, Latin America and their relationship with other countries.

Dates and deadlines:

Mexican Tourism a worldwide concept 2011:
January 10^th to 14^th, 2011
Registration deadline: November 15^th, 2010
- Further information
- Preliminary Schedule

Doing Business in Mexico 2011:
March 7^th to 12^th, 2011
Registration deadline: February 15^th, 2011
- Further information
- Preliminary Schedule

Contact:

Beatriz Guzman
Director International Office

IPADE Business School
T. + 52 (55) 53.54 1800 (ext.1393) direct. + 52 (55) 5354.1847
F.+ 52 (55)12.50 .1602
bguzman@ipade.mx
http://www.ipade.mx

FIA ALUMNI PROJECT IN EUROPE

2010-07-23T11:09:00.007-03:00

Sponsored by Novartis, FIA is working with business schools in Europe to transfer our experience and materials in implementing social projects, initially in the health area.

Learn more about ICBA

Trip to China 2010

2010-07-12T16:10:00.004-03:00

Read in Portuguese

The impact of the modern burying the past reaches with force when the magnetic levitation train reaches a cruising speed of 300 km per hour, well below the maximum normal 410 km per hour. The trip from the international airport to Pudong, the brand new business centre in Shanghai, is made on eight minutes, smooth and silently. Alongside the elevated train tracks, bulldozers and cranes build new structures with similar speed; from one year to another, new avenues, impressive buildings and new consumption habits appear.

In this 2010 study tour, we visited and met with managers from eight different companies; a history of growth of 33% per annum is normal, and the managers goals for growth are often nearer 40% per year. In this context the challenge is to build new factories, hire, train and retain the workforce, as well as develop local managerial talents, a task that is not trivial. To face the inevitable local imitators, companies must innovate to be always one step ahead in technology products and processes. Brazilian and other international companies operating in local B2B markets indicate that it is essential to focus on the high end of the markets and always bring up-to-date products; this pressurehas forced these companies begin to do research and development in China, and in some cases, push products developed specifically for the local market, sometimes surpassing the requirements of the Brazilian markets, as in the case of high end refrigerator motors, which must be quieter tha US or Brazilian models, due to the small size of chinese apartments, where living rooms often serve also for sleeping.

This perspective on innovation is explained by the size and dynamics of the Chinese market; for example, the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai expects 70 million visitors over six months; just tickets sales are forecast at 1.8 billion dollars. On a sunny day in June, nearly half a million people were there visiting exhibits of companies, trade associations and countries, including the football friendly and green Brazilian stand. The Chinese exhibits, all grandiose and futuristic, portray the concern with urban growth, energy, transport and sustainability of a society that is still 60% rural, where the urbanization pressure is huge, due to the 130 million migrant workers coming to the cities every year to work.

These migrant workers, who do not have the right to permanent residence or citizenship in the rich urban metropolis of the Eastern seaboard, provide the labor for the factories that churn out all the products that the West imports from China . These workers remain registered as citizens of their hometowns, where they return to annually in the New Year, and where they will eventually set up a family and reside after saving up the wages earned in the large factories of Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Suzhou, and Beijing, among other mega cities. But the people visiting World Expo 2010 are not the poor peasants observing the wonders of the Western world; they are the new Chinese consumers, with shopping bags in hand, composed of couples, almost always with one child and grandparents visiting, eating, consuming and displaying their confidence in China's future.

Our timing was special for other reasons; all the lectures in universities and industry emphasized that the Government faces new pressures and challenges that arise at every moment. On the very day our group arrived, the Chinese Government announced that the yuan would finally be allowed to, a measure requested with insistence by Western Governments and that brings a little more balance to the terms of trade, requiring more effort from the Chinese exporters and improving the competitiveness of products from the West. But the main news during our stay was the emergence (and permission of it’s disclosure) of a sequence of suicides of workers in the huge Foxcomm factories. These suicides are the result disillusion of the younger generation of migrant workers with their not-so-low wages and lack of future prospects. As a result, there were many labor strikes, followed by significant increases in wages across the coastal region. Increases of up to 62% were granted in Honda and Toyota, and average annual wage increases around 18% were common in the companies that we visited.

In well structured Chinese companies like Foxcomm, living conditions are reasonable, in spite of the intense work with up to six 12-hour days per week. Foxcomm has a factory with 500 thousand employees, and offer good dormitories for the workers, cinemas, a library, health care, fitness gyms, internet, etc. in a closed community – which is now being reconsidered. Formally employed workers in China have mandatory health insurance and social security, but some university speakers pointed out that less than 20% of the country's manufacturing jobs do in fact comply with these worker rights.

Another impact that amazes travellers is evidently the low prices of goods and services in the internal market; you can have a local meal, (in terms of comfort and general hygiene not very great for us Westerners) for less than a dollar. Markets trading local products impresses with ability to offer such low prices. Part of this is explained by the capital structure of Chinese companies, by the low price of inputs, and by the enormous competition in the offering of products. So companies with a state supported source of capital has primarily employment and sales turnover goals, not return on capital employed. The capital cost is low, and in some moments has a negative real cost, reducing the pressures for efficiency in logistics through the value chain, and essentially eliminates the cost of capital in Chinese price formation, as well as having fiscal incentives to export.

In the domestic Chinese market, there is an enormous competition, for with low cost of capital and little concern with intellectual property rights, there are few barriers to entry, fierce competition follows. In sectors such as refrigerators, we have 4 manufacturers in Brazil, and more than 250 in China, about 10 automobile manufacturers in Brazil, and 84 in China, and so forth. This voluptuous offer effectively force prices down, generating enormous competition among Chinese manufacturers.

Finally, one cannot fail to be impressed by China’s ability in articulating public and private sectors to offer an attractive business support infrastructure. Industrial parks offer plots with access by highways, railroads, ports and bonded warehouses; industrial installations, spaces for construction of housing for migrant workers, unions that are willing to cooperate with employers and centralized city offices, where one stop relationship with government is offered; a company with investment up to 100 million dollars is promised that all your licenses for operation can be cleared within 30 days.

There is updated legislation on environmental pollution, even if put into practice primarily in regards to the new foreign investments, tolerating in many cases the existing emissions of Chinese projects. Power generation is a challenge, because 75% of energy comes from coal, which will continue to be a major source for many decades. Although investments in hydroelectric plants are much larger than those of Brazil, and nuclear power and wind energy are fast growing sources, the fact is that coal, extracted in precarious and deadly Chinese mines will be the major driver of energy growth in China for many years yet.

The challenges are many; the cities grow at breakneck pace, wages rise, young people want more comfort and better prospects than previous generations, and the pressure on income inequalities and human rights spread across the country. But all those that get to know China, experience its growth and entrepreneurial force find that the center of world economic growth will gravitate towards Asia over the coming decades, and businesses and markets of China will have an increasingly important role in global business.

Brazil-Mexico Student Exchange Agreement

2010-06-01T16:43:00.004-03:00

Read in Portuguese

On May, 2010, FIA Business School and IPADE Business School MBA signed an exchange agreement, under which 2 students per year may be selected by FIA to spend a trimester taking courses in Mexico City. There is no tuition cost for the participants.

Mexico offers the opportunity to develop Spanish language skills, strong interaction with Mexican business culture and network.

In exchange, we will receive two students from Mexico in September/2010, to attend classes with our International MBA students.

For further information, please contact Mrs. Sabrina, sabrinam@fia.com.br

Know IPADE: www.ipade.mx

Josué Gomes da Silva, president of Coteminas

2010-05-24T09:00:00.003-03:00

Internationalization Strategy of Coteminas
quarta-feira, 5 de maio, 2010 Notícias Ivana

Josué Gomes da Silva, president of Coteminas presented the sucess story of Coteminas in their domestic growth and internationalization drive into global markets.

Josué Gomes, who obteined this MBA at Vanderbilt University, told a joint group of FIA and Vanderbilt students how he led Coteminas from being a local company in a market challenged by cheap chinese imports to being a global player.

Investing in technology, increasing efficiency, agressively merging with its major U.S competitors and reducing costs, Coteminas was transformed into Springs Global to become an international powerhouse, with 25.000 employees and globally recognized brands in bath towels and bed linen, with ower 3.5 billion reais of assets.

In this presentation Josué Gomes impressed all the participants with his knowledge of business strategy and the fundamental importance of financial management methods applied to his strategic decision process, which he attibuted in great part to his strong MBA education.

Vanderbilt University EMBA students at FIA in May 2010

2010-05-18T11:26:00.000-03:00

Vanderbilt University EMBA students at FIA in May 2010, FIA Business School received the Executive MBA students of the Owen Graduate School of Management from Vanderbilt University.

In one more event in a partnership that has lasted for our 40 years between FIA, USP and Vanderbilt.

FIA Business School helped organize a one week series of company visits, classes’ annual events for the executive students. In a joint class by Prof. James Wright, Fia and Vanderbilt students discussed Brazils energy matrix to 2020, and the Brazilian expertise in fuel ethanol, ultra-deep sea oil production and the development of a national energy matrix which is 47% renewable!

Cocktail, dinner and a visit to Morumbi, the São Paulo team soccer stadium guided by our IMBA student, Fabio Correa, made up some of the social activities of the visit.

When in doubt, keep your mouth shut

2010-05-18T11:08:00.004-03:00

The article by Prof. Behrens was cited in the May 2010 edition of the business magazine “Época Negócios”.

An organizational culture with an innovation mindset should not muffle its collaborators. Yet too many employees are afraid to speak out.
In fact, in a global survey with over 500 replies, only about one in five dares to “always speak out.” That is about the same share of employees that feels “only sometimes” it is safe speak out. Nearly half of the employees speak out “only most of the time;” but then, large majorities are not known to say anything controversial.

