At the age of 23, having recently graduated from the computer engineering course at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp), César Gon opened a startup focused on software development with two college friends, Bruno Guiçardi and Fernando Matt, who continue to run the business . Thus, in 1995, CI&T was born. “It was a different time, with the beginning of the commercial internet as a business tool in Brazil and around the world”, recalls Gon, now 47 years old.
The company prospered, internationalized and became a multinational with offices in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, China and Japan. More than 2.800 people work at the company, which expects to reach R$1 billion in revenue in 2020 and was elected the main Google partner worldwide from 2014 to 2016.
Today, CI&T's main offering is no longer custom-made software for corporate clients. “Two years ago, we created a methodology, called Lean Digital Transformation, to help brands born in the 20th century adapt to the business environment of our century.” In this interview given at Prisma, the name of the building that houses the company in Campinas (SP), Gon explains the company's new business proposal and tells the secrets of the trajectory of a Brazilian startup that transformed into a global company.
What is the Lean Digital Transformation that you offer to the market?
The objective of this proposal is to change processes and the culture of corporate environments of major brands born in the 20th century, so that they have the agility required in the digital era of the 21st century. We want to help corporations on this transformation journey, adding value that can impact their business. No company, no matter how successful it may have been in the past, can do without redesigning itself from the customer's perspective. It is no surprise that the presidents of the largest companies in the world understand digital transformation as a cultural challenge, and not just a technological one.
What is this methodology based on?
It is based on three elements: change in the way the company designs and builds digital solutions based on the Lean philosophy [see explanation below]; transformation of its management system with the adoption of short learning cycles; and redesign of the leadership model, without fear of making mistakes. These three components make the company's digital transformation, which will become faster, more innovative and customer-focused. Obviously, this applies to the technology area. You can't compete in the modern world without software and information being the heart of your business. But we need to go beyond technology and promote a change in culture and way of thinking.
Why is it important for brands to make this transition?
Competition between companies in the 21st century is obsessively focused on the speed with which, through data analysis, we understand, serve and surprise the customer. But large corporations are slow by nature and are not prepared for this reality. They look to the side and see an Amazon, a Google or an Apple, which were born in the digital environment and are much faster than them.
With a presence in Brazil, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, China and Japan, the company expects to reach R$1 billion in revenue in 2020
Is it not just a matter of adapting to new technologies, but of establishing a new relationship with consumers?
Undoubtedly. The way we relate to brands is radically different from 10 years ago. Our desire is more volatile, we have less attachment to tradition. We want to know if that brand solves our problems, if it understands us and treats us in a unique way. The possible way out is to truly connect in this volatility, in this uncertainty.
Where did you get inspiration to create this proposal?
The Lean method originates from the word “lean” in English, and emerged in the production lines of the Japanese automaker Toyota in the 1980s. It proposed implementing a more simplified process flow, aiming to reduce waste of resources – materials, time, labor work etc. – and increasing added value for the customer. We were inspired by this method to expand customers’ digital skills.
In practice, how does this transition happen?
The program is long-term, but with short goals. We want the company to learn to think in smaller business cycles, of three months. What can you do in this time? Changing the learning dynamics of companies.
Could you give examples of a client who goes through this process?
Our portfolio in Brazil has 30 large corporations, including Coca-Cola, Itaú, Raízen and Cielo. At Coca-Cola, we are helping to implement a set of principles to change the way it organizes itself, connects with the public and solves consumer problems. This means shortening the release cycle, going from two or three years to three or four months.
Has the company already launched products on this innovation trail?
Yes. The first was a line of family juices, which hit the market along with digital tools that collect data on the product's receptivity. The second was a natural soft drink, a new category in the world. Basically, we don't want to create mass products, like Coke Zero, but to understand the habits of each consumer. If Coca-Cola can be a machine for understanding, experimenting and launching, with a data-driven culture, it will become more intelligent and closer to the consumer.
CI&T has also undergone a transformation process since its creation, right?
The company was born in 1995 focused on software engineering at the beginning of the commercial internet as a business tool. We viewed the internet as a gateway and specialized in specific technologies. Our focus was the national market. This first chapter of our history lasted about 10 years. Then the internationalization process began.
Leo Ramos Chaves Campinas (SP) is home to one of the four CI&T development centers in the world
What was the transition like from a startup focused on Brazil to a global company?
