Internacional

Ahead of one of the world's largest companies dedicated to developing solutions for passenger transport, the CEO and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Marcopolo, James Bellini, talks about the challenges of driving this giant manufacturer of vehicles and keep alive the legacy left by his father, Paulo Bellini. In the year that completes 70 years, Marcopolo gives important and decisive steps towards the next decade, mainly focused on innovation, but not forgetting what brought it here: talented, motivated and happy people.

NOI: Marcopolo has reached 70 years of investing heavily in the quality and innovation of products and people. What can we

As they say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." We will undoubtedly continue investing in these three directions that are fundamental to the continuity of any business. With respect to quality, we are working hard to improve our production processes in order to reduce and, at some point, to eliminate, any cost related to non-quality. We are convinced that quality is not controlled but is produced. We are investing in new concepts, better structured processes and production efficiency monitoring systems. Regarding to the innovation we are creating a new business environment that will ensure the growth of the company in the new areas for which we intend to venture, such as those of mobility solutions, complete transport systems, sustainability and infrastructure. This new area will be built based on a new business model aligned with the current trends of digital companies. With regards to people, we want to attract new talents by creating an adequate working environment for the aspirations of the new generations, as well as assembling an internal plan for the retention of our professionals. In addition, we are investing in the training and qualification of our staff. Recently we have launched the university Marcopolo that will prepare our workforces to grow in the next 70 years.

Considering the history of the company, which were the main moments you may highlight as decisive ones for the transformation of Marcopolo to the company that it is today?

In 70 years of history we undoubtedly had many striking and decisive moments that contributed to Marcopolo being what it is today. Among the most important I can highlight the company's first export to Uruguay in 1961, which initiated the export trend. After this important international opening, we exported buses to more than 100 countries and today the foreign market has a fundamental participation in the result of the company. Another decisive moment was the trip of Paulo Bellini to Japan, which gave a rise to the philosophy of SIMPS and SUMAN, and that is today revitalized by LEAN, is part of the company's DNA. I also highlight the first deal made in Mexico with DINA, which gave a start to POLOMEX and served as the basis for the internationalization of Marcopolo, today with factories in nine different countries.

Despite the delicate economic momentum of the country, the company managed to achieve the planned targets in 2018. What do you attribute this result to?

Despite the crisis we had a good year in 2018, basically driven by two factors. First, a demand of the internal market generated by the regulation of the law of accessibility that provoked a "progress" in the orders from our customers, including many anticipated purchases by taking advantage of the government-negotiated deadline for the elevator-free vehicles. And the other factor was the external driven demand by heated markets and also some special projects with a good volume, mainly in Africa.

Today Marcopolo is present in the main world markets. Are there any still left to be conquered?

We still have some adjustments to explore India and China markets, for example. In terms of new markets gaining our priority will be in the USA and Europe.

Community involvement, either through the Marcopolo Foundation or Marcopolo itself, has always been very strong. Do you intend to enlarge it?

Yes, the scope of the foundation, both with regards to community projects and benefits to employees and their families, has increased greatly in the last two years with the change in management. We designate one director 100% focused on the projects of the foundation, a strategy that worked very well. The essence of the Marcopolo Foundation is to help as many people as possible.

The legacy left by your father, Paul Bellini, is inspiring. What are the main lessons?

I believe that the main lessons left by the father are related to the appreciation of people. He understood that there are undisputed relations between Motivated People and Success. If people go to work to care out purely work obligations, we surely have an average business. However, if people came to work happily, motivated and feeling as a part of the company, success would be guaranteed. This is what we always had and still have at Marcopolo.

What do you feel as being ahead of a company of Marcopolo's greatness?

On the one hand, much pride, but on the other, the enormous weight of the responsibility to continue this unquestionable legacy. It's not just a matter of keeping things as they are, that would even be relatively easy. It will be difficult to reinvent yourself to grow in these challenging new times of innovation. The new disruptive business models that are emerging every day threaten the very existence of traditional business. The big challenge will be to make the transition to this new world without losing our essence.

