FIA business school is giving foreigners the opportunity to have access to an extremely wonderful land, rich in culture, natural resources and people.

It does not only give the opportunity but also have the capacity to teach and appreciate what Brazil has to offer.

Moreover, the program fosters a founding and objective principle: the dignity of the bottom of the pyramid, social classes that represent the back bone of Brazil towards which we ought to show respect.

We learn and apply, mind the full background from a wide and mature scope from an experienced and diverse staff of lecturers and professors.

Finally, FIA Business school has already started to harvest its successes at a very crucial moment of a new era of capitalism and we believe that this will be for long time.

Dr Armando received a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Sao Paulo, where he got his MSc and PhD degrees in Management.

He has a broad international experience coordinating courses for Brazilian students in top US universities and, most notably, been as visiting scholar at: Institute of Development Studies at Sussex University, UK and At the Center on Globalization, Governance and Competitiveness at Duke University, NC, SA.

In the 90s, when occupying executive positions he also travelled over 30 times to Asia (Hong Kong, China and Taiwan) in order to negotiate with vendors and develop products; to Europe and US to benchmark retail operations and for road shows presenting the company to potential investors and to short term (until one week long) workshops.

Now, Eduardo Armando is Adjunct Coordinator of FIA’s ProCED (SME Development Center) in Sao Paulo Brazil and consultant in management and training .

Augusto Salgado da Rocha, Product Strategy Sr Manager, Embraer Executive Jets.

Originally from Manaus, he also lived in Fortaleza for six years prior to moving to São José dos Campos in 1995, when he started the Engineering Course at ITA (Insitituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica).

Graduated in 1999, he joined Embraer in the following year to work in the Aircraft Performance Software team, building computational tools for the airlines flying Embraer products.

He went back to school in 2001, starting a post-graduation course at UNICAMP (Universidade de Campinas) in the area of Object-Oriented Programming. In the same year, he moved to the Operations Support team, where he had the chance to be in close and intense contact with customers in different countries, supporting Embraer products introduction at new clients as well as keeping existing operators up to date with the latest technical information. Many days were spent on the road with visits to customers, conferences and start-ups.

In 2003, he graduated at UNICAMP and was invited to lead the Operations Support group. As a Team Leader, he had his first management experiences, blending his previous technical and customer knowledge with the challenges of building the processes, the structure and the team to cope with the needs of a fast growing number of customers world wide.

By mid 2005, he moved to New York to join JetBlue Airways. Originally planned to be a start-up mission, he ended up being invited to work for the airline. On loan from Embraer, he spent eight months working as a true member of JetBlue’s Engineering. ”This was an unparalleled experience to me, professionally and personally. New York was an amazing city to live in and JetBlue, an outstanding opportunity to work in a truly international environment”. In 2006, after returning from New York, he was invited to be the Manager for the Airline Operations Support.

In early 2008, after eight years within the Commercial Aviation customer support, he was invited to move to the Executive Jets unit as a Senior Manager for Product Strategy, his current position. Reporting directly to the Director of Market Intelligence for the Executive Jets, he is responsible for two main work fronts: sales engineering and product strategy itself.

Sales engineering looks at the existing products and comprises building technical sales tools and strategies, competitor´s analysis, product training to the sales force, technical support to marketing and press interfaces. Product strategy, on the other hand, looks at the future, building the product roadmap and defining market requirements for new airplane developments as well as for the evolution of existing products, always looking for the best competitive positioning.

He joined FIA by mid 2009, starting his International Executive MBA as a member of class #37.

”I joined the International Executive MBA for a couple of different reasons. First, I felt like going back to school, without quitting my current professional activities. I missed the academy, the interactions and the learning experiences from the University. At FIA, I found a very competent and renowned team of professors, mixing solid academic backgrounds with rich market experiences. Second, my current position requires a broader and more strategic view of business. The course offers a very interesting mix of disciplines and subjects covering several dimensions of the problem in an integrated way, complementing my technical background and helping me to expand my understanding and managerial skills. Third, I wanted to do it together with an experienced group of students, with different industry and academic backgrounds. And that is definitely there. Finally, I really appreciate the concept of the international modules, from the academic experience to the technical visits. They are a plus in this MBA program”.

Contato: rocha_augusto@hotmail.com

Confira o artigo a seguir publicado no site MPost:

“Na contramão de muitos brasileiros, que têm prestigiado cursos no exterior, italianos, franceses, indianos, americanos, entre outros, estão ‘descobrindo o Brasil’ como um lugar de oportunidades para cursar MBA. Buscam novas perspectivas, desenvolvimento profissional e trabalho.

As personagens dessa história, na maioria, desembarcaram em São Paulo para estudar na FIA (Fundação Instituto de Administração), entidade criada por professores do Departamento de Administração da Faculdade de Economia da USP (FEA-USP).

Cerca de 3 mil projetos já foram realizados pela FIA, desde a sua criação em 1993. Trabalhos de consultoria, pesquisa e educação, capacitando alunos a prestar serviços nos mais variados campos de especialização da administração; atendendo 850 empresas nacionais e multinacionais, órgãos públicos e associações de classe e entidades, em diferentes segmentos: educação, saúde, segurança pública, meio-ambiente, trabalho e emprego, terceiro setor.

