Global Startups and Provincial Thinking

Global Startups and Provincial Thinking

If you be following or are into the startup fever, you probably hear all this before "Global startup" "Global solutions!", "Innovation", "Disruptiveness".

In this startup world, you will find basically two groups, the ones with the ideas and the other with the capital.

The idea group is very large! The popular saying “Everyone has a great idea and a behind!” is very much true! I will not talk about what is expected from this group when presentring an new idea to the other group, because it is quite well documented in all web site related to the matter!

Then comes the “team” matter! Great teams are always the first step and a must requirement. So for a startup to be Global it will probably be a good thing to have a GLOBAL team on it! Very few have! No one has solve the global team problem, yet (here is another good idea for a startup! KKK).

How do I met a co-founder from another KEY market/country for my startup?

Team diversity will definitely help any startup to have a better understanding of the globalized world!

Various success cases have discovered a different reason for its success in different places because the conditions are so different. WhatsApp is the one that comes to mind. For me the reason for it success in Brazil is the cost of mobile in Brazil. We have one of the most expansive charges per call. You can buy a one day internet access for US$0,35 that gives you some 10Mb but a simple 1 minute call costs US$0,35 too! So WhatsApp is driving mobile companies in Brazil nuts!

Did you know this? Does the same happen in other countries?

Them, contacting the capital people. If you tried it you know what I mean! They say in their web sites that they are looking for great ideas, teams, scalable companies, innovative business models, disruptive companies and tech! TRUE GLOBAL!

But them, the provincial thinking starts to take over! If you made a simple an innocent mistake, the hammer drops on you!

DUDE!! I am from a different culture! I AM GOING to STEP on your TOE!

The question is – Did I did it on purpose because I am a SOB or was a culture difference only?

If a co-founder is willing to contact you, the money people that are everywhere just like the idea people, he/she has make a huge decision! He/She is willing to go to a strange, distant and different place to get your hard capital to make all that you posted on your web site!

So give him/her some breading space! Try to be a GLOBAL INDIVIDUAL! Be GLOBAL THINKER! BE tolerant and you will find out AND LEAR GREAT AND MARVELOUS THINGS  and not a provincial SOB!

Carros Híbridos e o Pró Álcool no Brasil: uma grande oportunidade!

Carros Híbridos e o Pró Álcool:

Uma grande oportunidade para ajudar a despoluir nossas cidades e criar um marcado confiável para o Pró Álcool.

A indústria automobilística está cada vez mais preocupada com o futuro do seu negócio, pois petróleo é finito. Assim, empresas como a Toyota, GM e outras tem desenvolvido novas tecnologias que vão desde carros elétricos (EV) até carros com células combustíveis (FCV). O problema central nas novas tecnologias é a origem com “combustível” que fornecerá a energia para o veículo. No Brasil carros elétricos seriam considerados praticamente “limpos” pois em situações normais, 80% da eletricidade no país vem de hidroelétricas consideradas totalmente renováveis e limpas. O problema seria quando as termoelétricas são ligadas e que esta energia elétrica deveria ser usada para a indústria, comércio e serviços. Os carros com células de combustíveis, usam hidrogênio como combustível e a hidrólise da água requer grandes quantidades de energia e uma rede de postos de abastecimentos. Além disso, a errônea percepção dos proprietários, de carros movidos a hidrogênio são mais perigosos que a gasolina/álcool.

A indústria do álcool no Brasil está sempre reclamando do preço de venda do combustível pela sua irremediável conectividade ao preço da gasolina e a política energética do Governo. Todos sabemos que o preço do álcool não pode ser mais que 70% do preço da gasolina para valer a pena, que hoje ficaria em volta de R$ 2,10/L. Como nos postos o preço por litro do álcool anda por volta de R$2,40/L, a venda anda praticamente parada, prejudicando principalmente a indústria e postos que são obrigados a manter estoque que tem baixa venda.

Os carros híbridos usam um pequeno motor de combustão interna para gerar energia elétrica e baterias para armazenar a energia gerada pelas freadas e pelo motor de combustão. Estes carros tem uma eficiência energética muito alta podendo no caso de carros compactos (como o Prius da Toyota na foto) chegar a fazer até 23,55 Km/L de combustível. No Brasil, o Fit Flex da Honda é capaz de fazer até 14,14 Km/L com gasolina (CVT). A diferença é de 66,5% a mais por quilometro rodado!  Esta grande diferença em eficiência é de fundamental importância para uma mudança na política nacional de energia voltada a sustentabilidade e ao transporte. 

