Loyal Advisory

What is Loyal Advisory and who is Pedro Pires

Recently, I had the amazing opportunity to visit Loyal Advisory, a management consulting firm with a fresh and new approach to how to provide value to its clients. Loyal’ managing partners are Pedro Pires, Mafalda Henriques and Sofia Cartó and I had the opportunity to get to know Pedro Pires in detail and to discuss with him the first 5 years of the company and his thoughts about the business world. Pedro is an economics’ graduate from FEP and, after that, he took a MSc in Marketing at ISCTE Business School. Throughout his career, Pedro always looked for leave a mark in every project he involved himself. He met Sofia and Mafalda and, when all of them felt they had the necessary experience, they took the leap and they started. The company was created as a partnership. Loyal is a SME and it has been growing every year since its foundation, in 2014. The company functions in a project-related perspective, valuing more a strong backbone instead of a functional matrix, for example. The goal is how to best serve the client and they strive to apply always a customized approach. They rely in some frameworks, of course, however, in their understanding, those are just tools. For them, the value added is on giving a different and outside perspective to the client. This is one of the most important philosophies in the company.

What is Loyal Advisory’ value proposition

Loyal Advisory focuses in a niche market: it adds value to its clients in terms of stakeholders relationships and how to best manage them. Loyal is unveiling a market that, formally, in Europe, does not exist yet. There are no companies only focused on stakeholder management today: some of them, as agencies or some consultancies, might do some projects in this area, however, it is only one more department or one more type of project they carry on. Loyal, on the other hand, focuses solely in stakeholder management and has the objective of becoming a European reference. Why? Because for Pedro, in Europe, there is a kind of history and ethics that one cannot find in any other place. Since 2014, in which only 20% of the revenues came from international clients, this reality has been changing and a strong growth on the international client’s weight is forecasted for the future.

Loyal can be described as a mix of a consulting company with an entrepreneurship drive. On one hand, they strive for delivering structured approaches to its clients, with solid pillars and that can add value and solve their solution; on the other hand, they do not settle for conservative solutions and they have innovation and a risk-taker attitude in their DNA.

Loyal aims to provide to its clients with a fresh perspective to its problems. Loyal has the resources
(either the technical expertise, as the human resources itself) to tailor its solutions to every client problem. Unlike the typical consulting company, who benchmarks other similar players or geographies in order to understand best practices/solutions, Loyal engages on the disruptive method, understanding what already exists, in order to provide the client with a new, different and customized output. Pedro believes this is a two-way street: “We have to feel that the clients properly value our perspective. We are very rigorous about the type of projects we take on. If a client wants an innovative and disruptive consulting project and if the client values the exchange of feedback throughout the project, we are the perfect company for them”.

Stakeholder Management and an example of the work Loyal does with its clients ´

Why is stakeholder management theory a theory we do not learn at business chools? According to Pedro, that happens due to the importance of the shareholder in the economic theory one learns at business schools. The companies, says Pedro, normally devote little time to monitor the relationships with powerful stakeholders, as, for instance, suppliers or customers. Loyal helps its clients to manage in a better and more efficient way these relationships, trying to provide the clients with a new and fresh perspective.

To paint a picture, Loyal developed a very successful project for Sumol+Compal, that led to “Centro de Frutologia Compal”. The goal of the project was to improve the relationship between Sumol+Compal and the local producers, which had some potential for improvement. The method/structure used normally follows these steps: firstly, Loyal defines the problem and what are the objectives of the client; secondly, Loyal engages on stakeholder mapping, listening to the concerns of each stakeholder, in order to understand each involved parties; finally, it drafts the customized solution to the client problem. The “Centro de Frutologia Compal” was highly successful and there are several academies and workshops happening every year, always provided by Loyal. In this particular collaboration, one can also see a typical characteristic of Loyal: the longstanding relationship with its clients. Loyal has an extremely high retention rate (above 90%) and Pedro proudly says that he feels that Loyal becomes typically a trusted advisor for several clients. Furthermore, Loyal not only drafts a proposal and delivers it to the client as well as it implements it (as one can see in the aforementioned example). Pedro also states this end-to-end solution, not very common in corporate consulting, is also very valued by the client.

What is Loyal’ vision and what are the challenges ahead

Loyal’ vision remains the same as it was in 2014, when the company started: to become an European reference in stakeholder management. According to Pedro Pires, the main positive challenge the company is facing currently is how to build a 2nd generation of leaders inside the company. Loyal believes in a active instead of a reactive mindset, thus, they acknowledge the importance of building this generation as a foundation for future growth. “To accomplish to have people with our vision, that truly believe in what we are building, that’s our main challenge. What characteristics they must have, you ask? They must show confidence, entrepreneurship and, above all, they must earn and enjoy having that responsibility. They must enjoy being risk takers” said Pedro Pires, when I asked him about how he would characterize these new leaders. As Pedro says, he understands that, by spending value with his team, he is definitely making them evolve and he is evolving with them. However, more time with the team is less time with the clients and, as Pedro states, gradually, this will change, with this new generation of leaders.