Click here to read this article

Internacionalização da Coteminas

2010-04-16T12:12:00.003-03:00

Internacionalização da Coteminas
com Josué Gomes, Presidente da Coteminas

Esta palestra fará parte da visita da Vanderbilt University. O grupo de alunos do Executive MBA estão interessados em negócios globais e visitam a FIA em 05 de maio para aulas e esta palestra.

Em 05/05/2010 das 18h às 19h

Inscrições: http://palestrambavb.questionpro.com/

Global Mindset Inventory

2010-04-13T00:05:00.006-03:00

Qual é seu grau de preparo para assumir responsabilidades internacionais?

Um diagnóstico para orientar os executivos e suas empresas no desenvolvimento das aptidões necessárias para atuação global.

Venha conhecer este instrumento aplicado em parceria com a Thunderbird Global School of Management que agora passa a incluir também o Brasil.

Inscrições: http://palestrambagmi2.questionpro.com/

The EMBA Vanderbilt group is coming to Brazil

2010-03-31T22:37:00.001-03:00

Vanderbilt University is one of the most prestigious private Universities in the United States.

The EMBA group is coming to Brazil as part of their program studies for a lecture with the FIA International MBA on 5th May.

This group of students has a special interest in Global Business, the Brazilian business landscape and how both Brazilian and Multi-National companies operate in Brazil and Internationally. They are very experienced professionals with an average of 12 years business experience in diverse fields of industry and professions.

Férias à francesa em Lyon

2010-03-26T18:51:00.004-03:00

Vinte séculos de história. Epicentro gastronômico mundial. Produtora de vinhos de renome internacional. Esses são apenas alguns motivos para conhecer a segunda maior cidade da França e seus arredores.

Consulte aqui o artigo da Revista Época Negócios indicado aos alunos que participarão da viagem técnica internacional do MBA Executivo Internacional, da FIA, pelo Prof. Alfredo Behrens,

When in doubt, shut up.

2010-03-26T18:05:00.006-03:00

When in doubt, keep your mouth shut.

An organizational culture with an innovation mindset should not muffle its collaborators. Yet too many employees are afraid to speak out.
In fact, only about one in five dares to “always speak out.” That is about the same share of employees that feels “only sometimes” it is safe speak out. Nearly half of the employees speak out “only most of the time;” but then, large majorities are not known to say anything controversial.

Except for a slight suggestion that UCD respondents may be more afraid that others to speak out – or face greater sanctions (2% as against 5% say “Never”) these shares are remarkably stable. Both pie charts reflect the responses of MBA students at Anglophone programs. The first pie chart reflects the opinion in 2007 of mostly London Business School MBA alumni, where close to one third were American; while the second pie chart reflects opinions culled recently (2010) among 25 MBA students from Dublin, about two thirds of which were Irish, the rest were mostly other Europeans. Results for Brazilian FIA students (2008) as befits a more hierarchical society, showed a larger reticence to speak out but the sample of actual employees, not themselves bosses, was too small to compare with the other two samples

These shares are remarkably stable. Both pie charts reflect the responses of MBA students at Anglophone programs. The first pie chart reflects the opinion in 2007 of mostly London Business School MBA alumni, about one third of respondents were American; while the second pie chart reflects opinions culled recently (2010) among 25 Irish MBA students from Dublin. Results for Brazilian FIA students (2008) as befits a more hierarchical society, showed a larger reticence to speak out but the sample of actual employees, not themselves bosses, was too small to compare with the other two.

Why would so many be afraid to speak out?

Self preservation may have a lot to do with it. An in-depth study, also with close to 200 employees, (Detert and Edmondson, 2007) suggests that it is not speaking about problems that employees are most afraid of; problems are too objective to dismiss.
What employees withhold the most are suggestions for innovation. These carry a greater deal of uncertainty regarding the benefits to be accrued from speaking out; while they are certain to expose the employee who makes the suggestion. When in doubt, shutting up seems the safest route.
Detert and Edmonson suggest that the employees´ fears may be based only on no more than perceptions, or company myths, like stories of people disappearing sometime after making a suggestion.
Whether the myths are not more than myths, or not; a culture of fear helps only the surfacing of the bravest, not the brightest.
CEOs, when not bullies themselves, should do better by establishing a culture of glasnost rather than the gulag.

Reference.
James R. Detert, Amy C. Edmondson. Why Employees Are Afraid to Speak. Harvard Business Review. May 01, 2007. Prod. #: F0705B-PDF-ENG , pages 23-25.

Alfredo Behrens
The author is Professor of Leadership and Cross-Cultural Management at FIA, International MBA,
São Paulo, also the author of Culture and Management in the Americas, Stanford University Press, 2009; and of the manuscript “Shooting Heroes and Rewarding Cowards” to appear later in 2010. A presentation of the book can be seen at http://bit.ly/95aLM9
Contact: email me at ab*@*alfredobehrens.com after removing the *s.

Como falar com seu CEO

2010-03-24T18:43:00.003-03:00

Com frequência aprendemos a limitar a nossa conversa a um "elevator pitch" para dizer tudo o que é necessário sem ser inconveniente.

Reparem que nós viemos de uma cultura na qual "se mostrar" é censurável, por isso nao estamos preparados para aproveitar uma boa oportunidade para dar uma mensagem ao Chefe Supremo.

De forma que, tendo essa oportunidade para fazer uma boa impressão, o que fazer?

• Saiba de antemão como o seu trabalho e a sua meta encaixam na estratégia geral da organização. Se eles não encaixarem é melhor não falar para se dar o tempo de procurar outra organização

• Seja você mesmo(a). Não é fácil quando muito está em jogo, mas talvez seja preferivel parecer sem jeito, tímido/humilde do que fujão. Encare, desde que: o momento é de fato propício? Leia a situação, ser inconveniente será desabonador.

Abaixo tem um texto curto falando sobre estes assuntos. Vale a pena ler, embora devam ter presente que, vindo de Harvard, está orientado a americanos mais do que a brasileiros.

Abraços,

Alfredo

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/03/tips_for_making_small_talk_wit.html?cm_mmc=npv-_-DAILY_ALERT-_-AWEBER-_-DATE
_______________________
Alfredo Behrens
www.alfredobehrens.com

The day before the historic voting President Obama - fine example of a leader

2010-03-24T18:24:00.001-03:00

Colleagues,

The American Health bill passed without a single Republican vote. The day before the historic voting President Obama harangued the Democrat caucus asking them for their vote in the House of Representatives.

The speech itself is a fine example of a leader showing the path and calling his followers to action.

The link below takes you to the speech´s high point and is fully worth five minutes of your time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiYUVdwoHu4

Best regards,

Alfredo Behrens
Professor of Cross-Cultural Management
FIA, EMBA Internacional and IMBA

The relevance of the IT segment in India and the Syntel Case

2010-03-24T18:05:00.001-03:00

Read in Portuguese

Comprising a population of 47 million people with access to the internet, 500 million mobile phones and an average urban per capita income of USD3000, India is one of the major markets for business involving technology. The country is a reference primarily in the Field of Information Technology.

This potential is furthered by the contribution posed by a favourable economic environment and the ample availability of qualified labour: there are 2 million graduates per annum in India, 500 thousand of who are engineers. Thus, there is a combination of resources (skilled people, support and investment), infrastructure (telecommunications, transport, power and financial structure) and a favourable environment (fiscal incentives, economic and political stability). So that one might grasp the standing of India´s services sector, this segment currently contributes with 55% of the nation´s GNP, wherein the leading fields are: telecommunications, banking and IT.

Since the 70´s, a remarkable evolution took place in the IT sector, special emphasis being accredited to the period between 1994-98, when training in IT picked up and knowledge in the field, widespread throughout India. New projects to qualify and promote ERP systems at enterprises were developed between 1999 and 2001. Currently, the country develops low cost, high scale, innovative and aligned technologies, which address businesses and corporate strategies. Future outcomes foresee full outsourcing and the creation of joint value between contractors and IT suppliers.
During the Executive MBA´s trip, we were granted the opportunity to meet and talk to Syntel executives. This IT company was founded in 1980 in India and currently counts on 12.500 employees, headquarters in Michigan, 10 centres in India and 3 in USA. Service lines include IT application and maintenance, corporate solutions and business operations.

During the company tour we were to verify great concern involving collaborator training whether in the form of in-house programs, training in partnership with customers or with large specialized companies. Special attention allocated to quality and customer satisfaction, likewise was evidenced, posing a case of an Indian technology company that not only competes for lower costs, but seeks to offer customized solutions that address all customer requirements. In this joint effort all stakeholder expectations are taken into account, process automation with views to increasing productivity and change process management resulting from the adoption of new technologies and systems.

This visit brings to light the IT sector´s potential, the importance of Indian companies to the segment and most of all, the sophistication of it´s management systems and customer relationships that go far beyond cost reductions!

Renata Giovinazzo Spers, Teacher and Assisting Coordenator of Projects at FIA – Profuturo and International MBA. Participated in January/2010 of study trips to India and South Africa by joining the International Executive MBA group. (renatag@fia.com.br)

Brazilian School prepares MBAs for the world market

2010-03-17T20:19:00.004-03:00

Read in Portuguese

Brazil has been competing successfully for the world market executive training.

The International MBA FIA will celebrate on March 17th the graduation of its 1st class with students from nine different countries.

They are young executives who have invested time and money to get training in business administration in Brazil. They have quit their jobs in the U.S., Europe and Latin America and chose coming to Brazil to obtain an internationally recognized MBA. In FIA, they have attended for a one year MBA, the only English spoken "full-time" MBA in Brazil.

Studying with Brazilian colleagues, whose most carried out the "part-time" version of the course in 20 months, international students took classes with Brazilians, Europeans and Americans professors, and absorbed much of the Brazilian culture of doing business.

With only 30 days after completing the course, more than 70% of the group is already being used in Brazil and abroad, and entrepreneurs have created their own businesses, generating employment in Brazil!