Carros movidos a álcool no Brasil podem ser considerados praticamente limpos (para serem totalmente, a indústria do álcool precisa acabar com as queimadas) e sustentáveis. Caso o governo desse incentivo para que carros FLEX híbridos fossem produzidos no Brasil e devido ao perfil do consumidor destes carros serem ecologicamente preocupados. Poderíamos assim viabilizar um aumento do preço por litro do álcool que ajudaria a viabilizar a indústria do álcool no Brasil sem necessidade de incentivos e mesmo assim ter carros muito mais econômicos que os FLEX rodando com gasolina ou álcool. Um carro híbrido compacto rodando com álcool faria uma média de 16,5 Km/L sendo por tanto possível ter um preço por litro de até R$2,80/L de álcool (16,5% a mais) e ainda ter um carro tão eficiente como um carro a gasolina. A diminuição da poluição nas grandes cidades, a melhoria da qualidade de vida e diminuição dos custos na saúde pública e privada seriam ainda ganhos suplementares.

Além desta grande vantagem, estaríamos mais uma vez liderando uma mudança numa indústria importante para o GNP e exportações. Que os experts da área peguem esta ideia e a façam acontecer!

Lessons from the Cold War and Global Warming!

The cold war was a war that never came (THANKS FOR THAT!!) but which lessons can it teach us regarding Global Warming?

Global warming use to be a debate now is a certainty with more than 97% of scientists supporting it! The only question remaining is: Can WE change the out came or it is too late? Well, I most certainly don´t have the answers and I think no one does! Here the phrase “Time will tell!” is the only answer!

But can The Cold War teach us anything about Global Warming? I think it can! Global Warming as the name says is GLOBAL! Just like cold war! Because a nuclear war in Europe, USA, USSR, China and its zones of influence would destroy the conditions for humans to live on planet and not just in those countries directly bombed!

The strange and unexpected aspect of Global Warming is that for the first time, the POWER is in the hands of the poor! Developed countries used their natural resources and of other countries to become DEVELOPED! This is OK! This was done under the “Game’s rules”!

Now, less developed countries, like my Brazil are doing the same! But now developed countries wants to change the “Game’s rules!”. Developed countries are saying: Sorry you cannot use your natural resources (like we did) to develop because this will cause Global Warming! Sorry to say, we are going to do it! We are going to do it not because we want Global Warming but because we want development!

So what is the answer? What are the solutions?

Like in the Cold War, developed countries will have to do it first! HOW?

First we have to come to an agreement on what level of use by humans can this planet support! This in itself is very hard to do! After it, we can finally agree that the population has to go down (I believe, I don´t know because I cannot find data to support it). How we gone do it, I have no clue! I hope we still have time to do it through education! Once we done these maths, we can move to the real issue, the Natural Environment! Here my proposal is quite simple, same burden/cost to all countries! What will deter it is population! For every single citizen, all countries will have the same X m² of Natural Environment to explore economically! These will be determined by math, so these calculus will show that developed countries will have to reduce their present areas of economic use of their Natural Environment. For less developed countries, there will have more areas to develop! Here there will be NO Carbon Credit bull shit! Developed countries will have to move factories, agricultural farming and everything else of economic development to less developed countries. These actions will make the areas that were used for economic use today in developed countries, back to Natural use leveling the burden! WHY? Let’s take the grains production in the USA, very efficient but its Natural conditions allow production is just a few months of the year! Move an American farmer to a tropical country with same economic conditions and his production will go up simply because he now can produce 12 months of the year!

What I am proposing is NOT a GLOBAL communist scheme! Sure American farmers will not move from Ohio to Nigeria! But an equal burden means that a lot of economic development present placed on developed countries will have to move! Just like it did towards CHINA, but it will be done not for economic reasons but by environment ones! So even if a country offer a better economic solution, if this country has reach his environment quota, sorry it has to go somewhere else! This is the only fair and equal burden solution I can see! If we do not share the cost equally we will never get an equal solution! Global Warming as its name says is GLOBAL! So country base talks or solution will not cut! We are running out of time fast!