What is the life of a managing partner and how has his routine evolved over the years

Since very young, Pedro showed some leadership characteristics. At the age of 25, he had already created a department that he would further direct. Step by step, he grew professionally until the point in which he started his own business. In the beginning of the company, Pedro told me he would devote most of its time in client acquisition and in project-making, in order to ensure an image of quality towards Loyal. The main goal was to make clients believe in Loyal’ vision. Pedro continue to say “I am still in nowhere. I am only 35 years old. I do not care about my status or the power people associate to me. That will be a consequence. What matters to me is the values my team has and what we want to do as a company. One of the most fundamental values in the company is the value of work.” Pedro states that he loves to work, he loves to learn how to be a leader, on the job. Currently, his work is still focused on clients and in managing some projects, however, the focus in the future will be in building this aforementioned 2 nd generation of leaders. And why is that? Because Pedro truly believes that his team is incredible, because all the decisions require a consensus and take into account several opinions, taking advantage of the best of each person. “But how can we scale this? Only with a 2 nd generation of leaders”.

The profile of future Loyal consultants and the importance of the backpack

At the first day of every new joiner at Loyal, he/she will receive a backpack and a laptop to start working. And why is this the starter pack? The backpack truly represents one of the philosophies embraced at Loyal: the work they do is not only in the office, but a lot of their time is spent in the “field”. Thus, the backpack is a symbol for their constant path. As Pedro states “Backpacked” means that we are prepared, wherever, whenever a challenge requires our knowledge, our expertise, our strength. Always being “Backpacked” is a style of living and a new style of consulting.”

Besides being able to embrace this Backpack lifestyle, Pedro also mentioned other characteristics that he believes to be fundamental in a new hire from Loyal. Firstly, it is important to divide the hires of Loyal between youngsters, who have finished college, for instance, and between professionals with 27/28 years, who had already experience in the job market. Nevertheless this division that, according to Pedro, makes sense to be done as people with previous job experience already have a different layer of knowledge and can add value through their previous perspectives, Pedro looks for people that know how to listen, that are curious by nature, with a learning mindset and that, above all, have the self-confidence to strive for excellence even if, sometimes, they still don’t know how to achieve it. For Pedro, technical expertise is important, but secondary, as it can be learned in the company, while the capacity of having a self-perspective and of having a will for continuous improvement are much harder to find, in his opinion. For Pedro, what Loyal gives to its employees is the freedom to develop projects and to leave their mark on it, since the beginning. Besides that, Pedro truly strives for validating ideas and supporting them, but always giving the space needed for its teammates to come up with innovative recommendations.

Loyal’s recruitment

Loyal had a significative growth back in 2017 and now it looks for professionals that can clearly bring value to the company, that can be the “new leaders” of the 2nd generation previously praised. Regarding the profile aforementioned, Pedro values also background diversity, in order to build a joint of multi-diverse perspectives, and people that feel at home around other people. For Pedro, “A consultant is someone who works in client’s site with the client, not someone who is in the office”. To apply, the interested ones can just visit Loyal website (https://loyaladvisory.com/) and go to the tab “Becoming Loyal”.

How Pedro highlights the importance of not following, without asking, the “predefined” path

“João Félix did not say to Bruno Lage that, due to his age, he should be playing in the B team of Benfica, right? For me, that analogy shows that people should not take a MSc just because it is the “required” and mandatory path by society. In some cases, that might not be the right move”. For Pedro, he believes that people should not engage in big decisions in life just because they are meant to follow that road. “I only understood my grandfather was an entrepreneur later on in my life. Why? Because I was caught in the routine of following a predefined path by the society. I remembered that, at FEP, I had a colleague that, in his vacations, helped his family in their factory. Back then, me and my colleagues did not appreciate as we should that attitude. Our colleague was already showing some very clear signs of entrepreneurship and of an on-thejob attitude.”

In conclusion, by bringing an innovative and fresh perspective and by taking advantage of a niche market, Loyal has all the potential to continue growing its business and to expand its operations throughout Europe.

Finally, I would like to thank Pedro and Loyal Advisory for all the insights provided and wish them all the best for their future endeavors!

Dear Readers, I hope that this article was useful for you!

See you next time!

UPrise Talent

Disclaimer: Until today, all the texts in this blog have been about companies or business men/women but, this time, this text will be about UPrise, a youth association which focus its impact in education, environment, political and financial literacy, among other aspects. UPrise Talent is one of the fastest growing students associations. Thus, for all the readers, I think this text might interest you for two main reasons: firstly, to get to know better this association and its impact in the surrounding communities; secondly, to understand how you can move from having an “Eureka” moment to building an youth association with 100+ Uprisers involved.

What is UPrise Talent and how was born the idea 

Recently, I had the opportunity to get to know better Filipe Sousa and the youth association UPrise Talent. UPrise Talent focus, as aforementioned, in ranging topics from education, to the environment, not forgetting youth sedentary and unhealthy lifestyle, or even political and financial literacy, for instance.

The idea of founding UPrise started during a barbecue at Filipe’s home, when he discussed with Ricardo Correia and João Fins how they could solve the problems they had already detected in the past. As Filipe points out “If you are going to found a company or an association you need to first identify clearly the problems or social necessities and only then develop a strategy and operational instruments to solve them.” 

How to start to put in practice a new concept

In the beginning, although there were many doubts, the founders started to highlight some key areas: HR, Marketing, Communication, External and Internal Processes, Web Management and even Positioning of the association were widely discussed.

From day one, they believed the idea could spread geographically from Barcelos, which in fact occurred, not only nationally as worldwide. However, they always fostered a localization approach, changing their strategy and their approach in the different cities.