According to Professor James Wright, Coordinator of the International MBA FIA, "this course is a talent hotbed for Brazilian companies looking to expand its global presence. With an average of 6 years of professional experience, sense of entrepreneurship and a strong multicultural living, these young people are human capital of a first level for any company in the world." The teacher says that multinational companies have been faster to recognize this potential and hire the graduates of the first class. Internationalized Brazilian companies, as AmBev, Embraer, Gerdau, Votorantim, Unibanco, Itau, Camargo Correa, Odebrecht, Natura and others need to aggregate to their staff young people carrying exactly this profile, says Wright.

Escola Brasileira forma MBAs para o Mercado Global

2010-03-17T14:15:00.000-03:00

O Brasil passou a disputar com sucesso o mercado mundial de formação de executivos.

O "International MBA" da FIA, nesta noite, comemora a formatura de sua 1ª turma com alunos oriundos de nove diferentes países.

São jovens executivos que investiram tempo e dinheiro para buscar uma formação em administração de empresas no Brasil. Largaram seus empregos nos EUA, Europa e América Latina e escolheram vir ao Brasil para obterem um MBA reconhecido internacionalmente. Na FIA, cursaram por um ano o único MBA "full time" em Inglês do País.

Estudando junto com colegas brasileiros que em sua maioria realizaram a versão ''part-time'' do curso em 20 meses, os alunos internacionais tiveram aulas com professores brasileiros, europeus e norte-americanos, e absorveram muito da cultura brasileira de fazer negócios.

Com apenas 30 dias da conclusão do curso, mais de 70% da turma já está empregada no Brasil no Exterior, ou empreendedores, criaram suas próprias empresas, gerando emprego no Brasil!

Segundo o Professor James Wright, Coordenador do International MBA da FIA, "este curso é um celeiro de talentos para as empresas brasileiras que querem ampliar sua presença global. Com média de 6 anos de experiência profissional, senso de empreendedorismo e uma intensa vivência multicultural, estes jovens são um capital humano de primeira para qualquer empresa do mundo". O professor afirma que as empresas multinacionais tem sido mais rápidas em reconhecer este potencial e contratar os formandos da primeira turma. As empresas brasileiras que se internacionalizam, como AMBEV, Embraer, Gerdau, Votorantim,Itau-Unibanco, Camargo Correa,Odebrecht, Natura e outras precisam agregar as seus quadros jovens talentos exatamente com esse perfil, diz Wright.

Doing Business in Brazil

2010-03-16T17:44:00.002-03:00

by Prof. Alfredo Behrens

Following on the visit by the University of Dublin Executive MBA last week, we now have a visit by a group of St Michaels College students, a liberal arts college in Vermont USA, founded in 1904.

You are cordially invited to attend a presentation at FIA on "Doing Business in Brazil" by Prof. Alfredo Behrens, this Friday, March 19th, from 11:00am to 12:30pm.

RSVP if you plan to attend: sabrinam@fia.com.br

Limited availability!

Coordenação: Prof. James Wright

Data: 19/03/2010 das 11:00 – 12:00.
Local: FIA - Unidade Butantã – R. José Alves Cunha Lima, 172

Global Mindset Inventory

2010-03-15T11:25:00.003-03:00

“Global Mindset Inventory”

Prof. Alfredo Behrens

Qual é seu grau de preparo para assumir responsabilidades internacionais?

Um diagnóstico para orientar os executivos e suas empresas no desenvolvimento das aptidões necessárias para atuação global.

Venha conhecer este instrumento aplicado em parceria com a Thunderbird Global School of Management que agora passa a incluir também o Brasil.

Coordenação: Prof. James Wright

Data: 23/03/2010 das 9:00 – 10:30 hs.
Local: FIA - Unidade Butantã - Rua José Alves Cunha Lima, 172

EVENTO GRATUITO PARA EX-ALUNOS E CONVIDADOS

Inscrições: http://palestrambagmi.questionpro.com

Innovation in Products and Distribution: Hindustan Univeler Case Study

2010-03-08T21:49:00.004-03:00

Read in Portuguese

Furthering reports concerning the Executive MBA´s trip to India, Unilever´s successful and interesting case, known as Hindustan Unilever, is worthy of mention.

For starters, findings resultant from travel observations place prime emphasis in the hardship encountered by attempts to homogenize the Indian population, in terms of markets or segments. This is an extremely multi-faced populace in terms of culture and consumer habits, in addition to the many differences pertaining to income levels. Given this context, Hindustan Unilever works in India under the concept of “doing well by doing good”, respecting the needs, values and habits of the people of India. One of these values concerns getting a job well done so that the consumer feels well with the nutrition, hygiene and personal care products sold by the company.

According to our “in loco” visit to the company and conversations held with executives, Hindustan Unilever´s success depends on the sound addressing of the average class Indian woman. Although one must market a low priced product, it must however be one of quality. This, the company has been able to develop by means of innovation in products and processes, as well as by employing new technologies.

The company also had to adapt it´s brands and products locally, selling assorted brand names at different regions such as, for instance, the Hamam deodorant in Tamil Nadu and Rexona in Andhra Pradesh. On the other hand, products such as teas are sold under the same brand name but with different flavours according to local taste, thus enhancing the relevance of the R&D area and of intense and regular market research, so as to acquire an understanding of consumer opinions.
However, of true interest was the innovation in the distribution model adopted by the company. To expand it´s markets, Hindustan faced the challenge of reaching out to millions of potential consumers at small and remote villages lacking adequate distribution, advertising coverage and quality infra-structure. To overcome this impairment, in 2000, the company launched the Shatki Project, partnering with NGO´s, Banks and government.

In this project, women involved in self-support groups in India were invited to sell Hindustan products - mostly soaps and shampoos – at towns and villages. The company offers training in Sales and commercial knowledge to support the entrepreneural activity.

After the initial investment in stock, many entrepreneurs earn a monthly profit of 700 to 1000 rupias (15 to 22 dollars), more than their husbands earned in the fields. By the end of 2004, over 13.000 women sold to 70 million consumers at 12 states. At the end of 2006, 30.000 shatkis addressed 100.000 villages at 15 states, recovering these ladie´s self esteem and a role in society and to the company, an increasing success in sales in the rural areas of India!

For further information, kindly refer to :
http://www.unilever.com/sustainability/casestudies/economic-development/creating-rural-entrepreneurs.aspx.

Prof. Renata G. Spers, Teacher and Assisting Coordenator of Projects at FIA – Profuturo and International MBA. Participated in January/2010 of study trips to India and South Africa by joining the International Executive MBA group. (renatag@fia.com.br).

Prof. Dr. Renata Spers conducts research for post-doctorate at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, USA

2010-03-04T18:16:00.003-03:00

The research deals with the identification of competitive advantages of communities in the Base of Pyramid and it is being developed jointly with Professor Edward Fischer, from the Center of Latin American Studies (CLAS), and Professor Bart Victor, from Owen Business School.

The teacher received a grant for research abroad from FAPESP - Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de Sao Paulo, as support for the research performance.

Read in Portuguese

Inovação em Produtos e Distribuição: Caso Hindustan Univeler

2010-03-03T18:59:00.004-03:00

Dando continuidade aos relatos da viagem do grupo MBA Executivo à Índia, podemos mencionar o interessante e bem sucedido caso da Unilever, que leva o nome de Hindustan Unilever.

Um primeiro ponto que vale comentar, a partir das observações feitas durante a viagem, é a dificuldade de homogeneizar a população indiana, em termos de mercados ou segmentos. Trata-se de um povo extremamente multifacetado em termos de cultura e hábitos de consumo, além das grandes diferenças de renda. Diante deste contexto, a Hindustan Unilever trabalha na Índia com o princípio do “doing well by doing good”, respeitando as necessidades, valores e costumes do povo indiano.

Um desses valores é o de fazer seu trabalho bem feito, para que o consumidor sinta-se bem com os produtos de nutrição, higiene e cuidados pessoais comercializados pela empresa.

Conforme constamos em visita a empresa e conversa com os executivos, o sucesso da Hindustan Unilever depende do bom atendimento a mulher indiana de classe média. Há uma necessidade de colocar no mercado um produto de baixo preço, mas com qualidade, o que a empresa tem conseguido desenvolver por meio de inovação nos produtos e processos, assim como o uso de novas tecnologias.

A empresa também precisou adaptar localmente suas marcas e produtos, vendendo algumas marcas em diferentes regiões, por exemplo, marca de desodorante Hamam em Tamil Nadu e Rexona em Andhra Pradesh. Por outro lado, produtos como chá são vendidos com a mesma marca, mas com sabores diferentes dependendo do gosto local, daí a importância da área de P&D e também da realização de intensas e constantes pesquisas de marketing para se conhecer a opinião do consumidor.

Mas realmente interessante foi a inovação no modelo de distribuição adotada pela empresa. Para expandir seus mercados, a Hindustan tinha o desafio de alcançar milhões de potenciais consumidores em pequenas e remotas vilas onde não há distribuição adequada, sem cobertura de propaganda e infra-estrutura de baixa qualidade.

Para solucionar este desafio, em 2000, a empresa lançou o Projeto Shatki, em pareceria com ONGs, bancos e governos. Neste projeto, mulheres envolvidas em grupos de auto-ajuda na índia foram convidadas a vender produtos da Hindustan, principalmente sabonetes e xampus, em aldeias e vilas. A empresa fornece treinamento em vendas e conhecimento comercial para apoiar na atividade empreendedora.

Após investimento inicial em estoque, muitas empreendedoras fazem um lucro mensal de 700 a 1000 rupias (15 a 22 dólares), mais do que os maridos ganhavam no campo. No final de 2004, mais 13.000 mulheres vendiam a 70 milhões de consumidores em 12 estados. No final de 2006, 30.000 shatkis atendiam a 100.000 vilas em 15 estados, trazendo a estas mulheres o aumento de sua autoestima e um papel na sociedade. E para a empresa, um sucesso crescente de vendas nas áreas rurais da Índia!

