This is my blog post for Mon.-Wed., 5/31-6/2
Over the last three days we've had a variety of speakers and discussions at EBAPE, the School of Business and Public Administration at the Fundacao Getulio Vargas (FGV). Supposedly Wes Bjur, a retired USC Professor who I had lunch with in Sacramento a couple weeks before leaving, was instrumental in EBAPE's establishment. Given that we talked about Jeitinho during that lunch, I'm not at all surprised at how well the EBAPE folks seem to be handling the constant schedule changes and improvisation. If something similar happened in the U.S. people would likely be throwing temper tantrums by now.
My favorite speaker of the first day was Dr. Janaina de Mendonca Fernandes. She was captivating and energetic throughout her discussion of social justice and politics in Rio. She explained how Rio has suffered from a great deal of discontinuity in planning- supposedly they must design a new master plan every four years when they elect a new administration. Also interesting is that there is no party ideology- whether or not a poltician is elected seems based almost solely on charisma. Also, its required by law to vote, and people often vote only for who seems to make the best promises. However, even given these circumstances, Brazil has electronic voting- something the U.S. still doesn't have.
The next speaker, Isabel Cataldi, discussed the state of social networking in Brazil. She explained how Orkut (similar to facebook) is the most popular social networking site in Brazil, and totals about 71,000 people. Orkut, facebook, and others were widely used to transfer people to the official website and recruit volunteers for the 2007 Pan Am games, and will likely be used again for the upcoming events over the next 6 years.
The next morning's presentation started with Marshall Eakin, a fullbright scholar from Vanderbilt University. His cross-cultural comparisons between the U.S. and Brazil were particularly enlightening given yesterday's presentations from FGV folks. His three core points were 1. Brazil is notorious for poverty amidst great wealth (its the world's tenth largest economy, but has massive inequality; 2. Brazil is both western and non-western (its land is American, facade is European, and its soul is African); 3. Brazil's color and race occurs along a spectrum as opposed to the U.S.'s categorical '2-tiers system" (either black or white), and this makes racism far more subtle in Brazil. He also discussed Gilberto Freyre (1900-87), who wrote Master and the Slaves (1946). According to Eakin, this book has had more impact than any other on the development of the West's perception of Brazil.
The next speaker was Paulo Martins, who provided some geographical, demographic, and historical information of Brazil since its encounter with the Portugese in the 16th century. It was very sweeping and general, but it was interesting to learn about the history of a country I know very little about. I took some brief notes and I'll try and summarize them here, though I wasn't able to create anything with much continuity:
The Portugese encountered the natives starting in April 1500. The focus of the economy during this time was the import of slaves to help with sugar export. With the export of sugar starting to decline, the focus became gold. The slave trade decreased from 29% to 5% between 1823 and 1887. On August 29 1825 Brazil gained independence from Portugal, and the first constitutiton was enacted on March 25 1824. While the monarchy was overthrown on Nov 15 1889, the early republic was little more than a military dictatorship. The 1920s saw rebellions caused by young military officers. By 1930, the regime was weakened and demoralized, which allowed Getulio Vargas (which FGV, the school we are visiting, is named after) to lead a coup and assume the presidency. Brazil forced Japanese, Germans, and Italians into concentration camps during WWII. Vargas was overthrown in a military coup, but then was democratically elected not long thereafter. He then, confusingly, commited suicide in 1954. I'll have to fill that gap in later! In 1985, power shifted back to the people. There was unusualy high inflation during this time. The peacefull pass of power from Cardoso to Lula in 2002 shows Brazil may have finally achieved its long sought after stability.
OK that was kind of crazy. I found it funny though that this speaker played the same music video (Jorge Aragao) that was playing in the van on the way from the airport to the hostel. Martins (this speaker) also argued that Brazil is best known for its music- even better than soccer. I guess this Aragao guy must really capture something they value down here.
The first speakers of the next morning were Steve Rimmer, a British Mergers & Acquisitions consultant from KPMG, and Roberto Haddad, his tax structure specialist. They summarized their role as performing due diligence to their clients' shareholders during the M&A process, and how complicated this can be when the laws, regulations, traditions, and customs of companies from a variety of different countries are involved in one M&A. Due to the recent oil discoveries (see pic of rig)
and boom in Rio's tourism over the next few years, they claimed to be very busy lately. They mentioned the challenges of working in Brazil. Some of these included the informal nature of business, lack of audited financial statements, heavy reliance on cash-basis accounting, and deferred taxes on the balance sheet. Deferred payroll taxes can be especially significant given the fact that they are around 60% of a worker's pay in Brazil. I also found it interesting that, even in a society where the power is so greatly divided by wealth disparities, the onus of proof in labor disputes is most often on the employer. He also claimed that 99.9% of people who file a tax return do it thru the internet. However, I remember our tour guide unapoligetically saying he doesn't pay his taxes, and this leads me to wonder how indicative this stat is of anything bey0nd the stat itself.