The expansion and the growth of the association

Founded in 2017, in a short time span, UPrise is already present in 2 Portuguese cities besides Barcelos (Porto and Coimbra) and in Brazil. This happened thanks to two main aspects: firstly, UPrise’ founders always assured high ambitions inside the association, namely, they always stretch their goals and they run the association with an overarching objective of “changing the world”; secondly, due to a combination of strategy, hard work and team spirit of all the people involved in this growth.

“It is a huge reason to be proud, but we also know that fast growth requires dynamic and flexible follow-up of its structures, never limiting the scope for innovation and individual creative freedom that sets us apart.” said Filipe, when I asked him to comment the exponential growth of UPrise. In his words, the geographical growth is just one variable of an integrated global strategy. After all, the main priority remains to really have an impact in each city they are present in and, only after having achieved that, think about continuing their expansion to other locations.

UPrise members, its activities and the future

In total, UPrise has 110 UPrisers members in the end of 2018. The culture of the association is to encourage every member to make a difference, in a personalized and unique way. In UPrise, the status quo is about defying the main human resources methodologies adopted worldwide. However, of course, there are some internal divisions, to facilitate the workflow and the specialization of the members, as Web Management, Marketing, Communication, Financial and Commercial Relations, Legal, Talent Management and Health & Movement. Furthermore, there also occur several formations (guided by UPrise’ Corporate Partners) and social and technical projects that UPrise develops.

Fortunately, and, besides the impact in the community, UPrise had also impact in their members. For instance, 100% of the members of Talent Academy have raised their school average since they entered UPrise, which shows the values that are fostered in this association.

In the future, Filipe says that UPrise ambition is to impact even more the communities they are involved in, enter new geographies and try to leverage the members to the most of their capacities. The ultimate goal “Changing the world” remains.

UPrise Selection and Integration Process

Regarding the selection of the UPrisers, Filipe assured that UPrise makes this process as personalized as possible, taking into account interpersonal differences. Notwithstanding, there are cross-cutting criteria: motivation, interpersonal skills and values are the most important traits for this association. After the first selection phase, in which motivation and past experiences are assessed, there are two other phases, a group dynamics and an interview, in which the interview stance varies according to the department the applicant is planned to be allocated to.

For Filipe, this is the hardest part of managing UPrise. “Each application we receive means 1) recognition for our work, 2) a (positive) increase in competitiveness between candidates that will raise the level of who we select because we have a larger pool for interests parties from which to select and 3) this increase in the number of candidates makes the recruitment process more difficult but, at the same time, causes a greater motivation on the part of those who join us. By 2) and 3), we see that each candidate, just by applying, effectively improves UPrise. After all, Filipe, Ricardo and João have known other recruitment processed and stand for making a difference relative to them, never rejecting any candidate with a simple “Thank you for having applied”.

UPrise connections to the job market and its new department

UPrised has already worked with several companies, as KPMG, Speak and Lead or Sonae, for example. All the relationships with corporate partners, as PrimeIT, for instance, are personalized and can be initiated either by the company itself or by UPrise. There are only 2 restrictions that UPrise poses in terms of partnerships: 1) direct competitors of actual partners already in force are not eligible or 2) companies with which UPrise do not identify by an ideological issue. It is from this latter point that UPrise opted out by not partnering with fast food chains.

Recently, UPrise has created a new division, related with Health and Movement, that will have the focus of doing research, gathering theoretical and technical knowledge, in order to then apply it in multiple initiatives. This department intends to integrate students the the areas of health and physical activity, such as Medicine, Sports and Physical Education, among others.

How to create a new project and the main takeaways

For all those readers who wish to gain insights about how to create and start a new project, the main takeaways from my conversation with Filipe were: 1) Only will and good intentions are not enough: having a good structure from the beginning about what is needed for your project to be successful is critical; 2) Challenges will always happen, and in the beginning, technical ones (for instance, setting up a website) will be a constant, thus, you have to learn how to cope with them; 3) Having a multi-skilled team that believes in the project is fundamental.

The mindset, according to Filipe, has to be to try to evolve from each step, regardless of being a failure or an achievement, as there is always space for improvement. What makes a difference is how you approach them, in an ever-ending process: “I can say I have already broken several traditional internal methodologies. We are not afraid of being disruptive in a social context but we also do it internally.” mentioned Filipe.

Another takeaway severely referred by Filipe was: “If you are optimistic surround yourself with pessimistic people. If you are pessimistic, surround yourself with optimistic people. It is not by chance that the mortality rate of start-ups is extremely high. A good idea is not enough. You got a good idea. Now destroy it. Why is it going to go wrong with absolute certainty? If your idea survived this question then it is time to be positive. Make it happen. It is not difficult to trust you when you succeed, difficult is when you are trying to succeed. And no one will trust you if you do not trust.” This should be, according to Filipe, the posture to adopt, in order to find a balanced way of approaching your project.

In conclusion, the most important part is to take the plan into action. Although this might seem intuitive, most of the people sometimes worry too much about how perfect the plan has to be, and they never put the plan into practice. Without doing that, you can never learn from the challenges you would face and you can never really evolve. After all, “Action may not always bring happiness to your projects, but there is no happiness without action”.

Finally, I would like to thank Filipe and UPrise Talent for all the insights provided and wish them the best for their future endeavors!

Dear Readers,

I hope this article was useful for you and, in case you want to know more about this youth association, just visit https://uprisetalent.com/.