Para saber mais, acesse http://www.unilever.com/sustainability/casestudies/economic-development/creating-rural-entrepreneurs.aspx.

Renata Giovinazzo Spers, Professora e Coordenadora Ajunta de Projetos da FIA – Profuturo e International MBA. Participou em viagem de estudos para índia e África do Sul, com grupo do MBA Executivo Internacional, em janeiro/2010renatag@fia.com.br).

Dabbawalas: Lições de Inovação e Gestão em Mumbai

2010-02-12T16:19:00.004-02:00

Durante a viagem do grupo MBA Executivo à Índia, tivemos a oportunidade de aprender sobre interessantes casos de empresas inovadoras. Nas próximas semanas iremos compartilhar o que vimos, conhecemos e aprendemos durante a viagem, desde casos práticos, até discussões acadêmicas mais interessantes.

Um primeiro caso de sucesso que conhecemos é o dos “Dabbawala”.
O sistema dabbawala surgiu há mais de 100 anos, quando Mahadeo Havaji Bachche iniciou um sistema de entrega de refeições com aproximadamente 100 entregadores.

Atualmente 5000 dabawallas entregam por dia 200.000 marmitas em Mumbai, principalmente para executivos que trabalham em escritórios em áreas comerciais. “Dabbawala” em Marathi significa literalmente “entregador da caixa de almoço”. Marmitas são preparadas em casas e entregues aos clientes diariamente, entre 9h30 e 12h30. Os entregadores fazem a coleta, seleção e distribuição das marmitas para todos os clientes.

As entregas são feitas com bicicletas, carrinhos de mão e caixas de madeira, driblando o trânsito caótico de Mumbai e garantindo as entregas para almoço nos horários estipulados. Como grande parte dos 5000 entregadores são analfabetos, é utilizado um sistema de código particular de cores e letras. Cada marmita vem com o código desenhado na própria tampa, que pode ser entendido pelos funcionários. O turno de trabalho é dividido em grupos de 25 a 30 entregadores, conduzidos por um líder.

As marmitas passam por estações de trem para chegar até a área comercial, e são transportadas por bicicletas ou carrinhos até o destino final. Os índices de falha são praticamente zero - um erro a cada 16 milhões de entregas! Estes números já garantiram à empresa diversas certificações, dentre elas o Six Sigma Quality Certification. Os serviços prestados pelos dabbawalas são extremamente eficientes, garantindo a satisfação dos clientes.

Para este sucesso, disciplina de todos ao longo do processo é essencial. Usar um típico chapéu branco é obrigatório para os entregadores. Reportar-se sempre no horário e respeitar o cliente são valores fundamentais para os funcionários. Cooperação, coordenação, sinergia e estreita interação entre todos os membros é muito importante, pois para os dabbawala, “união é poder”!

A metodologia de trabalho, logística e valores dos dabbawala já são conhecidas em todo o mundo. Por causa da sua eficiência, o sistema tem sido explicado em palestras para empresas como Coca-Cola, Siemens, além de alunos de Harvard e Michigan.

Para saber mais, acesse o site www.mydabbawala.com

Renata Giovinazzo Spers, Professora e Coordenadora Ajunta de Projetos da FIA – Profuturo e International MBA. Participou em viagem de estudos para índia e África do Sul, com grupo do MBA Executivo Internacional, em janeiro/2010renatag@fia.com.br).

Reportagem apresenta a experiência de Tyler Mecham, um americano que veio fazer o International MBA em Ingles da FIA

2010-02-10T18:58:00.004-02:00

Estrangeiros no Brasil

A projeção do Brasil no exterior fez crescer o interesse dos profissionais estrangeiros, que agora querem trabalhar por aqui. Competir por uma vaga fica mais difícil

Fabiana Corrêa (redacao.vocesa@abril.com.br) 09/02/2010

O americano Tyler Mecham, de 30 anos, está morando no Brasil há um ano. Ele deixou sua cidade natal, Phoenix, no estado americano do Arizona, e veio para São Paulo cursar MBA na Fundação Instituto de Administração (FIA), na primeira turma em inglês criada pela escola. Agora, Tyler está em fase de contratação por uma multinacional com sede na capital paulista. Em sua turma, de 15 alunos, outros quatro estão em fase de negociação para serem contratados por empresas locais. ”Fui escolhido por conhecer outra cultura e falar inglês fluentemente, além da minha experiência na área financeira”, diz Tyler.

O americano e seus colegas de classe fazem parte de um grupo de jovens profissionais estrangeiros que vem mostrando interesse crescente em fazer carreira no Brasil, um movimento que se intensificou no último ano, com a crise de emprego na Europa e nos Estados Unidos. “A projeção econômica do Brasil no exterior incentivou essa procura”, diz Denise Barreto, sócia da GNext, consultoria de busca de executivos de São Paulo. A GNext vem recebendo mais currículos de europeus desde o início do ano passado. “São altamente qualificados e com perfil multicultural. Se comparados aos brasileiros que cursam MBA no exterior, concorrem em pé de igualdade”, diz Denise. Eles podem ser especialmente interessantes para empresas em fase de internacionalização, que querem ganhar conhecimento em um determinado mercado.

O processo de contratação de estrangeiros leva entre um e dois meses. “É relativamente simples, mas é a empresa brasileira que precisa se responsabilizar pelo visto”, diz o advogado Renê Ramos, sócio da Emdoc, que presta serviço para quem vai contratar estrangeiros. “De julho de 2009 para cá os pedidos de visto de trabalho só aumentaram”, diz Renê.

Tyler Mecham, americano, 30 anos: em fase de contratação depois de vir dos Estados Unidos para cursar MBA no Brasil

A vinda e a contratação de estrangeiros por empresas com sede no Brasil devem ficar cada vez mais comuns, considerando que o país começa a se aproximar das grandes economias mundiais. Cidades como Londres ou Nova York experimentam isso há anos. Mas esse é também um dos aspectos da falta de profissionais no mercado local. “As empresas primeiro trouxeram de volta seus expatriados. Agora querem também os talentos que não são daqui para preencher seus quadros deficitários por causa do crescimento rápido e da falta de gestores”, diz o consultor de gestão de recursos humanos César Souza, da Empreenda, de São Paulo.

“Os latinos serão os primeiros a vir: portugueses, italianos e espanhóis, que estão com um grande problema de falta de emprego em seu país”, diz César. Nos últimos meses, Newton Campos, presidente da associação de ex-alunos do Instituto da Empresa, o IE, na Espanha, uma das principais escolas de negócios da Europa, viu mais que triplicar a procura de ex-alunos por um emprego no Brasil. “Há um ano, recebia um e-mail de ex-alunos a cada três meses. Hoje, chega um pedido de informação sobre trabalho a cada 15 dias”, diz Newton.

Na Esade, outra escola de negócios da Espanha, a área de serviços de carreira tinha, até um ano atrás, em média três solicitações de apoio para trabalhar no Brasil por ano. Em 2009, foram 12. O italiano Ulrico Talamanca, de 30 anos, é um dos alunos do IE interessados nas possibilidades brasileiras. Chegou ao Brasil em janeiro deste ano disposto a aprender português — ele já fala inglês, alemão e espanhol — e usar sua experiência de cinco anos em banco de investimento na Itália e nos Estados Unidos para conseguir um emprego no país.

“A economia na Europa está parada e a América do Sul é um lugar mais próximo em termos culturais”, diz Ulrico. Mercados como agronegócio, que empregou três dos alunos da primeira turma do MBA em inglês da FIA, e energia são alguns dos que mais atraem. “O Brasil tem a imagem de inovador no setor de energia e as pessoas querem aprender com isso”, diz James Wright, diretor do curso.

A vinda de executivos estrangeiros pode aumentar a concorrência em algumas áreas, mas a convivência com profissionais de outros países deve beneficiar as empresas e enriquecer as equipes de trabalho locais. “Há uma vantagem na mistura de várias culturas, algo que já acontece nas grandes metrópoles mundiais. Não acho que essas pessoas venham para tirar o trabalho dos brasileiros, mas para trazer mais conhecimento”, diz Denise, da GNext. De fato, os estrangeiros trazem na bagagem uma experiência diferenciada. Até por isso, a competição no mercado de trabalho vai ficar mais árdua.

Future Studies Research Journal: Chamada para submissão de artigos

2010-02-08T16:43:00.001-02:00

Prezados.

Com satisfação informamos que já está publicado nas versões Inglês-Português, o primeiro número da Future Studies Research Journal: Trends and Strategies - uma iniciativa do Programa de Estudos do Futuro/FIA, que tem como sua missão divulgar a produção intelectual sobre estudos do futuro e estratégias das organizações.

Gostaríamos de convidá-los a enviar um artigo para publicação no segundo e terceiro número da Future, a serem divulgados no primeiro semestre de 2010.

Os artigos podem envolver temas ligados a estudos do futuro (cenários, tendências, metodologias prospectivas), ou ainda estratégia e inovação.

Solicitamos o envio do artigo até 26/02/2010.

Aguardamos a visita e cadastro no portal da revista www.revistafuture.org

Estaremos à disposição para quaisquer esclarecimentos.

Um abraço.

Prof. Dr. James T. C. Wright
Editor-Chefe
Future Studies Research Journal
http://www.revistafuture.org
55-11-3091-5848

India 2010, commentaries

2010-02-01T18:33:00.006-02:00

Leia esta notícia em português - clique aqui

Poverty. Computers. . Wealth. Ancient cultures. Religiosity. Respect for animals. Sumptuous palaces. Crowds. Global companies. Education and kindness. No rush. Democratic. Reincarnation. Proud to be Indian. Bollywood. Books and readers. Blackouts. Corruption. Children in school. Growth. Weapons. Castes. Horns. Spice. Jewelry. Cars. Malls. Cows.

