Tribute to Jorge Magalhães Correia

Many years after leaving SONAE and after an international career at Dia InternationaI. I started working at Fidelidade. By then, my non-official management degree at SONAE had been complemented with another non-official international management degree at DIA Internacional and a very official Master of Science in Business Administration at Henley Business School – Reading University. I was feeling comfortable enough with my theoretical background and with my professional experience on such demanding companies like those I had worked for.

Furthermore teaching at AESE confronted me with so many different management situations, different industries, different complex problems and shared so many discussions with so many competent people – among the courses participants – that at such a stage of my life I was feeling very comfortable and confident dealing with any business problem a manager had to deal with.

At SONAE I learned how to be frontal, direct and transparent without any political subtleties. Let’s call it lesson #2.

But these political subtleties were much more necessary at a company like Fidelidade, where at certain point compromise always took place.

I loved to work for Fidelidade, specially launching MultiCare – an Health Insurance Company that was growing at a two-digit pace at that time. I started the project almost from scratch, selecting a mixed team of old school insurance experts and what could be called, at that time, a new generation of managers – all born with a laptop on their backpack. From an annual revenue of €40 000 to one close to €31 000 000, Multicare had outlived a cascade of mergers and explosive organic growth, topping number one on the Health Insurance market . A jewel on the crown of Fidelidade.

On his very classic work – The Prince- Maquiavel defended that Princes should be either appreciated or feared. If they could not be appreciated, they should be feared. Belmiro was respected, truly appreciated but he was also most feared. SONAE culture was a big deal about his unique personality and skills. But perhaps lesson #2 at Fidelidade was not as efficient as at SONAE.

I honestly believed in the first option- to be appreciated by being up-front, honest, transparent and direct on behalf of the business I was in charge of. But being so, I felt that I was not appreciated at all by my peers and they kept a “security distance” from me. That was something unexpected and not desired at all. Definitively lesson #2 at Fidelidade was not as efficient as at SONAE.

On an informal conversation with Jorge Magalhaes Correia – CEO at Fidelidade – he said, with the warm smile he always has on his face: “…You know, being up-front is right, but there are so many ways to tell the truth, that you should choose the right one, the right way…”. He also added that he was quoting a prominent lawyer. He finished with another wise quote : “there are so many ways to tell the truth, why lie? “

I realized on that moment that SONAE’s lesson #2 – that helped me so much, feeling successful over there – was likely my main handicap at Fidelidade. Success at Fidelidade was not only about making businesses profitable or to be market leader, it was a great deal about to socialize and be political. One could be up-front – telling all the truths as I used to do – but should also know how, where and when to say them, selecting the most political out from the several alternatives. Previous negotiation, diplomacy, social networking, politics and compromise was paramount at Fidelidade while at Sonae these where conducted at one own risk.

Jorge alerted me to that perhaps a little bit too late, but it was likely the most important life lesson I took from him. And I’m grateful !

(This is an humble personal tribute to Jorge Magalhaes Correia – an amazing person, the most empathic leader I’ve ever met, a Primus Inter Pares, always low key, but one of the best managers of his generation. I learned a lot from him, from Alvarez Quintero and so many other people at Fidelidade. Thank you to all of you, but a special “thank you” goes to, Jorge ! )