A global company specializing in property facades and energy efficient windows and doors executed the most emblematic projects in Brazil, but the company had not returned a profit from its Brazil office since 2001 and had recognized that a strong brand and quality product were not enough to succeed in the current market. The company’s headquarters in Europe was considering closing the Brazil office. However, it also recognized that Brazil is an emerging market with a large social middle class and an average age of 29 years, making this a potentially lucrative location if a successful turnaround could be executed. The business model is not matching to the local requirements. To survive, the model would have to be adapted, which would seem to be contrary to the European standard. Is that feasible?

We have been applying the Design Thinking mindset for many years, evaluating with every project. We see again and again that Design Thinking is probably one of the most important aspects on the path of corporate cultural change in a transformation. Therefore, we come to the project with the evolutionary knowledge of Design Thinking and implement this way of thinking. It should take root and stay in the project and in the client company.

Since around 2016, the requirements for implementing digital and automated solutions for business processes in reorganizations and transformations have been constantly increasing in our projects. This applies equally to B2C, as well as B2B applications.

What we notice again and again is that words like digital transformation, digitalization, blockchain, up to the almost mystical artificial intelligence AI, naturally trigger shining eyes and delight in many customers.

How dangerous can paradigms be in a crisis?

Can an industry-wide paradigm lead to business blindness? Under what conditions has a paradigm developed?

If you think about costs too late, you ruin your company. Those who always think about costs too early kill creativity. Cost-cutting measures must be taken when you are earning a lot of money. Once you're in the red, it's too late. Many years of experience can sometimes narrow the view. There are people who think they know the bird very well because they have seen the egg from which it crawled out.

Sometimes you have to pull out trees to see if the root is still there. After many years of the paradigm of uncompromising outsourcing of all functions, we realize after many projects that this way has to be decided anew in every case and has to be checked at regular intervals for its still existing advantages. Paradigms must not be retained for convenience.

Contextual intelligence - using Brazil as an example. What is Brazil's profiling and thus the implications for your business in the country? Brazil vs. India - a vivid example of how important it is to decipher and interpret cultural and contextual intelligence.

We, our clients' employees, and employees of companies we know tend to spend between 3.5 and 4 days per month in meetings and video conferences (strategy meetings, coordination meetings, conference calls, video calls). This corresponds to about 20% of the effective working time per month. Most meetings are mostly just a rehash of things we all actually already knew. To achieve an efficiency effect we had to change the workflow in the new project missions. So if it should be true that a lot of meetings are just a rehash of long known things, this coordination should be replaced by asynchronous updates and tasks. And this is where collaboration tools come into their own.

The outbreak of the Lava-Jato crisis in Brazil threatened the future of a second generation family business, which manufactures machinery and plant for the oil and gas industry.

When the corruption cases first broke, management took immediate steps to mitigate the impact. As well as taking advantage of new construction projects to maintain production platforms in the Atlantic, the firm sought the help of iManagementBrazil Ltda., to reorganize the business and deliver a transformational change project.

Just over 10 days ago, we received a survey sent to us by a renowned consultancy. A few hundred companies in Brazil participated in the survey, which was conducted between the mid-Q1 and the middle of Q2 2022. Data which immediately and then surprisingly catches the eye are: … .

Even before the pandemic, the proportion of issues relating to the digitization and automation of processes in our reorganization and transformation projects in Brazil was increasing. Now the pandemic has changed a lot, and some things will certainly return to the way they were before. But what has definitely changed is the buying behavior in the B2C, as well as the B2B area. So how will the change in buying habits affect retail and services in the post-pandemic period in Brazil?

As it has been common practice for several years, in the last quarter of 2021 we have also worked together with some clients in their process of revising the business plan and the possible scenarios to set up an outlook on Brazil 2022. This time there were six companies from the sectors automotive suppliers, engineering oil and gas, mining, B2B startup and a local coffee shop franchise group. The national origin of the companies was from Brazil, France and North America.