An International Career – Mr. Charles Nelson

Hello Dear Readers,

Recently I started my Erasmus Programme in WU – Vienna University of Economics and Business. Since day one, I wanted to write an article here in Vienna, related to pursuing an international career and broaden our own horizons.

For that reason, it is with a great pleasure that I present to you the article of today – the International Career of Mr. Charles Nelson, who worked in Mondelēz!

Brief Description

Mr. Charles Nelson grew up in the United States of America and studied Finance for a very concrete reason: it seemed to him the best way to pay back the large student loans, as he needed to finance his own University Education (unfortunately, a very common situation in the USA). He did a home stay program in Spain at the age of 17 and that was the moment when he got really motivated and decided to see the world.

Furthermore, as Mr. Charles also pointed out, he thought that having international experience as well as speaking foreign languages would be an extra competitive advantage so he focused his concentration in this, in addition to his business studies.

Japan and Germany, the first experiences, disappointments and achievements

The effort that Mr. Charles made in learning foreign languages payed off: he was actually first hired because of his Japanese skills and was scheduled to be sent to Japan after a few years training in the corporate HQ. However, due to a large merger and after a few years, nobody was around in the company who remembered anything about Japan. Mr. Charles was initially disappointed but then another job in Munich appeared and he seized the opportunity! As Mr. Charles said “Get over your disappointments quickly and take opportunities as they arise!”

A truly International Career in Mondelēz – New York, Munich, Menorca, Madrid, Tokyo, Manila and Vienna

After starting his career in New York (where he worked for 2 years) he moved, as aforementioned, to Munich, to the European HQ. After 2 years, the company where Mr. Charles worked acquired a Spanish processed cheese company based on the Island of Menorca so he went there to do the FP&A - Financial Planning and Analysis. Then, the company merged the Menorcan cheese company and he moved to Madrid as a Controller of the combined Cheese business.

12 months later, a friend from Tokyo called him up and asked if he wanted to come to work for him in Japan. He immediately agreed since Japan was his original objective since day one at the company.

Nonetheless, the job in Tokyo disappointed him: it wasn’t as challenging as he was used to in Europe, where he was making many acquisitions as well as integrating businesses. “So when the  of the Spanish company called me up and told me they were doing some additional mergers and if I would be interested in coming back to do the FP&A for the combined business I also agreed” said Mr. Charles Nelson. He stayed in Madrid until 2000, the year he left to Manila, where he became the Chief Financial Officer for the Southeast Asia Region. It was a challenging job for him, however, his family didn’t enjoy Manila very much so when after three years he was offered a job in Vienna, to run Controlling and Treasury for the Central & Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa Region he took it.

At this part, I asked Mr. Charles Nelson what was, until today, his best and worst experience in his long and outstanding career. “The Japanese disappointment was bad and I also had some bad experiences negotiating my contract on a few occasions, but all of that comes with experience and you can’t take it personally. I think working in Developing Markets is fun – it’s always more interesting to manage growth in a small but growing market than to work to contain costs in a large mature market.” Undoubtedly, a remarkable and very interesting opinion!

Family, future and how to manage these dimensions while having an International Career

As Mr. Charles explained, having a family and an International Career at the same time is quite a demanding task. Being an expatriate is difficult, because “Uprooting the children, losing friends, new schools: it can be traumatic. New languages and cultures can be hard on the spouse, especially if he/she can’t work in the host country.” Furthermore, as Mr. Charles Nelson referred, typically an expatriate need to work more hours in the first months as he/she becomes familiar with the business. For all these reasons, Mr. Charles Nelson highlight that his family was the main reason why he moved from Manilla to Vienna.

Skills and personality to pursue an International Career – Is it more important to do master language skills or technical ones?

When I asked Mr. Charles about the personality one should have in order to have a successful career, he was peremptory: “You need to be open and flexible being a foreigner and you need to be comfortable outside your comfort zone.” As a curiosity, he referred that, although language skills are obviously necessary, the technical skills inside one’s area of specialization (in his case, Finance) are usually more important to the success of an International Career than any other aspect.

The reality of today comparing to the reality in the 90’s

Being myself a student with an international mindset, I asked Mr. Charles if, in today’s society, it was more or less difficult to follow a career like his own. “I think it’s easier to move around today because people are more prepared for international experiences than when I was starting out.”, said Mr. Charles. He added that the compensation package has become less generous because more people are willing and able to take foreign assignments. “When I started you needed to pay extra for someone to live abroad. Today, because of globalization I guess, people are willing to do that for the experience alone, without extra compensation.” It is amazing to see how a reality changed so much in 3 decades!

With this in mind, Mr. Charles added that, despite of all the difficulties and less positive aspects, he never imagined living his whole life in the town he was born. “I realize that attracts some people and fair enough, but it’s just not for me”. For myself, coming from a small village of 3000 habitants roughly, these words felt like they were taken back from my own mouth. Phenomenal insights!

 Last Lessons

To finalize, I questioned Mr. Charles If he could give some piece of advice to my readers. He said:

“- Life will give you a few opportunities but it’s up to you to capitalize on them. Take risks, but intelligent ones.”

“- Sometime, somewhere, you’re going to feel that you have been unfairly treated by your company. Unless it’s so bad that you have to leave the company, get over it and move on - normally it’s not personal.”

“- No one, on their death bed, ever said “I wish I had spent more time with my boss.” Keep your work/life balance in balance and keep your family happy.”