BUT rest assures that less developed countries will develop! The only question remaining is: Will the planet support this development given the present conditions?

Brazil

Why I LOVE so much my country!

Brazil is a vast country, it has 8.515.767 Km² which makes it the fourth largest continuous country in the world! The most stacking characteristic of Brazil is the fact that it starts around 32 degrees south and goes up north to about 5 degrees north of the Equator. Why this so important? Climate! If you look at the World Map you will see that Brazil is the largest country to reactive sun light! Our geographical position allows us to cultivate virtually any plant, livestock or microorganisms that we decide to. This is a great thing, but it is not the reason, this is the cause!

Brazilian colonization started by Portuguese in 1500 A.D. and very soon the slavery trade came to be. So Brazilians, in its birth, were a mix of Indian (true Brazilians), Portuguese (European) and Africans. In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, Brazil received large number of Asian immigrants (especially from Japan) complementing the mix! So we are a people blessed with blood from almost everywhere! I know that most countries these days have also mix people, but we had the Portuguese inheritance that gave us o more comprehensive and less radical approaches to differences. Surely we have racism in Brazil and I hope that we get rid of it! It will take time but hopefully humanity will also do it! What we have not are the radical position that lead to extreme violence, such as ethnic wars, mass murder in schools, shopping centers, etc. (even that some are starting to happen, due to copycat and a sense of injustice, most likely!). But Brazilians are FUN! We are the only people that even in the worse situations; we can dance, sing and smile! People from around the world that came to Brazil during the Football World Cup never felt more happy and enjoyed it fully!

But Brazil is vast and nature was also favorite. I had the luck to visit some of the best national parks in the USA in 1980. Parks like Sequoia, Bryce, Teton, Grand Canyon and Yellowstone are truly gems of Nature. I am sure all makes Americans proud and care about each! In Brazil we have our National Parks, places like Pantanal, Xingu, Serra da Canastra, Sete Cidades, Fernando de Noronha, etc. are just as nature gems as the American parks. Pantanal is our everglades, a wetland with 200.000 Km² where you can look down to thousands of birds’ nests! YES DOWN! 

Ninhal in Pantanal

Fernando de Noronha is our middle Atlantic island with unique sea views and life. Sete cidades is a 14.000 year man site and has posed some difficult explaining to the man migration through the Americas. We also have more than 8.500 km of cost line, most of it tropical! This makes Brazil the most tropical cost line anywhere! The beaches, or NATAURE WHY DID YOU MAKE THEM! It is impossible to describe so, see one below to get an idea!

Being so vast, Brazil has great differences in food! You can eat a barbeque in Rio Grande do Sul cooked in an open trench or find international food in São Paulo, a great Tutu mineiro dish in Minas Gerais, a acarajé in Bahia, a tapioca in any Brazilian northeast state, a duck with Tucupi in Belém do Pará or Pirarucu fish in Manaus, Amazonia. 

On the side of fruits, NATURE went ballistics! You can eat berries in the south, Jaboticabas in the middle, Cajá, Siriguela, Cajú in the northeast, Serrado fruits, like Pequi, Mangaba and Araticum, are just unique as the serrado itself. Açaí and Cupuaçu in the north! All will make you travel to tastes, smells and sensations never experienced before!

I could not write about Brazil without saying something about our flowers! But to try to write about it is waste of time! Better to see it!

So Brazil is a unique, rich and diverse experience! That’s why I LOVE IT SO MUCH!

I could try to write more, but I will only screech the surface! You have to come! Be sure that you will be loved and respected.

Next post, I don´t know on what it will be! I will wait to get inspiration!

All the best,

Brazilian Justice.

Brazilian Justice, a very Injustice system!

I am no lawyer or Judge, but I truly believe that JUSTICE is a fundamental right that can be easily explain and be part of everyone's daily life if common sense is applied. So what, in my opinion, are the fundamental aspects that a JUSTICE system must have in order to be an effective part of a society?

