Category Archives: Brazil

Kaka’s going to have a great World Cup

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I want England to win the World Cup, but as my lovely partner Shirley comes from Brasil, specifically Kaka’s home town of Taguatinga, then I’m also keeping an eye out for his and his team’s chances.

I think Kaka’s going to have a great tournament, which appears to be at odds with footballing legend Brazil Pele, who has cast doubts on Kaka’s form going into the tournament:

BRAZIL legend Pele admits he is worried about Kaka’s form ahead of the finals.

Real Madrid star Kaka has been plagued by injuries but insists he will be fit for Tuesday’s clash with North Korea.

But Pele admitted: “Kaka worries me. He is very important – a key player for our attack and midfield. But God willing he will be in good form.”

OK, I admit I don’t don’t know football like Pele does. Or to quote the dry humour of the comment on the Sun website from ‘geteducated’: “Who the hell is this “Pele” and what does he know about football?”

Well, I wouldn’t want to argue with Pele. But then given the option I’ll go with the ladies of Taguatinga and say “Come on Kaka!”

What are your dirty dozen?

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In between freelance contracts I’ve been trying to come up with a neat summary of my skills & experience to sell to potential new clients/employers, and came up with the following ‘dirty dozen’. What are yours?

  1. An ability to not only understand measurement as it’s been, but also to understand how to evolve and implement new measurements to apply to new initiatives.
  2. Expertise in understanding how to measure the impact of social media, using effective KPIs. In particular focusing on the business objectives, targets, and results – and making sure the in-house tools can capture the quality of conversations, and target ‘influencers’ – its not necessarily who has the most connections, but the best location in social networks.
  3. Experience developing social media strategies, together with tailor-made KPIs, for b2b organisations including the IET, ICAEW and CIMA for example.
  4. At global medical software start-up MedicExchange I was responsible for creating and implementing integrated online/offline marketing campaigns, working with content partner Reuters to improve our competitive position.
  5. Introduced internal social tools from project management to social benchmarking, helping MedicExchange acquire a value of $15m by the time of my departure in December 2007.
  6. Launched the new ICAEW online community IT Counts, with £100k sponsorship from Microsoft UK, achieving the launch target membership level within deadline, and winning a web 2.0 award in the process in 2008.
  7. Advised marketing & PR teams on good practice whether in working with Microsoft UK’s PR staff on how best to blog on the site, through to advising organisations on best practice internally for use of social media to promote and grow their online communities.
  8. As a consultant with SiftGroups I helped facilitate a team culture working with community managers and developers which put customer needs at the forefront of their work, helping create an award-winning drupal-based social measurement tool in 2009.
  9. Experience in setting up social tracking tools using Twitter and Google, and using these to target bloggers and social networks as part of a social media engagement strategy for new communities.
  10. Success in advising community managers in how to turn negative customer conversation starters into positive outcomes, based on a ‘figure of eight’ positive feedback strategy between corporate content and customer conversations.
  11. As a professional who embraces precedent, but also who is willing to challenge thinking and create new solutions I developed the concept of feedback loops between content and community, to include the relationship between the community manager and top contributors, and between a community and external social networks, for my social media consultancy work in 2010.
  12. As well as blogging on social media and online community issues for over four years, I helped run the Headshift corporate blog, managed bloggers for SEO purposes at MedicExchange, managed professional bloggers at the ICAEW, through to training the CEO & staff bloggers at CIMA supported by a tailor-made social media policy.

Merry Xmas Petrobas

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While the world has been in recession it appears the Brazilian energy company Petrobas have quietly been getting on with it. Check out the comparison with Royal Dutch Shell which rose under 10% over the same period. Comparison with the Dow in the graphic below. I bought a few shares in them at the end of November 2007; and now I wish I’d bought a whole lot more! Merry Xmas Santa, or is that Santo?

Google Finance chart details for PBR here.