Next we learned about the 2011 CISM (International Military Sports Council) Military Games. This was interesting to hear about, and the presenter, Comandante Marcio Agnese, focused part of his discussion on the increases in security that will need to be in place for these games, which will be larger than the 2007 Pan Am games- they're expecting 6000 athletes, 2000 delegates (I assume this means people other than the athletes and spectators), and 20 sports. Within each venue there will be at least 3 security perimters, coordinated with eachother, and Agnese highlighted that a centralized communication system for security will be a major challenge. Concluding his presentation, Agnese underlined the importance for the legacy of the games, and the importance for continuity in planning for them and the subsequent mega-events Rio will be hosting- a global warming summit called "Rio + 20" in 2012, the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Rio's 450th anniversary in 2015, and the Olympics in 2016.
In the afternoon we had a x-cultural training with Elizabeth Columa. She was a fascinating woman, but I felt we should have been out exploring Rio and interacting with "cariocas" (people indigenous to Rio) as opposed to staying in the classroom. I found it funny that, when we were writing an answer to a question about what characteristic of Americans differentiates us from Brazilians, the majority of us said "individualism". We also discussed differences in communication styles- the American custom of getting to a point early and supporting it as opposed to discussing and then making a point towards the end of a discussion. The discussion kept returning to the idea that Brazilians are better at multi-tasking, more present-oriented, and less focused on planning, and I couldn't help but worry about the challenges this will present for the Olympics. She mentioned how it is common for Brazilians to take advantage of indirect communication styles in business settings to get what they want, that business is often treated like a social event, and that business is made between people and not companies, (she used the theoretical framework of high context and low context communication in a book called The Silent Language by Edward Hall to explain this). She concluded with a list of 5 things North Americans should not do while in Brazil: 1. Do NOT rush visits, 2. Do NOT get down to business, 3. Do NOT expect punctuality, 4. Do NOT get impatient, and 5. Do NOT be aggressive
Over the last three days we've had a variety of speakers and discussions at EBAPE, the School of Business and Public Administration at the Fundacao Getulio Vargas (FGV). Supposedly Wes Bjur, a retired USC Professor who I had lunch with in Sacramento a couple weeks before leaving, was instrumental in EBAPE's establishment. Given that we talked about Jeitinho during that lunch, I'm not at all surprised at how well the EBAPE folks seem to be handling the constant schedule changes and improvisation. If something similar happened in the U.S. people would likely be throwing temper tantrums by now.
My favorite speaker of the first day was Dr. Janaina de Mendonca Fernandes. She was captivating and energetic throughout her discussion of social justice and politics in Rio. She explained how Rio has suffered from a great deal of discontinuity in planning- supposedly they must design a new master plan every four years when they elect a new administration. Also interesting is that there is no party ideology- whether or not a poltician is elected seems based almost solely on charisma. Also, its required by law to vote, and people often vote only for who seems to make the best promises. However, even given these circumstances, Brazil has electronic voting- something the U.S. still doesn't have.
The next speaker, Isabel Cataldi, discussed the state of social networking in Brazil. She explained how Orkut (similar to facebook) is the most popular social networking site in Brazil, and totals about 71,000 people. Orkut, facebook, and others were widely used to transfer people to the official website and recruit volunteers for the 2007 Pan Am games, and will likely be used again for the upcoming events over the next 6 years.
The next morning's presentation started with Marshall Eakin, a fullbright scholar from Vanderbilt University. His cross-cultural comparisons between the U.S. and Brazil were particularly enlightening given yesterday's presentations from FGV folks. His three core points were 1. Brazil is notorious for poverty amidst great wealth (its the world's tenth largest economy, but has massive inequality; 2. Brazil is both western and non-western (its land is American, facade is European, and its soul is African); 3. Brazil's color and race occurs along a spectrum as opposed to the U.S.'s categorical '2-tiers system" (either black or white), and this makes racism far more subtle in Brazil. He also discussed Gilberto Freyre (1900-87), who wrote Master and the Slaves (1946). According to Eakin, this book has had more impact than any other on the development of the West's perception of Brazil.