I couldn’t think in a better way to end this amazing life lesson. In light of the above, I would like to thank Mr. Charles for all the insights provided!

Dear Readers,

I hope that this article was useful for you! See you next time!

Microsoft – We believe in what people make possible

The first Impact

Recently I had the outstanding opportunity to visit Microsoft´s headquarters in Portugal. As soon as I set foot in Microsoft, I could see an enormous screen, showing the future events that will occur at Microsoft Portugal.

My first contact was with my beloved friend Bruna Bruno, who is currently an intern at Microsoft. Afterwards, Adriana Lima welcomed me with a big smile and we started the visit by getting to know the ground floor.

The workplace

The ground floor was completely outside the box, clearly designed to serve as a showroom, where the main events take place. In addition, there were some rooms where current or future clients of Microsoft could experience the “Customer Immersive Experience” and could test the products that they might want to purchase while listening to a presentation given by a Microsoft seller. On the same floor, Microsoft has an Incubator, designed for high potential Startups, whose name is BizSpark (BizSpark consists in a global program which aims to give the tools to help startups to succeed. How? Not only Microsoft gives the startups free access to Microsoft Azure cloud services, software and support but also Microsoft helps startups establishing powerful connections with local and global startup ecosystems, for example). There were also auditoriums that can be used for internal and external events.

Then, I had the opportunity to discover the other 3 floors at Microsoft. Firstly, it is important to highlight that, in Microsoft, no one has their fixed workstation. The culture of the company is to work from anywhere with any device possible and there are no divisions by departments. Imagine that someday you could be working right next to a senior manager! This is one of the things (you will discover many others during this article) that set Microsoft apart from other multinational companies. Moreover, every single room has a name related to Microsoft´s Universe such as: Word, Xbox, Windows, and so on. One of the most interesting and fascinating things at Microsoft is that everyone can write in some walls in different rooms, which clearly allows the creativity and out of the box approaches to various problems.

Nonetheless, typically, in the first floor is where the Engineering teams work and their responsibility is to support the different technologies. Microsoft’s Customer Service & Support (CSS) organization has breadth and depth of technical knowledge that covers support for all Microsoft products and services. CSS has a comprehensive network of support professionals, both full time employees and a vast network of agents.

The second floor is the “Business Floor”, where, for instance, we can find roles related to Sales, Marketing and Services. This floor is radically different from the first one, with less desktops and, conversely, with more interactions among people.

The third floor is where we can find roles related to HR, Finance and Retail for example.

While I was wandering, I noticed that Microsoft has a very unique way to shape their own office, in order to make the workplace the most open and flexible space! Microsoft really applies the philosophy of turning the workplace into the most enjoyable place for their workers. For instance, any Microsoft employee can play Xbox at literally any time of the day (and this really happens, as I noticed during my visit!).

Microsoft Portugal – A sales subsidiary

Microsoft Portugal is a sales subsidiary, like most Microsoft subsidiaries across the world. Microsoft is one of those companies in which you can work for 20 years and never do the same day after day – the range of functions is enormous. After all, at the end of the day, all the subsidiaries, despite having a focus on sales, require diverse functions such as marketing, technical functions, etc. Finally, for students who are really keen on product development, the best place to work at Microsoft is in its Headquarters, in Redmond, Washington.

6 months ago, in July, Microsoft has suffered a reorganization and it’s now oriented by industries (Retail, Financial Services, Manufacturing, Others, Health and Education).

The industries in which Adriana is currently working on are Manufacturing and Others (such as Oil&Gas, Telecommunications&Media, Transportation, Sports, etc) having more than 50 different customers.

The truly amazing path of Adriana Lima

By talking with Adriana, it was easy to understand that her days at Microsoft are always different and challenging.  

In fact, she doesn´t even have a work schedule from 9 a.m to 5 p.m and she doesn’t need to work at the office. She has sales goals for the year and that’s the only thing she needs to be focused on. As mentioned before, Adriana can work from anywhere and use whatever device she wants. “That´s the philosophy of Microsoft!”, she said.

Thanks to her work, in 2 and half years she is currently a Solution Sales Professional for Modern Workplace, covering solutions like Office 365, Windows 10 and Enterprise Mobility + Security.  This is her third role, as she was also a Solution Sales Professional for Skype for Business and a Solution Sales Professional for Productivity (covering Office 365 only).

Adriana has a sui-generis path: she is very young (she joined Microsoft when she was only 21 years old, after finishing her graduation in Management at FEP). Adriana remembers FEP with nostalgia, highlighting the hard skills acquired.  Throughout her academic experience, Adriana was a member of FEP First Connection (if you want to know more about this organization, just visit their website: http://www.firstconnection.pt/) and did her exchange program in Madrid at IE Business School, one of the best schools according to the Financial Times Ranking, where she had a fascinating experience (having the opportunity to truly put the theory into practice).

It was through FEP First Connection that Adriana first met Microsoft and knew by then that she wanted to join the company when university ended. If you want to join Microsoft, more than anything else, you must share the company´s vision and relate to the culture. In the online tests you only need to be yourself - there are no right answers.

To sum up, Adriana has undoubtedly a unique mindset and values the continuous improvement. She knows that is important to go for the extra-mile and that nothing is really achieved without teamwork. 