India is grandiose and has all these elements on a large scale. It is the world's largest democracy, and a synthesis of all the difficulties and potential of the emerging world. Untill 2050, more than 90% of the world’s population growth will come from emerging countries, and Indians believe that the solutions they find will be an example to the world, as its failures will also be those of the democratic world.

In January of this year, a group of teachers and alumni of FIA made a cultural, education and business journey to India, visiting companies, community projects, universities, museums, palaces and popular markets.

The transport and energy infrastructure is precarious, as well as sanitation and healthcare. The state bureaucracy is stifling and corruption abounds. The cultural, religious and geographical divisions fragment the market into many distinct sub-segments. Finally, the distribution systems are inefficient and expensive.

To its credit, India has a large absolute size of its market and a potential 1.2 billion consumers in the base of the pyramid, and the reality of about 60 million middle-class consumers that adopt consumer habits similar, but not identical Westerners.

McDonalds, for example, has to adapt its offerings to an audience for whom the cow is sacred: it has to offer special seasonings and products to vegetarians, and in some stores, meals at 50 cents. Suzuki has to adopt a local brand name, Maruti, to survive. I has to to create a network of driving schools to educate their future customers, and has to compete with a Nano, which Tata Industries sells for $ 2500.

India’s greatest triumph is its people: a hard working population, which fervently believes they will be better by doing good in this and future lives, and strongly believe in education as a means to thrive. Speaking fluent English, most educated Indians can interact quite easily in a globalized world, and have created a very important space for their country in global IT services.

Comparisons with China are inevitable. The Chinese have a clear purpose to build the most important economic power in the world; everyone from leaders to workers, see and work with this goal in mind. Democratic and pluralistic India does not know how to express a clear vision of its role in the world. It grows without an integrated plan, democratic, multi-faceted, chaotic, noisy and confusing. But it moves inexorably to a dramatically different future: it can be a huge market for infrastructure and consumer goods, it can provide the brains, companies and entrepreneurs for a globalized emerging world, or may lose its way in internal disputes For us Brazilians, an unexplored world with enormous opportunities for partnerships and business, but a challenge to understand and deal with this multifaceted Asian giant, a giant that cannot be ignored.

James Wright

Information session in India - International MBA

2010-01-15T18:18:00.002-02:00

Time: 5:00 - 6:30 pm

Location (Please note the new address):

The Fariyas Hotel

25 Off Arthur Bunder Road, Colaba, Mumbai - 400 005

Tel.: + 91 - 022 - 61416141 + 91 - 022 – 22042911

On arriving, please ask for information about the meeting room at the hotel front desk.

Email: internationalmba@fia.com.br

Inscriptions: http://informationsessionsmba.questionpro.com/

More information on FIA Business School: InformationSessionMumbai2010.pdf

It will be a pleasure to meet you and give you more information about the opportunity to study at FIA in Brazil!

Yours sincerely,

Prof. James T C Wright, PhD.

University of São Paulo

Alfredo Behrens, Professor at FIA, at Vanderbilt University

2010-01-12T13:37:00.002-02:00

American Scientific Management spilled over the world as if all people would respond equally, with the same intensity, to the same pecuniary incentives. Perhaps that is wrong, as it seems to be in the Samba Schools parade. There, people who moonlight for months deliver a world class parade on the date and time agreed to. Yet many among the same people may leave work early after having arrived late at multinationals in Rio de Janeiro. These people, as well as the much admired Che Guevara, President Allende, Acapulco plungers and bullfighters, the list is long, do what they do but earnestly enough, but not so much for money.

Not only Latin Americans do not seem to be as motivated by money as Americans are, they enter into a work contract where they expect as much protection as they are ready to give in terms of work: all-out. But modern employment limits protection by excluding parents from work-related health coverage. This limit sends the wrong signal to workers feel shortchanged, leading to lack of engagement which translated into low productivity.

Part 1:

Anglophones lead mostly for the Coyotes and see Courage as its primary driving virtue. On the other hand, Latin Americans root mostly for the Road Runner and see Temperance and Humanity as its most driving virtue, and they also tell us they do not like to be led by Coyotes. But because it is at the headquarters of multinationals where the appointments are made, they will tend to prefer like-minded individuals to run subsidiaries in Latin American, who will like to be Coyote rooters, much to the chagrin of those who root for the Road Runner.

Part 2:

You may find much of this argument at Harvard Business Review's blog who chose to distribute this in August 27th of 2009.

Alfredo Behren's book, Culture and Management in the Americas, by Stanford University Press, is now available here!

Um Feliz Natal

2009-12-24T12:56:00.001-02:00

Nossa turmas estão andando muito bem, as viagens internacionais foram excelentes, e dos alunos que sofreram com os cortes de headcount, a grande maioria se recolocou em menos de 3 meses em ótimas posições. Iniciamos novos projetos gratuitos para ex alunos, de sustentabilidade / carbono zero, de proposição de políticas publicas, de fundraising para o Futuro, e de networking / empregabilidade. Em 2010, a primeira novidade é a viagem à India e Africa do Sul, iniciando em 15 de Janeiro, que será a primeira viagem de estudos um MBA brasileiro a estes destinos. (inscrições abertas até 05/01/2010).

No International MBA, a turma que se forma em fevereiro de 2010 já está bem encaminhada na busca de empregos; todos os estrangeiros fizeram projetos de consultoria, com 95% de aproveitamento, e algumas empresas com operações globais estão em processos adiantados de recrutamento destes alunos.

Assim, 2009 foi um muito bom ano, e fazemos votos que todos vocês, e as novas turmas que começam em março tenham um ótimo 2010!

To read in english, click here

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T12:55:00.001-02:00

Our 2009 classes had excellent performance, the international trips were very good, even some students who were laid off in 2009 found new jobs, most in less than 3 months. This year we started four new alumni projects, including a sustainability/zero carbon project, a public policy club, a fundraising group and a networking/employability group. For 2010, the first new project is the first trip to India and South Africa by a Brazilian MBA, which starts on january 15th. (Enrollments open till Jan 5th, 2010)

In the full Time International MBA, the class that graduates in February 2010 is finishing up their final projects, and many are well advanced in recruitment talks with major global companies, which have seen great potential in this group.

So, 2009 has been a very good year, and we wish that all of you, and our new students starting in March will have a great 2010!

Para ler em português, clique aqui

FIA MBA EXECUTIVO NA INDIA E NA ÁFRICA DO SUL 2010

2009-12-07T15:59:00.002-02:00

Em janeiro de 2010 visitaremos e teremos palestras em Universidades e empresas relacionadas a temas como desenvolvimento econômico, outsourcing de TI, indústria automobilística e ou autopeças, bens populares (base da pirâmide) e outros. Leia mais...

FIA EXECUTIVE MBA IN INDIA AND SOUTH AFRICA 2010

2009-12-07T15:47:00.002-02:00

In January 2010 we will visit companies and Universities in Mumbay and New Delhi to better understand India's competitive growth. Read more...

What do you look like in your emails?

2009-11-03T20:15:00.002-02:00

Alfredo Behrens, Professor of Cross-Cultural Management

FIA, International MBA, São Paulo, alfredob@fia.com.br

Email communication is culturally rooted in the Northern hemisphere and, in being emotionally lean, it is not the most Latin-friendly media, yet, use it we must. As a student enrolled at FIA’s International MBA or EMBA you are likely to work at organizations that span the globe. It may help you to be aware of how you may be seen elsewhere when an email of yours arrives. How you are seen may reflect on your chances of promotion, which entails in meeting established standards of leadership skills through email communication. Developing your skills at inspiring followers is particularly relevant at your fuzzy stage of organizational development, where emerging leaders are expected to influence a team’s outcome without much formal authority over them. This becomes even more relevant when taking part in geographically dispersed teams, where the impact of different cultures might get in the way your effectiveness as an emerging leader.

Soft tactics, like presence in email exchanges through frequent helpful participation, or seeking to ingratiate yourself may result in higher acceptance of you by the rest of the team. It pays to be kind, as long as you do not look insincere; much as in face-to-face communication, flattery may advance your interests, but not if it is perceived as seeking ulterior motives.

Email, in being emotionally lean, facilitates the application of soft tactics like ingratiating yourself in one email, even with typos, for those may be taking as evidence of spontaneity. Yet it may pay sending a request for collaboration in a subsequent email, avoiding a too facile link of your ingratiation move with the request for help or input.

On the other hand, hard tactics like commands or reprimands, are particularly resented when perceived as presumptuous, as they are when you have no formal authority over the people you may address such emails too.

Appearing rational in an email exchange is always positive, but does not seem to be as important in generating followers to your position. In part because you are expected to be rational in any case, but also because the email environment, being so emotionally lean in nature, prizes those who voice affection and consistency, the latter being taken as evidence of fairness, a quality expected of an effective leader.

Before hitting the Send button it might pay to think how you might be seen at the others’ Inbox. Take some time to Read more at: Lindred L. Greer & Karen A. Jehn. Follow Me: Strategies Used by Emergent Leaders in Virtual Organizations, International Journal of Leadership Studies. Volume 5, Issue 1 / 2009.

FIA sobe 7 posições no Financial Times

2009-10-20T22:06:00.001-02:00

FIA climbs 7 positions in the Financial Times. (See English version below)

Tenho a satisfação de informar que subimos este ano sete posições no ranking de 2009 do Financial Times de Londres, passando de 68° para 61° lugar entre os melhores Executive MBAs do mundo. Este resultado reflete nosso esforço de maior internacionalização, trazendo cada vez mais professores, conselheiros, e alunos do Exterior para participarem em nosso curso, além de incrementarmos as viagens e a participação em congressos e eventos internacionais.

Outros pontos fortes da nossa avaliação são a qualificação dos professores (PhD. rank) e a seletividade dos alunos, que formam o sexto grupo mais experiente do mundo. Nossos ex-alunos figuram em posições de direção de grandes empresas, e sua remuneração média está entre as doze mais elevadas na pesquisa global do Financial Times.

