Shared commitments
Odebrecht is building projects with a major social and economic impact and grooming and forming teams in Venezuela, where it is fast becoming a local company A leader and educator with a motivated team
written by ◦ Cláudio Lovato Filho photos by ◦ Luciano Andrade

When he first arrived in Simon Bolívar Airport on April 23, 1994, Euzenando Azevedo, the CEO (DS) - Venezuela, knew very little about that country. When he got into his taxi and saw the lights and buildings of Maiquetía, the town in the Caracas metropolitan area where the airport is located, he thought he had already arrived in the Venezuelan capital. At one point, en route to Caracas – a 45-minute drive on a good day – Euzenando began to wonder if the taxi driver was taking the “scenic route.”

Euzenando was arriving to replace Marcelo Jardim, now Odebrecht’s CEO (DS) - United Arab Emirates, who was part of the first Odebrecht team to arrive in Venezuela in 1992. For Euzenando, a native of the northeast-Brazilian state of Pernambuco, the challenge of getting to know this new country, adapt to its realities and find new growth opportunities was just beginning.

Back then, Odebrecht was building one project in Venezuela: the Centro Lago Mall in Maracaibo, the nation’s second-largest city and the state capital of Zulia. In 1998, the shopping center won the Engineering & Construction Project of the Year award from the State of Zulia Construction Board.

Today Odebrecht is one of the leading engineering and construction companies in Venezuela. Among other ventures, it is responsible for building the biggest construction project now under way in that country – the second bridge across the Orinoco River, in the Guayana region www.ub.es/geocrit/b3w-110.htm. Since 1992, the year when the first Odebrecht team arrived, the company has prioritized grooming local teams and forming partnerships with Venezuelan businesses and institutions, forming closer ties with its neighboring communities, and increasingly becoming a local company by acquiring in-depth knowledge of Venezuela’s realities and sharing its dreams and expectations.

To fulfill the dreams and meet the expectations of the nation’s 24 million inhabitants – whose culture is a mix of European, African and indigenous influences – in a country that is the tenth-largest producer and sixth-largest exporter of oil in the world, the Venezuelan Government is investing massively in the expansion of basic infrastructure. And Odebrecht is playing a part in that effort. In the transportation sector, the company is not only building the bridge spanning the Orinoco but expanding three metro lines in Caracas and the metropolitan area. In the agricultural sector, the company is building the El Diluvio-Palmar irrigation project in Maracaibo.

Oil industry

Once they had delivered the Centro Lago Mall project, the next challenge facing Euzenando Azevedo and his team was growing Odebrecht in Venezuela. They decided to prioritize the oil industry because they were confident that Odebrecht’s considerable experience on projects for that sector worldwide could make a major contribution to Venezuela’s oil sector, which generates 80% of its GDP. “We wanted to provide services to the oil industry, but not as sub-contractors. We were aware of our capacity to make an outstanding contribution to this country, so we calmly set out to identify the best opportunities,” recalls Euzenando.

This strategy proved effective in 1998, when Odebrecht won its first contract with the Venezuelan Government through the state-owned oil company Petróleo de Venezuela (PDVSA). The project Odebrecht was to build was the Jose Oil Shipment Terminal, named after the industrial district in Puerto La Cruz. The company gained the client’s trust and established an enduring relationship with PDVSA and the government. Odebrecht was showing what it could do and growing along with the country.

The next project Odebrecht built in Venezuela was the Wastewater Reuse Project (RAS) on Lake Maracaibo. In recognition of this highly complex undertaking, Odebrecht once again garnered the State of Zulia Construction Board’s Engineering & Construction Project of the Year award in 2002.

Jessé Coutinho took part in that stage of the company’s growth. Now the officer responsible for Contract Administration on the Caracas Metro lines 3 and 4 projects, he has been in Venezuela for 10 years. Before that, he had built up experience in Brazil, Peru and Ecuador. In 2002, he married a Venezuelan woman named Mary. Rodrigo, their first child, is now three years old. “From the beginning, we have sought to demonstrate our ability to make things happen, manage projects and relate with people,” says Jessé.

As a result, Odebrecht is becoming a local company with an increasing number of Venezuelans among its members. José Cláudio Daltro, the Odebrecht officer responsible for Administration and Finance in Venezuela, arrived there in 1999. After joining the Group in 1977, he was one of the first company members to go to Peru and has also worked in Argentina and Chile, as well as his native Brazil. His day-to-day work involves providing support for contract management teams to help them groom local professionals. “The more Odebrecht grooms and forms Venezuelan teams, the more it will be a truly Venezuelan company. And the way to achieve that is to identify local people who are motivated to grow on the basis of the principles and values of the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology (TEO).”

On the external front, José Cláudio coordinates corporate communication and institutional relations, devoting special attention to dialogue with academia and trade associations. “Odebrecht has an important contribution to make to this country in terms of technology and philosophy,” he says. In 2005, Odebrecht took part in a number of events, including lectures, symposiums, conferences and trade fairs organized by Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, Universidad Central de Venezuela, the State of Carabobo Engineering School, the Construction Board of the State of Bolivar and the Venezuelan Construction Board.

Transportation sector

Odebrecht began broadening its horizons in Venezuela when it tendered the winning bid for a contract to build Line 4 of the Caracas Metro, the company’s first project in that country’s transportation sector. The results of the tender were announced in late 1998.

