Editorial
The birth of TEO
Odebrecht Informa’s editors received numerous photos for this issue, but one in particular attracted our attention. Published on page 40, we can see the Group’s founder, Norberto Odebrecht, with the group of engineers, supervisors and managers who were members of the core management of Construtora Norberto Odebrecht in 1960. Aside from giving us the always curious feeling of seeing what those men looked like 50 years ago, including people we still know today, the photo eloquently reflects the team spirit that has been in Odebrecht’s DNA since 1944.
It was in that year, 1944, that Norberto Odebrecht created the individually owned company that formed the embryo of the Odebrecht Group. He carried on with projects begun by his father’s construction firm, which had to close its doors when the supply of construction materials dried up during World War II.
However, there was something more to the company that emerged 65 years ago, in addition to a new name and registry with the city of Salvador’s Board of Trade. The newborn firm also generated a new way of organizing work with a focus on client service. Introduced in Bahia’s construction market by Norberto Odebrecht and his supervisors, it was improved over the following decades and came to be known as the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology (TEO).
A philosophy of life centered around education and work, TEO is a set of principles, concepts and standards that enable entrepreneurial leaders to coordinate the work of people with expertise in specific technologies, and consolidate the results in the overall project. TEO is the cultural touchstone for all Odebrecht Group companies. It is safe to say that the essence of Odebrecht’s identity is its philosophy; and the essence of its philosophy is confidence in and respect for people.
The photo on page 40 is a reminder of all this. We can already see that, in those days, when Odebrecht was just 16 years old, the people in the picture were already united around a leader who managed them on the basis of humanistic values, and encouraged and challenged them to get better and better results. A date is just a number. This photo expresses and symbolizes the entrepreneurial culture that was born along with the Odebrecht Group, and remains its life blood.
Videoreporters
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- Expanding the Metro in the Porto Alegre metropolitan region
- Braskem’s new ETBE plants
Online archives
- Read back issues of Odebrecht Informa, the Odebrecht S.A. Annual Report since 2002, the Odebrecht Group’s Annual Meetings since 2002 and milestone publications (Special Issue on Social Programs, 60 years of the Odebrecht Group, 40 Years of the Odebrecht Foundation and 10 Years of Odeprev)
Odebrecht
Founded in 1944, the Odebrecht Group is active in Engineering & Construction, Oil & Gas, Environmental Engineering, Real-Estate Developments, Infrastructure Investments, Chemicals & Petrochemicals, and Ethanol & Sugar. Its 82,000 Members are present in several countries in South, Central and North America, the Caribbean, Africa, Europe and the Middle East