Piece of advice from Adriana Lima and her main responsibilities

It is evident that Adriana has some characteristics which make her stand out from the crowd. I asked what her secret for success at Microsoft is. She said: 1) prioritize tasks and focus on the real crucial activities, knowing how and when to say “No” to the less important ones. 2) Work as a team! “If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far, go together.”  3) Don’t take yourself too seriously.

Regarding her role at the company, Adriana has specific goals to achieve and, with that in mind, it is mandatory to have a plan on how to achieve them. Then, it’s all about having a customer mindset, work with partners and help their customers in their digital transformation journeys.

Microsoft vs other Companies

When I challenged Adriana to tell me the differences between Microsoft and other companies, Adriana highlighted the following topics:

• ·         Adriana´s job is to change the way how companies work. In Microsoft, for instance, everyone already works through networks, instead of hierarchies (as the majority of the companies).
• ·         The responsibility: Adriana referred that in Microsoft, it doesn’t matter how old you are or how much experience you have, the responsibilities are going to be high.
• ·         There are no predefined career paths. You can always change jobs and try different roles. No career is the same, and it shouldn’t be.
• ·         The profile that fits Microsoft is someone who is proactive, agile, accountable and that sees change as a business rule.

The MACH Program

The Microsoft Academy for College Hires (MACH) is a two-years experience for recent graduates which join various roles in Microsoft such as Marketing, Finance, IT, Operations and many others. The MACH´s will have the opportunity to start building up a powerful network and to understand their role at Microsoft, in order to have impact in the enterprise´s businesses. Nowadays, the MACH is present in more than 70 countries.

I talked with Adriana about several aspects of the MACH Program but what struck my attention were the events:

• ·         Microsoft Ready – this is Microsoft’s annual internal event and, so you can understand how much Microsoft values the MACHs, every year Satya Nadella and other senior leaders have specific sessions only for MACHs. 
• ·         Skill Up and Increase Impact – “These are events with amazing speakers, that will make you put things in perspective and truly change the way you understand Microsoft and life in general.”

Moreover, Adriana refers as the most positive aspects of the MACH Program the knowledge that you get from the company, the opportunity to truly understand what you want to do with your life and also the opportunity to travel to numerous countries.

In light of the above, I would like to thank Bruna Bruno, for telling me about Adriana and, undoubtedly, I have to thank Adriana and Microsoft for this outstanding opportunity!

Dear Readers,

I hope that this article was useful for you! See you next time!

PS: Last but not least, check the amazing view that Microsoft Portugal offers you!

David Cruz e Silva – Hack & Hustle e a capacidade de impactar empresas e pessoas

David Cruz e Silva - O percurso e a forma como este o levou a fundar a Hack & Hustle

Recentemente, tive a oportunidade de estabelecer um diálogo fenomenal com o David Cruz e Silva. Conheci-o no Verão passado via LinkedIn e começamos a dialogar, até percebermos que seria muito interessante realizar um artigo acerca do David e da Hack & Hustle para o meu blog “Discovering the Business World”. O David é um Innovator & Business Developer que partilhou comigo alguns insights que considero absolutamente valiosos, principalmente para qualquer jovem que tenha como objetivo um dia impactar o mundo/a sociedade/pessoas através de mudanças operadas com base no seu talento, conhecimentos e competências.

O David tem tido um percurso ímpar. Licenciou-se em Engenharia e Gestão Industrial na Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Mais tarde tirou duplo mestrado, em Engineering and Industrial Management, no IST (1 ano), e em Business Engineering, na Université catholique de Louvain (1 ano), tendo completado tanto a licenciatura como o mestrado com uma média fenomenal de 17V. A partir do 3º ano, começou a estagiar na Novabase, estágio este que foi conciliando com os estudos. Estar na Novabase permitiu-lhe perceber a importância e o papel que se pode ter nas grandes empresas. Segundo o David, o valor de um recém-graduado é questionar e trazer uma perspetiva fresca à organização. É preciso ter uma atitude que demonstre sentido crítico, mas sempre com vista a aprender, diz o David.

De seguida, falamos de um aspeto que interessará sobremaneira aos meus leitores: o modo como o sistema de ensino e, nomeadamente, o ensino universitário está estruturado. Na opinião do David, na universidade há um foco demasiado grande nas hard skills (que se podem aprender sempre, a qualquer altura do nosso percurso) e não se olha o suficiente ao desenvolvimento das soft skills. O objetivo primordial, diz o mesmo, é os alunos aprenderem! No entanto, segundo o David, existem características fulcrais que se devem dominar quer sejamos um professor como um empresário, e até na esfera pessoal, e que muitas vezes não se encontram nas universidades. Um exemplo claro seria o desenvolvimento do chamado EQ (Inteligência emocional). Também deve partir dos alunos uma visão desta fase da sua vida diferente da que é perpetuada pela sociedade. Para o David estudar por estudar não serve de nada: não adianta fazer um curso sem um objetivo. É muito importante definir tudo o que se pretende, tal como se nós fossemos uma grande empresa: isto é, definir o nosso branding, a nossa visão, missão e propósito, porque afinal, quando se faz as coisas com um propósito, tudo tem outro sabor no final.

