Exploring a New Business Culture - Brazil

Contribution written by Suzanna Fry Jones

In May 2009 we set off for our first trip to Brazil for our honeymoon. We spent a week in Rio de Janeiro and a week at a wonderful 10-room hotel in a small fishing village called Picinguaba. We loved everything about our Brazilian experience – Brazilians’ happy demeanor, a relaxed sense of time, chopp (draft beer) in mini cups, a diet full of sweets, loads of fresh fruit and delicious meat, music, parties that don’t get going until 2am and so much more. When we returned to Brazil almost a year later with longer-term plans and goals though, we found ourselves wandering through a different side of the Brazilian culture: business.

In February 2010 my husband, Jeff, and I quit our jobs and left the city we love and call home, San Francisco. Eight months earlier we had made the decision to go to Brazil for 6 months for a little adventure – yes, that’s all it took, a decision, made in a two-hour car ride, plus a little money in our savings account. From the start, our journey was intended to be more than a traveling exploration through another country; we had hopes of advancing our careers and leaping into another realm where we weren’t stuck at our desks all day.

So for six months we lived in São Paulo, attempting to navigate a new business culture, often with wary eyes. While we had expected business in Brazil to move at a different pace, we hadn’t expected many of the other factors that lead the country to rank so poorly on the World Bank’s “Doing Business” report (check out this post on our blog, Rooted Journeys, for more). Social and cultural differences are expected and generally easier to accept and adjust to. When it comes to business, we’ve found it more difficult to adapt.

In general, there are a few things I’ve learned from the experience of uprooting a stable business-life in the states for a more adventurous take on the idea of a “career”:

• Never underestimate the value of trusting those around you, especially in business – when you insert yourself into another culture, you’re automatically more vulnerable being a foreigner, and this is certainly the case in Brazil. But also in Brazil, as they have a history that instigates short-term thinking, finding trustable consultants that aren’t out to get a fast dollar is harder than you might think.
• Figuring out your career passion is hard to do from a desk indoors – I never thought we’d spend so much time on farms in the span of a year.
• “America will always be there” – I didn’t realize how many times I’d say this to myself, as it’s quite comforting.

Many days I wake up thinking Brazil is a totally insane place to try to do business. But every day I am thankful that my computer overlooks the Bay of Picinguaba or I run around a farm in the countryside of São Paulo state. Deep down, I truly believe Brazil is a country with immense potential and even greater opportunities. But that doesn’t mean the day-to-day is always easy. Traveling enables personal growth, and in our often career-focused American lifestyle we should remember that learning about other business cultures can also be incredibly beneficial to one’s knowledge, values and practices.