No curso, são alcançados os principais objetivos dos alunos, com a consolidação de uma visão estratégica dos negócios, o aprimoramento em finanças, a troca de experiências práticas, o fortalecimento do network e é claro, a qualificação para desafios maiores em suas carreiras.

A pesquisa do Financial Times é a mais respeitada internacionalmente, pois é feita com muita objetividade. A FIA é a única escola brasileira que tem seu próprio Executive MBA no ranking do Financial Times, posicionado acima de muitas universidades tradicionais dos EUA, ficando em 25º lugar entre os cursos baseados nas Américas.

Ficamos muito satisfeitos com estes resultados, mas trabalhamos sempre em novas iniciativas para continuarmos a melhorar. Estamos incrementando a exposição internacional com mais uma viagem opcional à Índia, trazendo mais professores do Exterior, e ampliando a atividade de pesquisa conjunta com colegas do exterior visando aumentar nossa publicação internacional.

Para os ex-alunos, estamos oferecendo programas de palestras abertas, e grupos de discussão e estudos de políticas públicas, sustentabilidade, empregabilidade e um trabalho de fund raising para modernizar nossos equipamentos de aula, além dos projetos sociais tradicionais da FIA e dos ex-alunos.

Contamos com seu continuado apoio e participação, James Wright

FIA climbs 7 positions in the Financial Times.
I am pleased to report that this year we climbed seven positions in the 2009 Financial Times Executive MBA ranking, from 68th to 61st place among the best Executive MBAs in the world. This result reflects our continued efforts in internationalization, bringing to our courses more faculty, advisors and students from other countries, as well as increasing study trips and attendance at international conferences.

Other strong points are the faculty qualifications and the selectivity of students, who are the sixth group most experienced in the world. Our alumni hold leadership positions in large companies, and their average salary is among the twelve highest in the world-wide survey.
We feel that we are meeting our student’s main objectives on entering the course, which are to obtain a broader strategic view of business, to improve their finance skills, share practical experiences, to strengthen their professional networks and of course, to gain more qualifications for ever greater career challenges.

The Financial Times survey is the most respected international ranking, for it’s objective approach. We are the only school in Brazil that has its own Executive MBA course in the ranking, positioned ahead of many traditional universities, occupying the 25th place among the EMBA courses based in the Americas. We are very pleased with these results, but we are already working on new initiatives to continue improving.

We are increasing international exposure an additional regular study trip to India, bringing more teachers from overseas, and increasing joint research with colleagues from abroad to increase our international publication. With our alumni, we are offering programs open lectures and discussion groups and policy studies, sustainability, employability and fund raising projects in addition to traditional social projects.

We count on your continuing support and participation, in these initiatives! James Wright

Projeto Carbono Zero - MBA EXECUTIVO INTERNACIONAL

2009-10-15T18:46:00.003-03:00

Por ocasião da finalização do programa de estudos e conclusão dos trabalhos, os alunos do MBA da Fundação Instituto de Administração programaram uma iniciativa inovadora e sustentável: “zeraram” a pegada de carbono referente aos deslocamentos para atendimento do curso.

A FIA manifestou-se compromissada em apoiar iniciativas semelhantes para futuras turmas e já estuda ampliar a adoção de práticas de sustentabilidade para todo o curso. Segundo o Professor James Wright, Coordenador do curso, outras sugestões de práticas sustentáveis estão sendo encaminhadas para aprovação pelo Conselho Consultivo do MBA Executivo Internacional da FIA com a idéia de minimizar o consumo de eletricidade, papel, além da utilização de materiais recicláveis e sustentáveis pelos alunos e professores.

Leiam mais e assitam o vídeo no link: http://consultoriaprofuturo.com/projeto-carbono-zero/

Information session - International MBA - India!

2009-10-13T15:43:00.003-03:00

We are having an information session in India for anyone interested in attending our one year full-time International MBA Program in English.

Please RSVP and pass the invitation on to friends and contacts who might be interested.

Date: Jan. 18th 2010 Time: 5:00 pm

Location: Hotel Marine Plaza 29, Marine Drive Mumbai 400 020

Email: internationalmba@fia.com.br

Inscriptions: http://informationsessionsmba.questionpro.com/

Palestra Conjuntura Econômica e Perspectivas

2009-10-12T16:30:00.003-03:00

Prof. Dr. Simão Silber, Doutor em Economia por Yale University e Professor Doutor de Economia na Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade na Universidade de São Paulo – Graduação e Pós-graduação

Em 29/10/09 das 08:30/10:00 na FIA - Rua José Alves da Cunha Lima.

Palestra em português e vagas limitadas.

Inscrições: http://eventosmba.questionpro.com/

Informações 3732.3520

Information session - International MBA - in London!

2009-10-08T13:58:00.004-03:00

We are having an information session in London for anyone interested in attending our one year full-time International MBA Program in English.

Please RSVP and pass the invitation on to friends and contacts who might be interested.

Date: Oct. 13th 2009Time: 11:00 am
Location: The Chesterfield Hotel - 35, Charles Street, Mayfair - London W1J 5EB.

Email: internationalmba@fia.com.brConfirm your participation: http://informationsessionsmba.questionpro.com/

USA 2009 - International

2009-09-30T18:08:00.002-03:00

We have just come back from a very productive trip to the USA. The Executive MBA class spent one week at Vanderbilt University, Profs. Renata Spers and I worked on post-doctoral research projects with Vanderbilt, and I gave a class on the Future Vision for Brazil at the Vanderbilt Center for Latin American Studies.

After a very full week, the FIA staff traveled to Miami and hosted on Saturday, 26th September an open house information session at the downtown Hilton Hotel. There, we met with prospective students, and presented the FIA International MBA to candidates from the US who are interested in starting in our February 2010 class.

At Vanderbilt University, besides a strong program of classes on Marketing managent, branding and pricing, we traveled to visit Fedex, Nissan and jack Daniels. The FEDEX Superhub in Memphis, is an amazing overnight operation, where 130 planes are off-loaded, turned around and loaded with more than 1.5 million packages sorted by destination in a 3 hour period. At Nissan, we toured the plant and an operations VP explained how they operate the most productive automobile factory in the USA, and in the Jack Daniel factory, we could see at first hand how they have built a brand for bourbon ( actually, a Tennessee Whisky) which is the 5th most consumed whisky brand in the world.

Our group was very impressed by a presentation by Mr. Mark Emkes, CEO of Bridgestone-Firestone – Americas responsible for all activities from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Base on 22 years of international experience, including Dubai, Spain, Argentina and two long periods in Brazil, Mr Emkes made it very clear that straight talk, clarity of goals and respect for cultural diversity are fundamental ingredients for success in an international career.

An international seminar like this helps us learn across borders, and helps us understand some of the fundamental strengths and capacity for change of the American economy and society, who are critically reviewing recent mistakes and discussing changes and a new positining in a more equal and diversified world order. For our students who did not take part in this trip, we will as usual summarize the main topics and go into more depth in the international sessions on the 1st and 2nd of October.

Regards, James Wright

Miami Information session

2009-09-14T13:22:00.003-03:00

FIA Business School — International MBA in Brazil

We are having an information session in the USA for anyone interested in attending our one year full-time International MBA Program in English.

Please RSVP and pass the invitation on to friends and contacts who might be interested.

Date: Saturday, 26 September 2009

Time: 11:00 - 16:00

Location:

Hilton Miami Downtown

1601 Biscayne Blvd

Miami, FL

View Map

Inscriptions: http://informationsessionsmba.questionpro.com/

Email: internationalmba@fia.com.br

Coyotes vs. Road Runners: Managing in the Americas

2009-08-31T20:02:00.000-03:00

3:35 PM

Thursday

August 27, 2009

by Alfredo Behrens

The saga of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner trying to outsmart each other has turned out to be useful in my research into cultural variation in management styles between Anglophone and Latino leaders. The cartoons are effective at gauging cultural responses because they are globally accessible cultural icons. Because they’re silent, they’re mostly free from language constraints, and they’ve been distributed by Warner Brothers to TV screens across the Americas — and all over the world.

I asked MBA alumni around the world to state which of these two characters they most consistently supported and to explain why. Most Anglophones sided with the Coyote, and most Iberians and their descendants preferred the Road Runner.

Brazil and China share interesting ways of appointing business leaders.

2009-08-05T17:17:00.005-03:00

Brazil and China share interesting ways of appointing business leaders.
Alfredo Behrens
Professor of Cross-Cultural Management with FIA, International MBA
ab@alfredobehrens.com
July, 2009

When it comes to business leadership, management textbooks do not question the practice of appointing managers by shareholders or their proxies. Because the practice has worked well where most of the management thinking has taken place, it is also considered the appropriate way to appoint leaders of subsidiaries. There, however, the workers may respond less effectively to managers chosen by people who do not share the national culture. There are interesting alternatives to the appointing top business leaders in China and Brazil.

Two decades ago Jack Perkowski realized that the Eastern Dragon was awakening and he had better be among the first to move in. He figured out that transportation was where the action would be and that taking part in the auto parts industry would be the accessible way to glide on the uplifting trend. With a Harvard Business School degree and some investing banking experience, Mr. Perkowski raised capital and in the mid nineties founded Asimco, in China.

Joint ventures were the rule then and not speaking any Chinese did not help Mr. Perkowski in spotting suitable local partners. But in at least one of his initiatives he got particularly lucky by investing in a company that came with a competent manager: Mr. Li Jienan. This man would eventually retire, opening the always hard-to-plan-for succession issue. That was when Mr. Li suggested the unthinkable to an HBS graduate: an election among the workers to determine his successor.

Mr. Perkowski still did not speak any Chinese and was at a loss to suggest an alternative to an idea that did not fit any management textbook. He took a deep breath and decided to trust the manager who had done so well for so long and agreed to his suggestion.

