Life decision: Improve people’s lives

By admin, September 4, 2011

Last week, I decided on a number of things. So I had the same thinking about the people around me.

This text revolves around my personal life and project management techniques.

Personal life

I lived with my two other brothers in Santos, Sao Paulo, in an apartment ceded by my father. This was somewhat a University apartment where the three of us had studied and had started our professional lives for some years in this city. Then my youngest brother moved to Campinas to pursue his degree in Music at Unicamp, one of the best universities in Brazil. My middle brother was moving from home. He is going to live with his girlfriend. I was finally alone, preventing my father to sell the apartment. I decided to live alone.

Then, my my mother and my step-father decided to return from Portugal after closing their restaurant in Carcavelos, located in the Greater Lisbon region. During the 2008-2010 crisis, it was badly beaten, like many other businesses in Portugal. My mother and the Barão did really well for eight years in a row. Then, during the crisis, they needed to make bad moves. Fortunately, they would still be able to retire in Brazil.  They would arrive at any time.  Finally, they would rent a place and probably I would live with them for a while.

Meanwhile, in the company…

As the IT&D general manager and head of research, I was forced by the circumstances to terminate most of the IT&D operations and to move the Velaqua department from downtown back to Infotech Informática (it did happen), mostly the laboratory operation. The research team of four, would move to one of Santos’s Privates Universities, called Unisanta (Never happened).

For most operations, I applied the 5th step of the project management, that people, in Brazil, usually don’t talk about: The end of the project. There are two main things involved:

01 – Finish the project or phase (Integration)
02 – Finish acquisitions or contracts (Acquisitions)

The incredible thing is that some of the suppliers and third-party service providers in Brazil are (were) not prepared for this, especially when a given project is halted.

Meeting an old partner

Some suppliers, on the other hand, would like to get the laboratory involved in other IT projects. Infotech partners could improve their knowledge base using IT&D references, blueprints, best practices and so on. Nevertheless, it worth mentioning that Infotech was where the IT&D division was born.

I was looking forward to keeping the innovation in Santos, the very city where I lived for more than 10 years, and improve people’s lives around us, first. Carlos Alexandre, the Infotech Informatica general director, has a straightforward way of managing his business successfully in various market scenarios. The company adapted itself while not changing nor updating its physical headquarters.

The outcomes from such decisions, within existing possibilities, allowed me to partially achieve this goal at that difficult time. As much as possible, IT&D operations were ceased seamlessly and most existing knowledge and remaining equipment were left at the Infotech Informatica. I am confident that it helped the company to face the new challenges for the next decade.

Lessons were learned, and in 2012 I expected to head towards more and more to software, management and service auditing.

Infotech Informatica webpage: http://www.infotechsantos.com.br/

IT&D former webpage: https://www.ited.com.br/en/

Photo by SOULSANA on Unsplash