IBM says the time is right for Brazilian innovation

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By Spencer E. Ante in Business Week

Over the last few years, China and India have emerged as the twin hot spots of emerging tech innovation. Now IBM (IBM) is betting that one of the next big technology stars will be Brazil.

In the latest sign of Brazil’s rising power, Big Blue is announcing on Aug. 18 (actually today) a new initiative to stimulate the development of the country’s technology sector. To kick off the effort, IBM is hosting its first-ever forum for venture capitalists and entrepreneurs in São Paulo along with FINEP, the Brazilian government agency that finances technology development. The daylong event will bring together more than 100 investors and dozens of new companies looking for investment and business advice.

IBM is also launching a Portuguese version of its developerWorks Web site, which provides free programs and online teaching guides that help programmers build skills in the Java programming language, the Linux operating system, and IBM products such as Lotus. To host the event, IBM has dispatched Claudia Fan Munce, managing director of IBM Venture Capital Group, and Steve Mills, senior vice-president and group executive of IBM’s $20 billion Software Group, a clear sign of the growing importance of Brazil to the IBM portfolio.

“We have been watching Brazil for a while,” says Munce, who grew up in Brazil. “The time is right.”

Eyeing Opportunity

In the past, Brazil has been hobbled by hyperinflation, rampant political corruption, and failed fiscal and monetary policies. But with a growing and stable economy in recent years, multinational corporations such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) and venture capital and private equity players now see additional opportunity for technology innovation in the sun-drenched nation. “That potential is there,” says Mills. “The university systems are strong. There is a level of interest in entrepreneurship that is growing.”

Investors increasingly see Brazil as an attractive destination. As of the end of 2008 nearly 150 local and foreign investment firms had committed $28 billion in venture and private equity capital to Brazilian companies, according to the Brazilian Association for Private Equity & Venture Capital. That’s up from $6 billion in 2004, amounting to a hearty 50% compound annual growth rate over the last four years. Investors have financed 500 Brazilian companies to date with venture or private equity capital, and there’s $12 billion left to invest over the next few years from that $28 billion kitty.

Still, the country’s business challenges, including high taxes and restrictive labor laws, could hamper growth. And native businesspeople say a Silicon Valley-like ecosystem where risk and creative thinking in technology are the norm remains elusive. “We do not have an ecosystem in place,” says Berthier Ribiero-Neto, head of Google’s (GOOG) Latin American research and development center, which is based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. “Most of the students go to work for the outsourcing companies. I would like to see more product development.”

The IBM initiative is designed to help remedy some of those issues. The idea is to serve as a matchmaker and coach to the growing number of companies IBM works with in Brazil. In fact, IBM’s Munce says that among the so-called BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China), Brazil is seeing the highest growth in business partners that IBM works with, averaging 150% year over year.

Tapping into Brazil

To help its partners raise money, IBM will introduce them to dozens of local and foreign private investors at the forum, including Intel Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Rio Bravo, and Darby Overseas Investments. And to design, build, and market new technologies for their businesses, IBM will invite its several thousand Brazilian business partners to visit its Innovation Center in São Paulo, which opened in February. At the center, entrepreneurs can gain access to training courses, consulting services, and technical seminars. “The center will help us tap into this huge growth market,” says Munce.

Humberto Matsuda, founding partner with Performa Investimentos, a new Brazilian venture capital firm, says the IBM forum is a significant event for his country. “We are very excited to see how IBM will become a player in this industry,” says Matsuda, who is closing an $8 million fund, with 40% of its capital coming from FINEP. “It is a very significant event, given the size of the players.”

Matsuda, who helped IBM draw up a list of companies to invite to the forum, says startups have been hobbled in the recent past by a lack of capital and experienced entrepreneurs. But he says the IBM event is important because it will help foster more investment, training, and networking in the technology community. “They will make introductions to potential clients and offer training and services,” says Matsuda. “You have to use a key player like IBM to teach companies.”

Why the surprise at Kaká news?

