Creativity, flexibility, hard work, and an eye on the future – all hallmarks of the Brazilian management style. Fundação Instituto de Administração (FIA), a leading Business School in Brazil, has studied the Brazilian management style and applied it to its own growth. Most recently, it has been chosen by European CEO as the Most Innovative Business School in South America.
Brazil is a young country, with a dynamic, multicultural society that believes in building a better future. In line with this, Brazilian companies have applied innovative management practices to achieve global leadership in diverse industry sectors. These include regional aircraft manufacturing, renewable ethanol fuel, sustainable agricultural production, forestry management, iron ore production, food and beverage production, and many others.
Contrary to popular misconceptions, fun-loving Brazilians work long hours
FIA business school has graduated CEOs and business leaders in each of these industries, and has studied their distinctive management practices. The school incorporates these into a particularly Brazilian style of teaching, integrating creative strategies, innovative use of resources and a socially conscious management, while simultaneously addressing the most up-to-date management concepts through its international linkages.
Contrary to popular misconceptions, fun-loving Brazilians work long hours. Rigorous project management, attention to detail, and a focus on objectives are all important elements in the success of outstanding companies based in the country. These include the likes of Embraer, one of the world’s largest aircraft manufacturer’s; Vale, probably the most efficient mining company in the world; and Ambev, a global leader in the beer industry.
The Profuturo programme: Future-proof learning Looking towards the future has always been a characteristic of the FIA approach. Profuturo, the school’s future studies centre, was created in 1980 to study the future of fuel ethanol in Brazil. Technological, managerial and social impacts were explored successfully, which led to future-oriented studies in ultra deep-sea oil production, transportation studies, biodiesel production, agro-industrial strategic planning and a host of other management decisions.
The Profuturo team launched their first executive MBA course in 1991, incorporating international standards, but keeping that distinctly Brazilian flavour. Instead of starting like a traditional MBA (with core subjects like accounting, statistics or marketing), the programme begins with in-depth analysis of the socioeconomic and strategic challenges for the country and for firms that face a volatile emerging environment.
Looking towards the future has always been a characteristic of the FIA approach
This provides a setting to develop awareness of the major challenges that businesses face, and stimulates the value of many traditional management methods that are studied during the MBA. With a clear vision of company missions and role in society, as well as the drive to give superior returns to shareholders, the subsequent studies focus on managing each functional area and leading company-wide transformations to achieve sustainable strategic leadership.
A commitment to corporate social responsibility The school has also put a strong emphasis on business ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) since its very foundation. This has created lasting commitment to action by FIA students and alumni to social causes, materialised by the Alumni Association, whose primary goal is to give back to society by applying their management expertise to charitable non-government organisations (NGOs).
More than 1,000 volunteer MBAs have trained administrators of hundreds of NGOs and done pro-bono consulting work. FIA has transferred teaching materials and methodology for putting CSR to action in 17 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia – effectively helping partner schools change their students’ attitudes regarding their role in society.
Pioneering studies From the outset, FIA has sought to partly reverse the flow of original management from more developed centres, by devising new approaches to problems that beset emerging markets and taking faculty and students to share their views in an ever more globalised world. Dr James Wright, Associate Dean for Research at FIA, has, since 1993, developed the first scenarios and models that helped Brazilian companies create high-tech ‘basic products’ specifically designed for low income people in emerging markets.