By 2000, the company had not only begun building Line 3 but achieved a milestone that had been surrounded by enormous expectations: winning the contract to build the second bridge across the Orinoco River. The owner and client is Corporación Venezuelana de Guyana (CVG) the state company responsible for development in that part of the country. Built in response to over 20 years of petitions by the local population, this project is being financed by the Bank of Brazil’s program supporting exports of goods and services.

“At that point,” observes Euzenando Azevedo, “we had already completed the Centro Lago Mall, the Jose Shipment Terminal and the Wastewater Reuse Project on Lake Maracaibo. Line 4 of the Metro and the bridge over the Orinoco were under construction. As a result, we had established roots in Maracaibo, Puerto La Cruz, Caracas and Puerto Ordaz. We were present in four parts of the country, thereby consolidating our nationwide operations.”

Every day, groups of students from universities and technical schools and members of trade associations from all over Venezuela visit the bridge construction site. Civil engineer Linep Espinoza, 25, graduated from the Universidad Nacional Experimental de las Fuerzas Armadas (Unefa), in her home town, Maracay, in 2003. She joined Odebrecht in 2004 and is now a member of the bridge engineering team led by Mauro Martins. She always has a professional Kodak camera slung around her neck wherever she goes. Among other missions, she is responsible for keeping a photographic record of the project. “When I tell my former college classmates that I’m working here they are thrilled,” says Linep, describing how many Venezuelan students and young professionals feel about this project.

Community relations are another outstanding feature of the bridge construction project. A visitor’s center has been set up at the jobsite, on a spot on the south bank of the Orinoco that provides an excellent view of the area. With the support of the client, CVG, and Odebrecht, in June 2005 shops were set up there to sell handicrafts, sweets and clothing to visitors. There is also a restaurant. The center is operated by the 21-member Águas Claras de Caruachi Cooperative.

Diego Quilarque is one of those cooperative members. He has a degree in agricultural engineering but is now a businessman. “We are getting the hang of this new business,” says Diego, who lives in the municipality San Jacinto. On average, 4,000 people, mostly tourists, visit the center. “We’ve had visitors from as far away as India,” says another member, Almira Martínez. Her husband, Santiago Cedeño, is president of the cooperative. A former officer in the merchant marine, he says: “We want to grow. And we are training people so we can achieve that objective.” All the projects sold at the visitor’s center are produced locally. “This is a showcase that allows the local community to display their wares,” says Diego Quilarque.

Farming sector

The year 2000 not only saw Odebrecht enter the Venezuelan transportation sector but also the company’s initial operations in a brand-new area – farming, one of the main economic activities in the Maracaibo region – through a contract to build the El Diluvio-Palmar irrigation project (see photos of this irrigation project at the site www.inder.gov.ve/inder_galeria_01.htm).

An initiative of the National Institute for Rural Development (Inder), El Diluvio-Palmar is more than an irrigation project. It has become a socioeconomic program. As a result of this venture, roads, schools and houses are being built and social programs are being organized and implemented to help improve the quality of life of local residents, including the members of five indigenous communities.

El Diluvio-Palmar is located in a conflict zone on the Colombian border. Guerrillas from that country frequently infiltrate Venezuelan territory. It is all too common for ranchers from that area to be kidnapped for ransom, and because of this, the Venezuelan Army and National Guard have become invaluable Odebrecht partners on this project. Local residents are also playing a vitally important role by forming an “anillo invisible de seguridad” (invisible security cordon) that provides key intelligence to protect company members from harm. As the project’s beneficiaries, they do everything they can to help. Because of all these factors, El Diluvio-Palmar is a tool for ensuring the organized settlement of the borderlands through which the government makes its presence felt.

This challenging environment is rich in growth opportunities. It is also the setting in which a group of young Venezuelan engineers and managers is being groomed to work on all the different tasks involved in the day-to-day workings of a jobsite, as well as learning and applying the tenets of the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology.

In 2002, yet another opportunity to make a contribution in the transportation sector arose: Odebrecht won an international tender held by Compañía Autónoma Metro de Los Teques to build a light-rail system in Los Teques, a municipality of 140,000 in the Caracas metropolitan area (for photos, information and links on Venezuela’s metros, log onto www.urbanrail.net/am/cara/caracas.htm). That same year, in the nation’s capital, the company celebrated another success: winning the contract to expand Line 3 of the Caracas Metro. Work on that project began in 2003.

Achieving stability

The year the Line 3 expansion project began also saw the arrival of Brazilian civil engineer Yuri Kertzman in Venezuela. He was 30 years old and had just spent four years working in Angola. The officer Responsible for Civil Construction on Line 3, Yuri took part in CNO’s first Program for Developing Entrepreneurs (PDE). He was invited to join the project’s management team by Contract Director Antônio Carlos Daiha Blando. “Here in Venezuela I’ve found a highly favorable environment for personal and professional growth. There are major projects under way, our cultures are strongly integrated, and we’re constantly finding opportunities for education and training.”

Venezuela´s projects

Looking back on Odebrecht’s track record in Venezuela, Euzenando Azevedo gives this categorical analysis: the company’s history in that country is rich in challenges, learnings and achievements, but the past is always behind us. The important things are the present and future. “Odebrecht has achieved stability in Venezuela,” observes Euzenando. “The company’s survival is assured. The next step is growth. Our aims include stabilizing earnings, maintaining a constant flow of work opportunities and being present in all the major opportunities opening up in this country. However, all of this will depend on keeping on the track that will make us a Venezuelan company. This aim can only be achieved if we bear in mind that we must form and groom teams in this country. We want motivated people to join our company. We must find people with character and motivate them. That is how Odebrecht got its start in Brazil.”