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In the summer of 2008 there were plenty of stories that Kaká was being chased by Chelsea. I said it was high unlikely to happen. Yes, part of the reason you can give why he’s not going to Man City is that it’s about the wishes of the fans, the wishes of Berlusconi. But also Kaká just doesn’t fancy it, OK? Ironically though news from Sky’s Revista that Real Madrid may now be pitching for the footballer: “Just hours after his proposed move to Eastlands for a world-record £95million was declared dead in the water, Real Madrid emerged as favourites to land his signature.”

In a strange twist of fate is the news on Sunday that seven dead and dozens injured after ‘Kaka’s church’ collapses during service. Seven people were killed and at least 50 more were injured on Sunday when the roof of the massive church where football star Kaká and Caroline were married collapsed.

The Telegraph reports goes on to say that the church, like many of Brazil’s Protestant sects, is controversial:

The couple who founded it were arrested when entering the United States in 2007 and jailed for five months on money laundering, tax evasion and other financially related charges. They face similar charges in Brazilian courts.

For India also read Brazil, when it comes to social media growth?

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OK, here’s a prediction for 2009, with help from Gauravonomics Blog:

“Social media outsourcing will we widely seen as the next big outsourcing opportunity for India. I have earlier written that social media outsourcing is the next big business opportunity for India and may already be leading the third wave of Indian outsourcing. In 2009, the volume of consumer generated media will increase, social media engagement processes and metrics will evolve and budgets will continue to decrese. All these three trends will drive large international brands to seriously evaluate outsourcing parts of the social media valua chain to countries like India. We will also see more Indian firms pursue the opportunity in a structured manner and social media outsourcing will be widely seen as the next big outsourcing opportunity for India.”

Check out Power.com as one nice example of a social media company headquartered in Brazil and India, with markets worldwide which has recently launched in the UK. OK, India has an edge on Brazil for the simple reason everyone speaks English. Though in Brazil there’s the longstanding US-connection, not to mention the relative ease of travel to consider.

“There aren’t many sites with 5 million users that we haven’t heard of, but Power.com is just that, and it’s a name you might be hearing a lot more of after it launches in the US today [Mashable, 30 November].

“Previously available in Brazil and India, the site bills itself as a “Meebo for social networking” of sorts, allowing you to simultaneously login to accounts on both social networking services like Facebook and MySpace and instant messaging networks like MSN.

“From there, you can view new activities from friends on those services, see who’s online across all of them via a buddy list, and use the “Power Communicator” to simultaneously send a message to your friends on any site you have synced with Power.com. In other words, if your friends are spread across many social networks, you can see an aggregate view of their activities and message them on their native network, all from inside the Power.com interface.”

At least I’m right about one thing – PBR

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I like coincidences, so it was great fun to see the recent Fortune magazine article ‘America’s Hottest Investor’ focus on a true contrarian, mutual fund manager Ken Heebner, who also just happens to be at the top of his investment game. And who just happens to confirm my liking for Petrobas (PBR): “Petrobas could become the biggest stock in the world,” he says. Update on his liking of PBR on 25 June.

A few choice excerpts for your consideration:

Just how good has Heebner been? We may well be witnessing the most dazzling run of stock picking in mutual fund history. Since May 1998, Focus has an average annualized return of 24%, the best ten-year record of any U.S. mutual fund, compared with only 4% for Standard & Poor’s 500. Focus, which has $7.4 billion in assets, is already up 15% in 2008 (as of May 19), but it is 2007 that will be remembered as Heebner’s pi

Married to a beautiful Brazilian for 1 week & two days

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I was just in the queue at the cafe in Swan Alley when I heard some very well spoken guy mention he’d been married for a week and two days. He seemed pretty happy about it, talking to the guy making his sandwich who seemed eager to offer some advice. Anyhow after the well spoken guy left the sandwich guy said out loud that the Brazilian lady was like three beautiful models rolled into one, that’s how beautiful she was. Hey top that.