O próprio David corrobora esta ideia dizendo “Prefiro uma pessoa para a minha empresa que se calhar após o 12º ano viajou durante 1 ano para descobrir o que realmente gostava e qual era o seu fit no mercado e, em vez de fazer um curso, quando regressou até fez algo muito mais específico porque é aquilo que realmente gosta. Afinal, essa pessoa não terá horários, irá ter um engagement muito maior para com a empresa, irá partilhar as nossas ideias e, mais do que tudo, terá um propósito.” “É esse o desafio hoje em dia das empresas relativamente aos Millennials: o engagement desta geração que tanto e de forma tão rápida teve as coisas que quis”.

De seguida, abordamos outro assunto, agora relacionado com o empreendedorismo e o mundo fascinante das startups. O David afirmou que ser emprendedor e estar numa startup, atualmente, é visto como algo “fixe”. “Mas depois, num recrutamento, as primeiras perguntas que fazem são sobre o salário ou sobre o tempo de férias... Isto não é ser empreendedor, é dizer-se empreendedor! Empreender é ter um shared purpose.”

Muita da visão empresarial preconizada pelo David assenta no facto de este acreditar que a capacidade do potencial não dominado por cada um de nós pode mudar o futuro. Confessa-se sentir sortudo por, desde muito novo, ter contactado com profissionais que lhe transmitiram a importância de ter paixão pelo que se faz! Assim, David Cruz e Silva procura ajudar as pessoas a encontrar o seu propósito e a estabelecer uma forma de o alcançar. Seguindo esta linha de raciocínio, no futuro, pondera vir a entrar no mundo do Coaching (sendo que o mundo do Venture Capital também lhe apraz bastante). “A partir do momento em que há paixão, não há nada que te pare! É preciso tomar as rédeas da nossa vida. Há desafios, há obstáculos, mas há algo muito maior do que isso: a paixão pelo que fazemos!”

Como supracitado, o David esteve na Bélgica aquando do seu mestrado em Business Engineering, que considera muito importante para um Business Developer. Um Business Developer é um profissional que desenvolve os negócios das empresas, seja qual for a área: marketing, vendas, gestão de projetos, etc. Na opinião do David, alguém que procura ser um Business Developer deve ter na sua tool-box muitas hard skills: desde Contabilidade às Finanças, passando pelo Marketing, é importante sentir-se confortável em qualquer área para poder abordar os especialistas das mesmas e falar a “língua” deles.

Durante o seu duplo mestrado, começou a trabalhar pro bono (isto é, voluntariamente e sem remuneração). Contactou PME´S (Pequenas e Médias Empresas) e startups via Angel List, LinkedIn e Facebook, enviando-lhes o seu personal branding, referindo como iria atuar na empresa em questão e qual era o seu propósito, conseguindo uma carteira de clientes considerável. Realizava todo o seu trabalho para estes clientes via Skype, onde procurava mostrar valor e, mesmo para problemas para os quais ainda não possuía o know-how necessário (visto estar a estudar), como trabalhava de forma gratuita, pedia algumas semanas às empresas em questão para trabalhar nesses problemas até se sentir apto a resolvê-los. Estagiou ainda na Cyrpa, uma empresa que produzia e comercializava equipamentos para radioterapia.

Fundação da Hack & Hustle

Passado 1 ano e já depois de terminar o mestrado, enviou email às empresas onde desenvolvia o seu trabalho a dizer que a partir daquela altura o Business Development que faria seria pago. Nesta altura, co-fundou a Hack & Hustle, sediada em Lisboa. Como alguns dos clientes para os quais trabalhava gratuitamente quiseram continuar a contar com os seus préstimos, desde início que a Hack & Hustle apresentou uma bom portfólio de clientes para os quais desenvolvia o seu trabalho. Assim, a proatividade de David Cruz e Silva permitiu-lhe criar a sua empresa e começar desde logo a desenvolver projetos.

No início, a Hack & Hustle era essencialmente uma empresa de execução e de suporte do ponto de vista de Business Development e foi uma autêntica escola ("melhor do que qualquer faculdade") para o David, porque lhe permitiu tornar-se muito conhecedor do mundo empresarial. Assim, o David nomeia os 3 aspetos que considera fulcrais para se ter sucesso como consultor:

1. Tem que ser expert em alguma área e não generalista;
2. Tem que ter uma estratégia forte de aquisição de clientes;
3. É muito importante criar uma pipeline com uma lista de suspects, prospects, leads e customers, de forma a transformar possíveis clientes em clientes reais e concretos, isto é, de forma a aumentar a taxa de conversão de uma possível sinergia para um projeto real.

O trabalho desenvolvido com startups, o modo de atuação e as formas de gerar profit

Nesta empresa onde é co-fundador, muito do trabalho que o David desenvolve é com startups. Nestas, o David procura incidir na criação de valor, principalmente junto dos consumidores. Afinal, “O grande desafio das startups é como criar valor face a grandes empresas que tem 10x ou 20x o teu budget.”

Mas qual é o modus operandi que tem estado por detrás do crescimento e do sucesso da Hack & Hustle? Tudo começa quando uma startup está a contratar, logo, quando há necessidade de certo tipo de competências para alavancar valor a algum projeto. Se as pessoas que estas startups estão a contratar são indivíduos com skills que o David ou a sua equipa possuem, o valor acrescentado de contar com a colaboração da Hack & Hustle é a solução multifacetada que a mesma providencia (porque em vez de ser uma só pessoa a fazer o trabalho é uma equipa de pessoas) e de forma mais barata do que normalmente custaria contratar 1,2,3 profissionais de áreas distintas.

