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”.