Experiencing Brazil

Today was a big day! With met two of the most interesting business people in Brazil, Paulo Guedes and Eike Batista, before heading to Sao Paolo to visit the other great city in Brazil.

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Paulo Guedes

Paulo Guedes is a very fascinating businessman! He founded an investment bank, sold it to UBS, turned around a business school and writes a regular newspaper column about Brazil’s economy. His views very very interesting and he smoothly switched from topic to topic.

Key takeaways:

• “Poverty is one thing, misery is another”: In his view, todays misery is an urban phenomenon. In earlier days when people were still living in rural areas, they could find everything they needed in the forest. If you’re living in a city this isn’t possible anymore.

• “Strategy without execution is a dream!”: Ah, Goldberg would love him 😉 No additional comments needed.

• Economy and government style: Brazil is going from an European style (left-wing, supporting your people) to a more American one (capitalist, more leverage).

• High interest rates: Makes it difficult to invest in the stock market, because why should you do that if you can get 15% interest rate from a bank.

• Number of companies: In the 70/80s, there were about 1,000 listed companies. Today, we only have about 400. Especially during the high inflation years, a lot of companies died, and not enough new ones grew. There is definitely a shortage of entrepreneurship in Brazil.

• Family businesses: Most of the important companies in Brazil are still in family hands. However, it is very difficult to work for these companies, because everything is connected to the familiy in the end.

• Why he went into education: In his view, media & education is basically the same. If you take the daily knowledge and digitalize it, you call it news. If you do the same thing with 2000 years of knowledge, you call it history course.

• “Everything a chinese can do, I’m out”: e.g. steel, production etc.. but speaking and teaching portuguese, he’s in 😉

He’s a true whirlwind 😉 Looking forward to verify his statements with other business people!

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And now, the one and only – Eike Batista!

After this fulminant start, we had the most senior meeting ouf our entire trip: Eike Batista!

He is the founder and owner of EBX, which literally means “Eike Batista X” – which stands for the ‘multiple’ in value he brings to the business 😉 His main investment areas are mining, oil and infrastructure, so he profits a lot from the current run in natural resources. Therefore, his net worth is constantly changing between 20-30bn USD, which makes him somewhere between No. 6-40 on the worlds rich list.

So how is he as a person.. well, don’t think about Warren Buffett, think more about Donald Trump 😉

In order to get a better picture, you have to check out this video about him – soooooo funny 😉 This video was actually shown to us before the meeting ;)!!

http://www.eikebatista.com.br/(X(1)S(qryzjd45nib3ctzzcdvjrc45))/page/bio_video.aspx?cod=0

(click on “english” on the bottom left corner in order to get the right version) – thanks to N.Z. for finding it online!

So Eike is extremely self-assured, energetic and charismatic. Most of the meeting he talked about his future mega projects, for example a mega port next to Rio or the new pre-salt oil reserves. He’s a very good salesperson and an absolut visionary :)!

Key takeaways:

• “Most people don’t dare!”: About what makes him so successful..

• About the government: He tries to keep his companies private so that the government has less influence on him. Furthermore, he’s in the lucky position that his and Dilma’s goals align. He’s crucial for her economic vision of Brazil. However, he also needs her approval, so of course he speaks very highly of her 😉

• About BNDES: “BNDES employs more money than the Worldbank. It’s a great source of cheap money *biiiiig smile*! And they love great projects *even biiiigger smile*!” 😉

• High margin projects: He usually look for high margin industries (such as mining and gold), so that he can make more money, even if the infrastructure and the employees are inefficient.

• About Brazil’s dependency on exports: In his view, this is a myth. Apparently, exports only account for 10% of Brazil’s GDP. So his not concerned at all about this point.

• Partnerships: He usually tries to build partnerships with international companies such as GE in order to bring expertise to his projects. However, he didn’t answer the question how he usually handles the division of power between him and the international stakeholders.

• Advice for entrepreneurs: Dicipline, double-checking, thinking 360°, listen to advice, have courage, tackle the impossible

He was definitely one of the most interesting speakers on this trip! However, our team was divided between people who loved him and people who hated him. Some thought he’s an incredible visionary and role model. Others thought he’s too full of himself and basically a big gambler..

Or as another CEO later that week said:

“Eike Batista made more money with Powerpoint than Microsoft.”

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After the meeting we went straight to the airport to catch our flight to Sao Paulo :)!!!

So bye bye Rio..

… and hello Sao Paulo 🙂

The city is just huge!! It looks like a large carpet of houses… What a difference to Rio ;)!

So let’s see how the second part of our trip will be!

(And don’t worry, Sao Paulo is actually quite pretty ;))

Hello from Rio 🙂 I finally arrived in this beautiful city. But getting here was more difficult than expected 😉

After arriving at the SFO airport, we realize that our flight is delayed. And soon it became clear that the plane will probably not fly at all this day. Luckily, thanks to my travel mates, we managed to get rebooked from an American Airlines flight via Miami to a United flight via Dallas. So we ran back from the gate to the counter to get checked in again. We literally made it just in time before they closed the door of the plane. However, we were not sure if our luggage would make it as well..

Apart from this initial stress, the flight was really beautiful 🙂

It also gave me time to think about the past couple of months. Moving to Stanford was a big decision and I still cannot believe how much my life has changed since then. Meeting all those incredible people, I realized how big the world is and how many opportunities and ideas are out there. Although my life was already very international for Swiss standards, life at the GSB is a totally different level. I am really thankful for this experience.

In addition to that I found amazing new friends. They are my new family and a big part of why I feel so at home at Stanford. From Swiss fondues to late night chats – without them Stanford wouldn’t be the same.

However, flying further and further away from the U.S. and looking forward to traveling three weeks in a country I barely knew, I felt anxious and alone. Maybe the last couple of months were just a dream? What if the others don’t like me that much? Who am I? I know who I was before the GSB, but who am I now? And what part of me didn’t change, because it’s part of who I truly am?

And in addition to the thoughts about the GSB, I was thinking about my friends at home. Living abroad for two years is a great experience, but it also means that I leave my old life behind. I’m still in close contact with my friends and I definitely don’t want to lose them. But at the same time, their life moves on and if I’m not careful we’ll lose each other.

However, I was also looking forward to being on the road again. Being away from your daily life opens your mind and challenges you to rethink who you are. Knowing how you think and feel when you are alone in a new environment far away from your normal life, makes you better understand who you truly are. And in fact, you don’t really need much, because the most important thing – you – is always with you.

In this regard, I was looking forward what Brazil has in it for me..

As every visitor I have certain expectations about Brazil. So when I think about Brazil, a couple of pictures come to my mind:

So what is the real Brazil like? What are their dreams and aspirations? How does their life look like? What does is mean to do business in Brazil?

Let’s find out 🙂