Tribute to Belmiro de Azevedo

I had just graduated as a chemical engineer and had my mind clear. I didn’t want to practice engineering all my life. I learned a thousand lessons at the University, but among them, one resonated strongly on my mind : Alirio Rodrigues – one of my teachers – told me once: “… an engineer never gets hanged…” . I called it Lesson #1.

I started my career at Sonae.

Joaquim Reis – one of the best teachers I had- addressed me an invitation to work as an investment analyst. That gave me the opportunity I was looking for, to move into management as I wished. But I soon realized I was fairly unprepared to the task – as any intern often is.

Belmiro de Azevedo – the CEO and shareholder that used to involve himself in every detail of the retail business at that time – asked me frequently to calculate the ROI and IRR of every investment on the retail stores. I was unable to calculate the figures he wanted as fast as he wanted – “immediately” was fine enough to him! My calculator, a Texas Instruments TI58, was not programable enough, and the phone rang way before I had time to calculate all the simulations Belmiro wanted me to do. And with his metallic voice I heard from him : “You are not fast enough. Find a solution”!

I was really worried : I couldn’t do it faster.

That’s when Lesson #1 came into my help : “…an engineer never gets hanged! “

I brought my Spectrum Sinclair and an old TV from home and bought a thermal printer at a Sonae store. Then I coded an algorithm on BASIC to calculate the IRR and ROI. After some testing I was able to answer to Belmiro with no delay. When he asked me :” how much can we invest on this store?”, my answer was immediate : no more than X euros. On the other side of the phone a significant silence took form. A new question: “…And if the margins are one point higher ?…” Then you can invest no more than Y euros ! New silence.

I was thrilled because I could answer Belmiro as soon as he shot his questions, but on the other end of the line, he was wondering how could I do it so fast . Was I inventing the answers? How reliable were they? A rare silence from Belmiro was never a good sign.

A week later he summoned me to a meeting at his office, to discuss more figures about investments. I was really nervous about facing him ( it was not very easy for everyone to face Belmiro directly into his blue metallic eyes ). But worst than that, how could I answer to his questions, without my Spectrum, the huge cathodic ray TV set and the thermal printer? Remember, we were in the early eighties and laptops were still to be invented.

Lesson #1 came again into my help : I decided to print different simulations with different levels of Investments, different sales amounts and different costs structures by steps of 10%.

The problem with thermal paper is that it was impossible not to roll itself. So my prints looked like Papiros. I took them all with me and I displayed dozens of them on the table. When Belmiro started to ask his questions, the only thing I had to do, was to choose the right papiro, open it and tell the respective results for IRR or the ROI.

Belmiro understood very well how and why I had done it and he smiled, something even more rare on him.

The next week I had on my desk the first IBM PC ever bought by SONAE by Belmiro’s direct instructions. It was my turn to have a big smile on my face!

(This story is my humble and personal tribute to Belmiro de Azevedo, one of the greatest entrepreneurs and managers of the 20th century. I learned so much from him during the 10 years I worked for SONAE that I still feel a debt of gratitude for the Management Degree “on the job” I took there. Working closely with him, with Joaquim Reis, Alvaro Portela, Nuno Jordão and others, transformed an engineer into a manager. It was blood , sweet and tears everyday but it worth every minute. Thank you so much, Belmiro. I miss you ! )