The first and most important is the absence of impunity! If you commit a crime you must pay for it! The punishment must fit the crime! These are quite obvious, so Does Brazil have it? Let me give you some recent examples and you take your conclusions:

In Brazil, juvenile criminals (Brazilian Law says that under 18 years of age are consider "children" and a special set of laws applied to them!) are on the rise! Adult’s career criminals use these “children” to commit crimes on their behalf and benefit from it! A juvenile criminal cannot be convicted to a normal imprisonment term in a public jail. He will get no more than the time to reach his adulthood. So you he/she is 17 years and 11 months old and kills someone, he will spend no more than a month on a juvenile facility for the crime committed! Sure a judge can see the absurd of it! There are legal mechanisms to impose a harder punishment, but for a Judge is easier not to do so and let it get out of his court! So impunity and no punishment that fits the crime is ever applied to these "children”.

Brazilian Justice System has a unique mathematical calculus system! You will not be impersonated for more than 30 years regardless of your crime! If you have “good antecedents”, “good behavior” and other strange legal terms, you time in jail will be cut to 1/6 of your full term! So if you kill someone for the “first” time, you may be out in just 6 years! Again, a Judge has legal mechanisms to impose a harder punishment and let you stay in the jail for much longer, but for a Judge is easier not to do so and let it get out of his court!

In Brazil murders by fire arms in 2013 were 35.000!! Car “accidents” killed another 54.000 Brazilians!! Accordingly to the “It was no accident” organization site (http://naofoiacidente.org/blog/como-assim-agora-apenas-8-o-numero-de-pessoas-condenadas-e-presas-por-crime-de-transito-no-brasil/) just 8 Brazilians were convicted for a driving car accident resulting in someone’s death! 54.000 deaths happed and just 8 convictions in 2013! IMPUNITY RULES! Car accidents in Brazil are in most cases done by middle and upper middle classes criminals! So the Justice System clearly favors those criminals! Fire arms crimes convictions in Brazil is less than 8%! (http://g1.globo.com/jornal-da-globo/noticia/2014/04/maioria-dos-crimes-no-brasil-nao-chega-ser-solucionada-pela-policia.html). We have more than a war zone death tool and a conviction of less than 8%, IMPUNITY RULES!

These patterns of Injustice are widely spread in Brazilian society! Brazilian society has this strange behavior of complaining but no acting! So I think the picture is clear! Crimes pay off in Brazil! Again in a normal situation, we would expect that Society acts to correct such IMPUNITY, but you have to understand Brazilian society (and any other underdeveloped country) to understand why is does not happen! Lowers classes in Brazil (about 65-75% of the population) are educated in the public education system, which I have comment on a previous text on this blog. This education system is set up to keep the status quo! So they don’t know yet how to make the changes and enforce it on our Legal and Law Systems! Education and Elections takes time!

Judges in Brazil are not afraid of any of his actions and when caught on a crime, normally he/she gets an early retirement! IMPUNITY RULES!!

The upper classes in Brazil use to have no interest on JUSTICE FOR ALL! Simply because they are the criminals that most profit from not having a JUSTICE System working and punishing! But like everything else if life, the bill is presented! This bill is being presented in the most savage and ruffles ways! CRIMES are getting into their homes! I mean it for real! In Brazilian Cities, criminals are getting into your home when you are in it! Murders, car accidents, death is on the rise! Surely the numbers are proportional to the population classes, but at these levels, crimes to middle and upper classes reached staggering numbers! Citizens of these social classes that assumed they were immune to crimes are finally seeing that they are not! These staggering numbers, I hope, will finally make us to see and understand that JUSTICE FOR ALL is the only way!

If you have IMPUNITY, no Legal System is present and savage takes over! I can only hope and do my part to show my friends in the middle and upper classes that JUSTICE FOR ALL AND THE END OF IMPUNITY is the only way to a better future for ALL!!!

My next post will be why I love Brazil so much!

All the best,

My Thoughts : 3 Candidates and One Problem!

My Thoughts : 3 Candidates and One Problem!: What are the fundamental differences in the 3 Presidential Candidates in the 2014 Brazilian Elections! The 3 Presidential Candidates...

3 Candidates and One Problem!

What are the fundamental differences in the 3 Presidential Candidates in the 2014 Brazilian Elections!