O coordenador International MBA da FIA, James Wright, explica que as aulas do MBA que atraem a legião estrangeira de estudantes são realizadas ‘full-time’, em inglês mesmo e ao longo de um ano. ‘Apresentamos projetos de consultoria, gratuitos, que acabam qualificando os alunos, que se tornam pessoas preparadas para atuar em cargos de confiança.’

Bom para quem estuda e uma grande oportunidade para quem empreende. Entre os alunos, a italiana Silvia Bordoni conta que veio a São Paulo de olho no mercado latino-americano. ‘Já tinha vindo ao Brasil’, explica. Outra aluna, Coralie Gonzalvez, conta que o mais interessante, para ela, tem sido a convivência com pessoas do mundo inteiro e com professores que dão palestras, são bem qualificados.

Um dos brasileiros que cursa a primeira turma deste MBA, Marcos Matos, empresário que estudou na Austrália, diz que sentia falta de estar entre as pessoas de fora do Brasil. ‘O que eu acho legal é que muita gente de fora veio e isso é importante para o Brasil crescer. Falta gente de fora com conhecimento da cultura do Brasil, para fazer business.’

Renata Spers, vice-coordenadora do MBA, diz que há histórias de ‘europeus e americanos que vieram ao Brasil e se apaixonaram pelo país, querem ficar e trabalhar, tendo em vista que há, também, excelentes oportunidades para eles.’

O curso pegou. O processo seletivo para o segundo ano está em andamento e já tem inscritos da Turquia, Estados Unidos, America do Sul.”

Mais informações, consulte o site da FIA.

Frederico Kaefer, Foreign Market Commercial Superintendent, Diplomata S.A

International MBA, Group 1 

”I started my career path at my father´s company at the tender age of 14, performing simple tasks that nevertheless provided the grounding for the sequence of positions I thereafter chose to embrace. I always made a point of becoming acquainted with the “front” where things truly take place. The most interesting were internships I undertook at the poultry farms and packing stations, at participating during product deliveries when I stayed at a sales distribution centre and the many hours  spent at supermarket stores in direct contact with collaborators and customers.

When I began my graduate studies in Business Administration, I was a keen reader of the steps taken by some great leaders in the field of Management. This was precisely at the time Jack Welch (GE – USA) and Nidelmar Seches (Perdigão – Brazil) were elected last century´s top executives. At that time, I read Jack Welch´s biography and shortly afterwards, asked my father, who always was my cornerstone to my going ahead with this profession: “Father, what did these men do to reach this point?”. To this he replied “My daughter, these were those who effectively managed to unite the best of management theories with hands-on experience”.  From that moment onwards and having later undertaken a course in the US at a university there, I developed the desire to try my utmost, forever study hard and work, so as to one day make a dream come true: to become a good executive. Taking an MBA at FIA/USP was an objective attained within this dream since I always wanted to study at an acknowledged school such as this one, with extensive teaching experience and where major Management thinkers, in Brazil, gather.

In addition, I always wanted to work in the field of international commerce and when I sought FIA, I came across the opportunity of joining the first INTERNATIONAL MBA class group that portrayed a content that was quite similar to that of the Executive MBA, however classmates were of varied nationalities and backgrounds, it was held entirely in English and was fully aligned with what I wanted to experience.

From this expose I have already been granted the first step beyond my objective, since I have just taken on a new position at my company, whereby I now lead the Export department and where the fact that I am attending this course, that there is the trip to China and others that we may undertake, were most valuable to the ensuring of this outcome”.

Gabriele Christiane Tischler attended Class 31 of  the International Executive MBA. She graduated  in Business Administration at the University of Passau (Germany) and Toulouse (France). After several internships in Germany, Spain and Venezuela during times at the faculty, her career began at Ernst & Young where she worked in the field of Auditing in Stuttgart and Strasburg. Later on she migrated to the insurance industry, joining the Allianz group. During four years she worked at headquarters in Munich, before relocating to the group´s Brazilian branch, in São Paulo.

In eight years of work performed within the Brazilian insurance market, she went through the fields of Project Management, Sales, Marketing and Strategic Planning. She was held responsible for large projects such as the implementation of a new segmentation and customer care model for the broker channel, the re-structuring of points-of-sale and the change of the AGF brand name to Allianz in 2008. In August 2009, she took on new challenges at the group´s English branch office, Allianz Insurance Plc., in London, where she accounts for the Broker & Customer Propositions area within the Market Management division.

”FIA’s International Executive MBA unveiled new horizons.  My curiosity as to new market trends within the academic and practical worlds was arisen and it motivated my overcoming of personal comfort zones. I learnt much not only during the extremely high quality level classes but also given the interchange of ideas with class group colleagues, from varied companies and fields. The most impressive experience was, by far, the trip to China. I discovered a fascinating country that even inspired me to take on mandarin lessons so as to learn more about this entirely different culture”.

Gabriele Tischler, Head of Broker & Customer Propositions, Allianz Commercial, Market Management.

gabriele.tischler@allianz.co.uk