As it turned out, the man elected was whom Mr. Li would have chosen in first place. A perplexed Mr. Perkowski asked Mr. Li why go through all the fuss and the anxiety if the outcome would have been the same? Mr. Li replied that by proceeding to the appointment through an election, all the workers had been given a fair chance to decide who they would be run by, playing moot the argument that others candidates would have been equally or more deserving. Now ‘the new general manager can begin with a united factory,” said Mr. Li.

Mr. Li’s wisdom seems so obvious that one wonders why that decision is not practiced more often. Perhaps it is because the practical leadership of organizations has its roots in the management of armies, where soldiers could be expected to vote more emphatically for the promotion of generals less likely to send them to death in the battlefields.

Dying for one’s country is not how wars are won. General Patton knew it well when he argued that wars are won by making the other “poor damned bastard die for his country.” Yet, because the enemy is hard to persuade, dying for one’s country needs to be glorified to enlist soldiers to fight when they would rather not;2 the latter being the reason to appoint generals without asking for the soldiers’ opinion.3

When it comes to leadership, it seems that management literature leans to Mc Gregor’s X Theory, which implies that workers will, like soldiers, avoid work when they can, this being the reason for having the shareholders throwing CEOs upon workers, who can only vote with their feet and leave when they do not like the new boss.

That the Asimco case worked may be taken for a fluke. But perhaps it is not. That it took place in a collectivist society like the Chinese one is very telling, for it is in these societies that consensual decision-making and subjecting the interests of the individual to those of the group are more highly praised.

Brazil is also a collectivist-oriented society and the founding charter of the very successful engineering company Promon clearly asks its collaborators to put collective interests before their individual ones. This is why salespersons at Promon earn no commissions, they only earn the benefits that all do. At Promon the leader is also chosen by his workers. Not surprisingly, Promon’s CEO, Luis Ernesto Geminiani, was also chosen the leader that most MBAs, foreign or Brazilian, would like to work for, even though he was running against successful CEOs, such as those of
Southwest Airlines and Wal-Mart.

Perhaps there is a lesson to be drawn from this evidence, because the risk to appoint the wrong leader is the greatest when it comes to managing subsidiaries. There, a worker is less likely to share in the national culture that prevails at headquarters. A worker works more effectively under leaders better attuned with the workers’ culture than the leaders foreign owners would normally choose; unless they are foreign owners like Jack Perkowski, who might agree that his company could be better managed by a man appointed through an election.

2 we know the glory that is his,/ A glory that can never die. From Charles Sorley’s In Memoriam, 1915.
http://www.archive.org/stream/marlboroughother00sorlrich/marlboroughother00sorlrich_djvu.txt
accessed on July 20, 2009.
3 My friend, you would not tell with such high zest/ To children ardent for some desperate glory, / The old
Lie; Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori. From Wilfredo Owen’s Dulce

Read more in:
Perkowski, Jack. Managing the Dragon. New York, Random House, 2008.
Behrens, Alfredo. Culture and Management in the Americas. Stanford University Press, 2009. Also
available in Brazil.

China: learning amid a crisis

2009-07-28T09:39:00.001-03:00

In our recent EMBA trip to China, the visit to Guangdong province may have been the best opportunity to learn about the real China, and generate ideas to put in practice in Brazil. Guangdong Province is where the opening up started; in 1978 Deng Xiaoping visited the province and created the first special economic zones where the “market socialism” experiment began, using the Pearl River Delta and Hong Kong as fundamental trade and finance supports for internationalization of the Chinese economy. To begin with, the cautious, regional experiment is typical, political risk avoidance is important for the regime.

In the busy, crowded factory like city of Guangzhou, (old Canton) the provincial capital , and in the surrounding cities, our group of executives were able to see the real modern China, visit Chinese universities, and meet Chinese entrepreneurs and public officials. In a traditional Chinese university, students speak English but often the senior professors do not; and interpreters are required; senior executives and public officials usually address us in the Cantonese dialect, and often our mandarin speaking hosts from Peking also need interpreters! In companies, very often the junior managers are the only ones that speak English, and that fact is used as an advantage during negotiations, to gain time and create distinct decision levels.

Entrepreneurs are young, enthusiastic and ambitious. Two young Executive MBA graduates presented their companies producing western-style high end jewelry, and barbecue equipment! Both are focused entirely on exporting to sophisticated foreign markets from the very first moment since creating their companies, with very little interest in their internal market! Another small high tech LED flat screen start-up also has a tremendous market focus, and sells to all over the world from a very small and simple factory near Guangzhou.

In these locations decisions are fast and radical; local government applies all its efforts to attract investments. Special agencies facilitates public authorizations, negotiations with the union, and the necessary energy, housing and transport infrastructure. They claim to be one stop agents for business, and the attitude is definitely yes we can innovate, produce and export our products. The current crisis makes things more difficult, but the Chinese know that they are much better off today than 10 years ago; they feel that they can fix all their problems as they go forward; very real problems of housing, inequality, health, energy and infrastructure.

One recent example of a radical local decision was the ban on gasoline powered motorcycles in the main cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou and Beijing; over the last 3 years millions of them have been replaced by small, slow, quiet, safe and non polluting electric scooters. Dozens of local manufacturers produce these low cost vehicles, in spite of the fact that most of China’s electric energy is produced in coal fired thermo-electric plants.

At the same time we in São Paulo worry about the dangerous motorcycles in our heavy traffic, and suffer with accidents, death of young people, pollution from motorbikes and horrible traffic congestion when the inevitable accidents occur. Worse, 95% of our electricity is of hydroelectric origin, which is clean, renewable, and available at night to recharge batteries when demand is off-peak.

Inspired by the Chinese problems and their positive attitude, some of our Executive MBA alumni are proposing to go beyond the great social work they already do. They are proposing alumni projects for our program like a zero carbon footprint, a permanent public policy forum, and a fund raising program for use of cutting edge classroom technology.

I would very much like to hear your comments and contributions on initiatives like these.

P.S. I’m writing mostly in English because we have an international audience (25% of the readers of our blog) and also, some of our students need to practice their language skills. Feel free to make contributions in Portuguese, English, French or Spanish !

James

What do China’s constraints mean for business?

2009-07-13T18:41:00.001-03:00

Alfredo Behrens
International MBA/FIA, São Paulo
alfredob@fia.com.br
July, 2009

During over a decade we have witnessed the early morning yawning of the Eastern dragon, China grew at astonishing rates for over a decade. Market after market succumbed to lower priced Chinese products.

How long can this last for?
China grew at two-digit rates, but it also increased the depletion of its environment, aggravated income distribution between people and regions and triggered internal migrations to booming coastal cities which have turned into policy headache as China’s export-oriented growth cycle slows down, unemploying over 20 million migrant workers.
The environment issue will take more than the cosmetic “Blue Sky Plan” launched in anticipation of the Beijing Olympics, even though that took abating emissions from the fourth largest iron and steel mill. Besides dealing with the increasing desertification and the sandstorm which dumped 330,000 tons of dust in Beijing in April 2006 - now China must face how to deal with the dust, soot and acid rain resulting from coal-fired energy production targeted at 780,000 Megawatts for 2020. This is almost eight thousand times more than all of Brazil’s installed capacity in 2007. China’s power generation is almost 80% coal-fired. MIT estimated that China will install two 550MWe coal fired plants every week.

Water quality is poor and not enough to go around, certainly not to treble per capita consumption, the growth necessary only to bring Chinese consumption to world average levels. In a country so large there can only be regional disparities. While there are floods in some regions there are shortages in others. But where there is abundance of water it may be too polluted. For instance the Yellow River is so high in ammonia that it might not longer sustain life. But it is not all, up to 40% of China’s GDP is located along the Yantgtze River, however “the ecology of the Yangtze River is facing an extreme crisis, and if it is not addressed there is a fear that the ecosystem will collapse within ten years.” Only five more to go.

In the longer run there are also important demographic trends to pay attention to. China is also fast at being old. Over the next two decades the proportion of inhabitants over 60 years of age will have doubled. Ageing may have happened in any case, because of decreasing fertility rates, but was accelerated by the One Child Policy.

Currently, only 10% of the population takes part in the Chinese pension system; which in 2000 was partially funded by 100 million formaly employed and benefits 32 million retirees. The low coverage means that the majority of old people will have to rely on their savings, as can be complemented by a reduced family system, because of the One Child Policy. How much will these “only children” will agree to pitch up with is to be seen. Singletons share many characteristics of the first born, who, for some time at least, are only children. These tend to be high achievers, assertive and dominant, while laterborns score higher in Agreeableness and are generally more innovative. How these considerations will work out in China is hard to anticipate, but if the theory were correct, one should expect a future mix in the Chinese population which will be still more hierarchical and less questioning of status quo.

What will the waking-up look like?

Indeed, China’s 11 to 13% growth rates underscored a 9% consumption rate. Yet that consumption growth may fall to 5 or 6% if China’s GDP growth rate falls to 8%. Unless, of course, the massive Chinese fiscal policy stimulus manages to prop-up domestic consumption by enough. Even in China there are limits to how much fiscal stimulus the government may resort to without depreciating the currency.

The Yuan had appreciated about 20% since mid 2005 until 2008; an unmanaged depreciation of the Yuan would bring capital flight and a depreciation war with its Asian competitors. If there is a lesson to be drawn from the 1997 currency crisis in Asia is that it is necessary to stabilize the currency rather than let it be determined by the market in a volatile environment.

China has been caught in a difficult situation. At the height of the American-led financial crisis China had revalued its currency, loosing international competitiveness, thus aggravating the domestic impact of the world financial crisis. Besides, China’s growth is ecologically constrained. One avenue to release the latter constraint would be to de-emphasize the coastal-oriented development and regionally rebalance growth towards the Western provinces. This would temporarily dilute pollution pressure on the East and ease the current migration trend to the East of the country. But it would require targeting the fiscal stimulus away from the heart of the domestic crisis - East and South - and into infrastructure to develop communications with the Western provinces. On the other hand, the demographic constraint is harder to release and will lead to emphasizing capital intensive rather than labor extensive industries as its population ages.