In the 2000s, anyone who wanted to participate in the information technology industry game on a global level needed to have a classification seal for software manufacturers, called CMMI [acronym for Integrated Capability Maturity Model]. We were the first Brazilian company to obtain it, in 2004. From then on, we signed contracts in the United States.
How did this happen?
We got there by offering customized software, but the business environment, especially in Silicon Valley, showed that this was an outdated model. The industry of the future was one of innovation. It was necessary to master a set of technologies and discover how they could create disruptions for companies and consumers. The business no longer meant sitting around waiting for demand. It was necessary to provoke the customer with technological opportunities and propose solutions and innovations. At that time, around 2006, social media, smartphones, cloud computing and the entire arsenal of big data began to emerge.
These forces changed what could be done with technology from a consumer perspective.
Certainly. We now have billions of people with a device that fits in their pocket connected through social media, generating billions of data. There was also a drop in computational costs and the advent of artificial intelligence techniques. This changed the game. It was no longer possible to design software like before. The possibilities were different.
How did you adapt to that moment?
We reduce bureaucracy in the way software is produced and create another value offer for the market. We overcome the business model by specification and technical design and start working plugged into the client's problems. The engineering team approached the business team. Proactively, we presented customers with technological possibilities that would allow them to generate digital assets and experiences. It was the second chapter of CI&T, which lasted until 2017, when we created the Lean Digital Transformation proposal.
How does Prisma, the company's headquarters in Campinas, fit into this new phase?
Prisma is a digital transformation co-creation space opened in 2016. Part of the cultural change we propose involves creating collaborative environments, where people exchange ideas and release what we call collective intelligence. It is necessary to physically dismantle staid corporate environments and create new spaces with fewer symbols of power and hierarchy – something that is already happening in Silicon Valley. In the coming months, we will create a second CI&T Prisma in California.
Will it house CI&T's business unit in the United States?
Yes. We already serve Motorola, Johnson & Johnson and Google, among other clients. For Google, we create finance and marketing software, but our relationship is as a partner, notably in machine learning and cloud computing.
Leo Ramos Chaves Opened at the end of 2016, the company's central building has environments that encourage co-creation
CI&T is present in which markets?
United States, Canada, China, Japan and Europe, notably in England. Half of the revenue, of more than R$600 million in 2018, is generated in Brazil and the rest abroad, mainly in the United States, with around 85% of international revenue. Here, the entire portfolio is digital transformation, but abroad this offer represents 65% of the total – the rest are contracts focused on innovation. In two years, we should have 100% of the portfolio in this value proposition.
How is the company growing?
In the last 15 years we have doubled in size every three years, on average, and we want to reach R$1 billion in 2020, keeping more than 50% of the business abroad. The foreign market is a competitive ruler, since the United States is the first division of our industry. We have to win the game there.
How is the R&D sector structured?
In the digital world, the traditional vision of R&D is absolutely anachronistic, in which you have a laboratory with PhDs, disconnected from the customer's reality, creating things of value. Try to find the R&D area of Google or Amazon. It's impossible. Each Google engineer is an innovation cell. That's how I like to think about CI&T. The word R&D has never been applied to the software industry. And as every industry is becoming a software industry, it applies less and less.
So, what is the role of CI&T development centers?
These centers, located in Campinas, Belo Horizonte, Tokyo, in Japan, and Nimbo, in China, concentrate intensive human capital processes for the production of clients' digital platforms, such as applications, e-commerce portals, databases for big data It is analytics. Belo Horizonte is our export hub focused on remote technologies and services destined for the United States. Campinas focuses on the financial, retail and e-commerce areas. The centers in China and Japan develop technologies for smartphones and e-commerce. We have six other business units. In total, there are more than 2.800 employees, 120 in the United States, 100 in China, 40 in Japan and around 10 in Europe.
How much do you invest in innovation and how big is the team dedicated to it?
Can't answer. Recently, Google, Facebook and Silicon Valley companies announced that they would no longer require an engineering degree. Here at CI&T, our talent attraction processes have been hands on, an expression in English that means “come here, work with us, develop solutions and see if it makes sense to work together”.
Does the diploma, then, make no difference?
Our hiring has little to do with a degree, although most of the employees come from Unicamp and USP [University of São Paulo]. But that's not the starting point. In selection processes, we prioritize candidates' skills, learning speed and ability to collaborate in a multicultural work environment, with respect for diversity. For us, that's what matters.
This text was originally published by FAPESP Research according to the Creative Commons license CC-BY-NC-ND. read the original here.
