What are your challenges for the next few years?
Last year we launched a project called Connection 2022. With this project, we will transform the company by making it more competitive while adding value, technology, innovation, digital and continuous improvement process. For our innovation and improvement systems, we have established partnerships with start-ups.
How do you indentify and foster talents?
I identify talents within the company, by organizing interviews, and accompanying our teams to clients and warehouses so I can better understand their actions and I rely on the good management of our human resources which includes the deployment of assessment plans matching our professions. Very soon, we will also develop plans of our digital training courses.
I love Brazilians like I love Russians. In Russia like in Brazil, there are real talent pools. My goal is to share with them all the best international practices and to prepare them for the future.
Russia, Brazil, what are the differences and similarities for business?
The real difference between Russia and Brazil is in their management style. Russians are tough, and with a frontal approach. They are strongly resilient undoubtedly because of their history and the hard life conditions they have in a cold country where winters are long. In Russia, there is very little room for the weak. You need patience. Russian executives are esteemed by their actions and their decisions, good or bad. I admire Russians for all these reasons.
On the contrary, Brazil is the country of emotions, dance and sunshine. As a foreign trade advisor told me, “In Brazil, the engine for management is emotion, and the rudder is reason”. Generally the “reason” comes from Europeans. In Brazil, professional and personal aspects always get mixed up. One day a collaborator told me that I didn’t like him. It struck me. No one had ever told me this in Russia. Indeed, I didn’t like the way he was working, but as a person, I really appreciated him.
The first similarity between Russia and Brazil is their bureaucracy. Russia is a country with many regional entities (republics, krais, oblasts…). Brazil is a federal state where each State has its own taxation. So I need to take into account this very complicated dimension in my strategy while relying on lawyers and advisors.
A second similarity lies in their teamwork. As soon as they are autonomous and are confident, Russians, like Brazilians, are really inclined to work as a team. They are both confident in the future and very open minded, especially when it comes to new technologies.