Where to invest in China?
This is of course a broad sweep, but if one were to invest in China today I would recommend having a closer look at the mid to Western provinces, providing one’s product is not intensive in water and one can get the products out to a cost effective port, or that, in the longer run, your line of activity would benefit less from cheap labor than from a highly educated and disciplined labor force, in which case, you may rely more on air transportation for business.

Dubai: build it and they will come

2009-06-29T18:22:00.004-03:00

It doesn’t really matter where you come from; Dubai is stunning. Of course the current crisis has taken some of the luster of the place, as of many others. Of course the place is heavily indebted, perhaps at almost 50% of its GDP, but there again; Italy’s comparable share is more than double that.

Perhaps Dubai should not be analyzed with the same parameters as anywhere else. There is something dream-like about Dubai’s self-assertion. It has chosen architecture as a statement of its presence, and much of that architecture is great.

One can rightly wonder who will pay for the grandiose

Hirshhorn-like open air sculpture garden. But I prefer to focus on the intention.

Take the Dubai National Bank for example. It was commissioned in the early-nineties, designed by Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott and built by 1997. The structure is supported on two massive granite slabs that seen from the side resemble a mast. The curvature of the roof of the bank’s hall reminds that of the hull of the dhows. The front is covered by glass but on the Creek side the glass curtain curves gracefully like the billowing sail of the dhows that used to ply the Creek. When seen from the opposite side of the Creek the lower half of the curved glass reflects the Creek’s traffic. Most modern buildings count on glass surfaces to add movement by reflecting the moving clouds in the sky, but those are absent in Dubai. At the National Bank of Dubai the glass reflects life in the Creek.

In some sense Carlos Ott set the style that

Tom Wright followed in conceiving in 1993 the mast-cum-sail-like curvature of the Burj Al Arab, Dubai’s iconic building as from 1999. At Burj Al Arab Tom Wright came as close as a modern architect possibly did, to draw in a few sweeps of a pen what became an iconic building, because all can recognize it and associate it with a place on Earth: Dubai. Very much like the pyramids or the Eiffel tower recall Cairo and Paris.

Of course these are not the only stunning buildings built in the last ten years or so, but they signal an intention: to bring a piece of desert to mind. In doing so, the Emiratis have succeeded in branding the desert. To this they added a powerful low-fare airline that has turned Dubai into a hub served by a massively modern airport. Now Dubai is where you may stop on your way somewhere else to appreciate what you can see nowhere else. Once this was accomplished it became possible to consider setting business in Dubai, as many high-tech and service initiatives have, from finance corporations to educational institutions, besides the world-class hotel chains like the Jumeira group, that cater for the well-heeled traveler.

Dubai does not have much oil and cannot host manufacturing initiatives. Location was almost all it had, but few knew about it and even less cared. Dubai began making use of its location by re-distributing goods out of the Creek but it needed to be creative in generating more revenue. Dubai does sits in the middle of highly populated countries within flights lasting an hour or two. But this is also true of many other places in the region, including more favorably endowed ones like Teheran.

Only Emiratis made more of its location by dressing it up with buildings that would attract attention, and then serving it by comfortable transportation, attracting service industries and hosting travelers in modern hotels. It is not by chance that the London Business School offers an EMBA there. Out of Dubai LBS offers and EMBA to 300 students, only 10% reside there, the rest flies in and out once a month. Its Director, Kevin Dunseath, convincingly argues that it could not be done anywhere else in the region.

If you are still asking for who pays for the buildings you are missing the point. The buildings are the magnet with which the rest would not exist. And the Emiratis badly need the rest. Brand Dubai is a magnificent example of modern marketing and so far a successful strategy to turn a desert into a service hub.

Prof. Alfredo Behrens
FIA, International MBA
June, 2009

Shanghai Surprises

2009-06-22T19:27:00.001-03:00

Shanghai Surprises

As your airplane approaches Shanghai you realize that this huge city-province is preparing to reach more than 30 million inhabitants. From the busy, ultra-modern airport you reach the city center in 8 minutes; a 430 km/hour ride on a smooth magnetic levitation train. In the Pudong business district, a bright, modern skyline appears with broad avenues already insufficient to make traffic flow quickly. At Tonji University, a Harvard-trained senior professor, Dr. Peng, tells us that China’s growth has been led primarily through investment in infra-structure and export; with the global economic crisis reducing exports, it now must be redirected towards internal consumption.

Shanghai is the most westernized of Chinese cities; one finds street signs in English and a wide variety of international stores in ultra modern malls. But go outside the central business district and try to get a haircut in a barber just 6 steps away from a WalMart stores and no-one speaks English! Nor do they understand easily our gestures or mimicry; with language, writing and general outlook on life so distinct, communication is a real problem; you feel as if you are actually on another planet! However, for expatriates, Shanghai offers a good quality of life; the Brazilian executives we met work hard but have a pleasant lifestyle, with good housing, international schools for their children and a strong expatriate community and social life.

Visiting international companies such as Volvo, Voith Hydro and Vale (ex CVRD) you realize that building relationships is a long, time-consuming and unavoidable process; creating “guanxi” , the Chinese version of business networking is essential to developing a sustainable business. The Brazilians we met seem to adapt very well to this environment; but besides experienced Brazilian and European CEO’s we meet promising young Chinese managers. Typically with excellent technical backgrounds and training, they still seem to lack the communication and leadership skills to take over top management positions in international organizations.

A significant surprise is that labor costs are rising, but one finds that once the Chinese workers understand their tasks and are motivated, they work very hard, and are both productive and quality oriented. Another important surprise relates to environmental and safety issues. Strong legislation has been passed, and is being actually enforced by the authorities, at least in relation to major foreign firms. New companies must comply with environmental laws, and labor laws require a 40 day week, paid overtime, and respect to workers rights. Estimates on social charges on salaries vary from 40% to 50%. Competition for qualified labor is intense and unlike Japan, company loyalty is not a significant retention factor; companies must pay competitive wages and have excellent human resource policies to retain qualified workers.

After Shanghai our trip takes us to Guangdong Province, where Chinas economic opening started, to learn more about how Chinese companies are surviving the economic crisis.

Please watch out for the next blog!

James Wright

PRMIA GLOBAL EVENT SERIES: CREDIT RISK MANAGEMENT

2009-06-03T19:38:00.003-03:00

Professores do MBA Executivo Internacional participarão do Evento: PRMIA, onde será proporcionado um fórum de discussão sobre os principais temas relacionados à gestão de riscos de crédito no Brasil e no mundo na atualidade.

Data: 17/06/2009

Local: FEA-USP, Auditório 5, Av. Luciano Gualberto, nº 908, Cidade Universitária, São Paulo, Brasil

O Evento é Gratuito, mas o número de vagas é limitado.
Para inscrever-se, caso já seja membro do PRMIA, por favor, click no link :
https://prmia.org/index.php?page=events&option=eventsRegister&event_id=3366
Caso ainda não seja membro do PRMIA, vá ao site www.prmia.org e inscreva-se. Depois click no link:
https://prmia.org/index.php?page=events&option=eventsRegister&event_id=3366

Pergunte ao Headhunter

2009-06-02T20:22:00.001-03:00

Novos Mercados e Oportunidades

Carlos Mello e os convidados Pedro Amaral, headhunter, e o professor James Wright falam sobre os novos mercados e oportunidades para você aproveitar

Nós, os sobreviventes

2009-05-30T10:26:00.000-03:00

O que poderá mudar no perfil e no comportamento do consumidor brasileiro com a crise - e o que não vai mudar, apesar dela

NOVIDADE NO MERCADO? É COMIGO MESMO
A curiosidade própria do ser humano pode salvar muitas empresas em meio à instabilidade econômica. Especialistas ouvidos por AMANHÃ foram unânimes em afirmar que, com o cenário de crise, o consumidor reforçará a experiência com produtos novos. Ou seja, se você enxergar uma longa fila para comprar o aparelho celular mais recente, como aconteceu no lançamento do IPhone em junho de 2007, não se surpreenda. "O novo século entrega de bandeja para as empresas a oportunidade de poder fazer experiências coletivas com os consumidores. As pessoas estão sempre experimentando novidades, ainda mais em épocas de crise", teoriza Monica Gregori, diretora de negócios da Natura.
A opinião da executiva tem a chancela de analistas de consumo. É o caso do Programa de Estudos do Futuro (ProFuturo), ligado à faculdade de Administração da USP. "A inovação é um imperativo para a obtenção de vantagens competitivas sustentáveis, seja ela um mero detalhe no produto ou uma mudança radical em processos ou modelos de negócio", resume Antonio Thiago Benedette, pesquisador do ProFuturo. Não é à toa que esse comportamento do consumidor faz com que muitas companhias continuem investindo em inovação, mesmo diante do cenário adverso. No entanto, junto com a novidade há um grande desafio para os gestores de negócios: fazer com que o consumidor continue tendo interesse pelo produto ou serviço em oferta. "Conseguir passar o cliente para o estágio da lealdade e da retenção está ficando cada vez mais difícil, ainda mais em tempos em que a fidelidade não tem lá tanto valor para o consumidor", completa Benedette.
Outro perigo iminente para companhias inovadoras é a invasão de cópias de produtos que fizeram sucesso no mercado. Em função de avanços tecnológicos cada vez mais frequentes, em pouco tempo a concorrência consegue desenvolver um equipamento ou produto praticamente igual àquele que encantou os consumidores. E, como se não bastasse se preocupar em manter alta a curiosidade dos consumidores, os empresários ainda terão de suar para se livrar das cópias