Looking for the future of the company, where do you see Marcopolo in the next 10 years?

I see Marcopolo fully inserted in the world of mobility, being the protagonist in a new business model geared to the digital world and integrated solutions of collective transport, doing its part in the construction of a better future for all mankind, bringing comfort, safety and practicality in transporting people.

MARCOPOLO 70 YEARS OLD

ALL GENERATIONS AROUND THE WORLD

Marcopolo achieves 70 years with the certainty that it has been part of the history of many generations of people who made a difference. Its performance in the market was also a watershed in terms of products, with Generation 7 and globalization, because the company unites the world through the bus. "It is due to the people Marcopolo exists, grows and expands its presence. They've always been the brand's differential to make it happen. And for that, it is necessary to work in teams and trust people, always putting themselves in the place of the other, "says James Bellini. The campaign of 70 years anniversary has a slogan "All Generations around the World", brings in its concept a strong message in order to represent all ethnicities (all different people, without distinction) that compose several generations around the planet, without limits or borders.

The celebrations of 70 years anniversary began in February during the National Festival of the Grape in Caxias do Sul. "We can look back and feel proud of the path we did. We are sure we have fulfilled our duty. We have eagerness to move forward, through new paths and roads, "Bellini predicts. "For these 70 years there have been many stories run, along with our brand, by the roads of Brazil and the world. Many dreams were created and come true in the lives of employees and their families. And our trip doesn't end here! "

Path

People, dedication, innovation, technology. These are some of the elements that accompany Marcopolo during its 70 years. Returning to the year 1949 (when Nicola & Cia was born in Caxias do Sul. LTDA, with eight partners and 15 employees), it is important to highlight that, at that time, the idea was to create a company specializing in bus corpuses focused on the Brazilian market. At the end of the years ’60 after the exit the Nicola of the society, it was necessary to create a new brand, which later emerged to Marcopolo, and today is one of the largest companies in the world dedicated to the development of solutions for the passenger transport. Nicola's new stage demanded a strong, personality name and showed where the group wanted to move on. Movement, travel, road and people were the main ideas that needed to be represented. Their summary gave rise to the name: Marco Polo, the one of history's greatest explorers and adventurers. Later we discovered that the name of the traveler Marco Polo's father was Nicola. Coincidence could also be a prediction for the future: a success was already knocking on the door and the coming years anticipated to be full of work and achievements.

The Soul of Business

Much technology and experience were needed to reach the top, but everyone knew that nothing would work if people wouldn't be engaged and motivated. Since the first years of the foundation, there had been investments in the training of employees to offer quality products and maintain competitiveness at the market. The President Paulo Bellini made a point of reinforcing that "producing buses depends on people's hands, eyes and hearts". Bellini quickly realized that people were the soul of the business and they needed to be prepared for the demands. Year by year, a trusted environment was created in the company to ensure the permanent motivation of the teams, which eventually became one of the main competitive advantages of the brand.

Through the Road

With people willing to grow together with the company, the path became less longer and more confident. There were millions of kilometers traveled for 70 years and some of them took Marcopolo to different countries. 56 years ago, Carrocerias Nicola took the first steps towards internationalization. Compañia e Omnibus Pando S/A (Copsa) from Uruguay was the first overseas customer and acquired urban buses with capacity for 27 seated passengers. Already under the name Marcopolo, in 1973, Europe got known for the first time the brand at the trade fair in Brussels, Belgium, by the invitation of the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Pratini de Moraes. As part of the commemorations of 70 years history, Marcopolo is again exhibiting in Brussels in October of that year at BusWorld.

The decade of ’90-ies was marked by the establishing of the first factory outside Brazil, in Portugal, and also by the conquering the market in Cuba. In the century XXI the company reaches five continents with the entry into Africa, Russia, China, India, Australia through the purchase or construction of own factories, joint ventures, associations or technology supply.

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