The next speaker was Paulo Martins, who provided some geographical, demographic, and historical information of Brazil since its encounter with the Portugese in the 16th century. It was very sweeping and general, but it was interesting to learn about the history of a country I know very little about. I took some brief notes and I'll try and summarize them here, though I wasn't able to create anything with much continuity:
The Portugese encountered the natives starting in April 1500. The focus of the economy during this time was the import of slaves to help with sugar export. With the export of sugar starting to decline, the focus became gold. The slave trade decreased from 29% to 5% between 1823 and 1887. On August 29 1825 Brazil gained independence from Portugal, and the first constitutiton was enacted on March 25 1824. While the monarchy was overthrown on Nov 15 1889, the early republic was little more than a military dictatorship. The 1920s saw rebellions caused by young military officers. By 1930, the regime was weakened and demoralized, which allowed Getulio Vargas (which FGV, the school we are visiting, is named after) to lead a coup and assume the presidency. Brazil forced Japanese, Germans, and Italians into concentration camps during WWII. Vargas was overthrown in a military coup, but then was democratically elected not long thereafter. He then, confusingly, commited suicide in 1954. I'll have to fill that gap in later! In 1985, power shifted back to the people. There was unusualy high inflation during this time. The peacefull pass of power from Cardoso to Lula in 2002 shows Brazil may have finally achieved its long sought after stability.
OK that was kind of crazy. I found it funny though that this speaker played the same music video (Jorge Aragao) that was playing in the van on the way from the airport to the hostel. Martins (this speaker) also argued that Brazil is best known for its music- even better than soccer. I guess this Aragao guy must really capture something they value down here.
The first speakers of the next morning were Steve Rimmer, a British Mergers & Acquisitions consultant from KPMG, and Roberto Haddad, his tax structure specialist. They summarized their role as performing due diligence to their clients' shareholders during the M&A process, and how complicated this can be when the laws, regulations, traditions, and customs of companies from a variety of different countries are involved in one M&A. Due to the recent oil discoveries (see pic of rig)
and boom in Rio's tourism over the next few years, they claimed to be very busy lately. They mentioned the challenges of working in Brazil. Some of these included the informal nature of business, lack of audited financial statements, heavy reliance on cash-basis accounting, and deferred taxes on the balance sheet. Deferred payroll taxes can be especially significant given the fact that they are around 60% of a worker's pay in Brazil. I also found it interesting that, even in a society where the power is so greatly divided by wealth disparities, the onus of proof in labor disputes is most often on the employer. He also claimed that 99.9% of people who file a tax return do it thru the internet. However, I remember our tour guide unapoligetically saying he doesn't pay his taxes, and this leads me to wonder how indicative this stat is of anything bey0nd the stat itself.Next we learned about the 2011 CISM (International Military Sports Council) Military Games. This was interesting to hear about, and the presenter, Comandante Marcio Agnese, focused part of his discussion on the increases in security that will need to be in place for these games, which will be larger than the 2007 Pan Am games- they're expecting 6000 athletes, 2000 delegates (I assume this means people other than the athletes and spectators), and 20 sports. Within each venue there will be at least 3 security perimters, coordinated with eachother, and Agnese highlighted that a centralized communication system for security will be a major challenge. Concluding his presentation, Agnese underlined the importance for the legacy of the games, and the importance for continuity in planning for them and the subsequent mega-events Rio will be hosting- a global warming summit called "Rio + 20" in 2012, the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Rio's 450th anniversary in 2015, and the Olympics in 2016.
In the afternoon we had a x-cultural training with Elizabeth Columa. She was a fascinating woman, but I felt we should have been out exploring Rio and interacting with "cariocas" (people indigenous to Rio) as opposed to staying in the classroom. I found it funny that, when we were writing an answer to a question about what characteristic of Americans differentiates us from Brazilians, the majority of us said "individualism". We also discussed differences in communication styles- the American custom of getting to a point early and supporting it as opposed to discussing and then making a point towards the end of a discussion. The discussion kept returning to the idea that Brazilians are better at multi-tasking, more present-oriented, and less focused on planning, and I couldn't help but worry about the challenges this will present for the Olympics. She mentioned how it is common for Brazilians to take advantage of indirect communication styles in business settings to get what they want, that business is often treated like a social event, and that business is made between people and not companies, (she used the theoretical framework of high context and low context communication in a book called The Silent Language by Edward Hall to explain this). She concluded with a list of 5 things North Americans should not do while in Brazil: 1. Do NOT rush visits, 2. Do NOT get down to business, 3. Do NOT expect punctuality, 4. Do NOT get impatient, and 5. Do NOT be aggressive
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