O David já trabalhou com clientes provenientes de diversas partes do mundo, tais como Canadá, EUA, Hungria, França, entre outros. Com todos estes projetos, adquiriu imenso know-how que aplica na empresa e, hoje em dia, existem várias maneiras de gerar lucro para a Hack & Hustle, entre as quais:

1. Continuamente aumentar a rede de networking, conhecer novas pessoas e dialogar com elas, surgindo daqui novas oportunidades de negócio. E, na mais comum das atividades mundanas, num simples café, pode surgir uma oportunidade de negócio. Recentemente, sentou-se com 2 indivíduos que conheceu via LinkedIn e um deles estava a lançar uma startup e confessava estar com alguma dificuldade na forma de abordar o mercado. Na hora, o David analisou o mercado e a empresa e disse ao seu colega o que considerava que este estava a fazer menos bem e onde podia melhorar. Esta free consultation teve um ótimo efeito no negócio do seu colega, cuja empresa se viria a tornar parceira da empresa do David.
2. Fazer projetos internos e depois capitalizá-los e comercializá-los para o mercado.

O re-branding da Hack & Hustle - O propósito, a Visão, o consumidor alvo e as vertentes de atuação

Neste ano de 2017, a Hack & Hustle está a sofrer um re-branding. Este surge da necessidade de especialização da empresa, que dantes, funcionava como consultora para qualquer tipo de organização. Atualmente, procura funcionar como “Innovation House”. A origem da Hack & Hustle está correlacionada com uma frase de Peter Drucker “If an organisation is not able to innovate it faces decline and extinction”. “Por inovação entenda-se: Implementar (e não pensar ou criar) uma nova solução para um problema e criar valor (tudo o que os stakeholders, tipicamente os clientes, estejam dispostos a pagar é o que se entende por ser valor)”. Atualmente, as diretrizes ao nível do Propósito e da Visão da empresa são:

Propósito – “Nós acreditamos em inovar para um mundo verdadeiramente sustentável. Inovação Responsável é a única forma de incorporar efetivamente a “Triple bottom line”: lucros (profits), pessoas (people) e ambiente (environment). A Inovação é crucial na sobrevivência dos Negócios  mas é também fulcral na sobrevivência do nosso estilo de vida, hábitos e até do planeta”.

Visão– Fortalecer organizações e indivíduos de forma a inovarem e a alcançarem um crescimento sustentável. Como? Fazendo-o num prisma de 3 vertentes:

·         O que é inovação?

·         Porque é que devemos inovar?

·         Como é que nós podemos inovar?

Mas qual é o consumidor alvo da Hack & Hustle? “Os nossos clientes são organizações que querem inovar. Desenvolvemos programas feitos à medida para cada um deles. O nosso foco está agora em corporates que para inovar precisam de ser tão ágeis quanto uma startup.”, afirmou David Cruz e Silva. As 2 vertentes de atuação da empresa são:

1.  A validação do projeto;
2. O desenvolvimento do projeto.

A Hack & Hustle procura atuar sobretudo numa vertente de operacionalizar estes processos da melhor forma possível, mais do que atuar a nível estratégico (havendo, no entanto, casos em que atue nos dois níveis).

O Projeto mais recente - Blog Untamed Potential

De referir ainda que a Hack & Hustle criou recentemente um novo Blog, chamado Untamed Potential, que está focado na criação de valor para pessoas que estão a começar a aventura de serem empreendedores ou que querem um dia fazê-lo. Neste blog, o David partilha a sua experiência com startups e tenta ao máximo maximizar as hipóteses de sucesso dos leitores e minimizar os riscos. Tem insights valiosos e por isso, caso o queiram visitar, sigam o link: www.untamedpotential.com

A equipa Hack & Hustle

Por último, falta falar da equipa Hack & Hustle, que é constituída pelo David e pelo Cristovão, irmão do David, os 2 co-fundadores, e por uma investigadora na área da Biomedicina e lead investor com experiência internacional na Europa e América do Norte. A investigadora e o Cristovão (PHD em Física de Partículas, que já trabalhou no CERN, muito experiente em new product development nas áreas tecnológicas) têm elevado know-how técnico, sendo que o David, que é o CEO, traz muito know-how ao nível de gestão e da parte comercial. É sem dúvida uma equipa que se complementa da melhor forma!

Conselho final do David e um ensinamento a retirar para o futuro

O David, no fim da conversa, deixou ainda um conselho aos meus leitores: “O mais importante é querer evoluir sempre, continuar sempre a tentar ser melhor, de forma humilde. Reconhecer sempre que há espaço a melhorar e que esse é um caminho fulcral ao sucesso”.

Foi realmente espetacular conhecer o David e toda a realidade da Hack & Hustle e, por inerência, conhecer sem dúvida ao pormenor o mundo das startups! É realmente interessante notar que esta oportunidade surgiu de um simples pedido de conexão no LinkedIn e, daqui, queria também deixar um conselho: por vezes, da mais ínfima conversa ou diálogo pode surgir uma oportunidade esplêndida! Nunca ignorem/menorizem a importância de dialogar com alguém. Só se não o fizerem é que sabem que nada acontecerá. No entanto, se, por outro lado, o fizerem, tudo pode acontecer: ao limite, do outro lado, poderá estar sempre um potencial cliente/futuro colaborador/pessoa com a qual possam evoluir! Experimentem!

Até uma próxima leitura meus caros!