The 3 Presidential Candidates in the 2014 Brazilian Election come from very different backgrounds. Dilma Rousseff was middle class and a far left activist in the 70's, persecuted and imprisoned  by the military regime. She is our President today. Aécio Neves is an upper middle class and grandson of our first Civilian President after the military dictatorship, Tancredo Neves who died before taking office. He was Governador of Minas Gerais State for two terms. Finally, Eduardo Campo is an upper middle class and grandson of former Pernambuco State Governador, Miguel Araes. He was Governador of Pernambuco State for two terms. Their parties are PT (Labor Party), PSDB (Brazilian Social-Democracy) and PSB (Brazilian Socialism), respectively. PT and PSDB are the two last parties to hold the presidential post in Brazil. PSDB elected Fernando H. Cardoso for two mandates from 1995 to 2003. PT elected Luis I. Lula for two mandates (2003 to 2011) and Dilma Rousseff (2011 to date).

Brazil has serious problems that in my opinion derived on its core due to ONE Brazilian choice: Bad EDUCATION for the poor. You may be wondering how a country can willingly choose BAD EDUCATION as a country choice! This was systematically done by the military government during the dictatorship in Brazil. Bad education means that a vast majority of the population has no knowledge of its rights and obligations and so can be easily manipulated. EDUCATION IS THE ONLY TOOL FOR DEVELOPMENT!

Education in Brazil is truly strange. It has, like any country, 3 levels, primary, secondary (high school) and third level (Universities). On all levels there are public and privet schools. The strange aspects of it are quality and access. Privet schools in the two first levels are so much better that public ones, that everyone in Brazil dreams of having his sons and daughters studying in a privet school. On the University level, public ones are, in most cases, much better than privet (even that we have some very good privet Universities!). Until recent, the only way to get into a Public University was trough an exam (vestibular) where the 99% of the candidates were from privet schools.

How does the 3 Candidates really see education in Brazil?

If you read the 3 manifests, they are quite similar, simply because education is a central issue to all political campaigns. But the key issue is what each has done while in power. The three candidates hold offices and each could have implemented changes, but just one did.

Aécio and Eduardo public education policies in Minas Gerais and Pernanbuco states were conducted to keep the status quo. Public primary and secondary schools are administrated by a local or state staff with no real improvements in quality and availability. No real change of operation, access and administration was done. Bad salaries for teachers and pedagogic and daily decisions left to the parents that are the result of this same bad education system. This means that the public education system improvement is left to those that derived from it, a vicious circle is formed with no perspectives for real improvement.

When PT (Labor Party) came to power in 2003, it proposed and with many difficulties, implemented a key change in the system. Today in Brazil, there are the ENEN (High School National Exam) were all students are encourage to take because your points will give you direct access to Public Universities (just 50% of the seats on most Public Universities). Since the ENEN has been in place, the numbers of student coming from public high schools that enter Public Universities has increased yearly! Sure the numbers are not ideal, but the path to change has been laid! When ENEN was introduced, resistance to it came from all sectors of society, the ones that most revolt me came from the Lectures at the public Universities. Some extremists said that the public University system will fall apart and disappear! These persons had no understanding that the University public education system in Brazil  was created to give access to the poor to quality University education and not to be a privet club for the rich or upper middle classes! The numbers and improvements done in public education by PT government is quite vast, so if you want to know more about it, Google it!

By law on the public first and second levels, the Federal Government has to pass money to local and state government that administrated it. There have been improvements, but not near enough! In my opinion, what is missing the return of the middle class to the public education system. If law is pass that the access to all public Universities (Local, State or Federal Universities) will only be possible if you study the 14 years of first and second level at a public school, the middle class in Brazil will have two choices:

1   1) Put yours sons and daughters on the public schools and help to improve the public education system;

2   2) OR keep your children on privet schools and know that you will have to pay for all your children education.

In my opinion, the public education in Brazil and in any country, will only work as long as the middle class study on it, keep an eye on it and participate on his daily administration, problems and solutions! I know that my proposal above is quite radical and extreme, but when facing extreme circumstances, extreme measures are needed! The return of the middle class to the public education system, as it was prior the military dictatorship, is the only path to change and improvement of the public education system in Brazil!

My next post will be on Brazilian Justice System (a very unjust one!!)

All the best,