Tereza Fleury: fear, fearless, forerunner
BRICS, the acronym coined two decades ago by economist Jim O’Neill to describe five fast-growing economies with huge geopolitical potential: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, immediately caught the business world’s imagination and was soon the topic of innumerable conferences and forums around the world.?
In line with this interest in the new global players, in 2009 one of the key business schools’ conferences included a panel made up of deans from BRICS countries.?Maria Tereza??Fleury,?then dean of?EAESP Funda??o?Getulio Vargas, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, remembers the occasion well. She expressed the views of many other representatives of emerging economies when she said: “We don’t want to be providers of business schools in developed countries; we want to be partners.” Partners, not providers became the leitmotiv of the conference and was echoed in other presentations.?
Fleury’s proposition is legitimate and reflects the aspirations of businesses and organizations in emerging economies that want to open up to globalization and are looking for equitable relationships with their partners, reciprocity, a shared vision and a fair distribution of profits. This is also often the response to multinationals looking to enter emerging economies guilty of a colonialist attitude. The same applies to education. For example, when I talk to journalists outside Europe and I’m asked if the institution I represent, IE University, intends to open a campus outside Europe, I tend to reply that our preferred strategy is to develop activities in other countries on a partnership basis, because those universities will have a better understanding and knowledge of the local market. Education is a culturally sensitive area, as well as one subject to all kinds of local regulations and restrictions.?
My experience has shown that a good number of academic directors are outliers in terms of their profile and career. When Fleury was appointed dean of Sao Paulo University’s business school, she didn’t seem the most likely choice: she was a woman, and, sadly, barely 30% of faculty in the top business schools are female.?
During her career as an academic director, Fleury has given special importance to the nature of the institutions where she has worked, their mission and their values:?“I think that each institution has its own values, which are often strong and shared, and the manager who leads the institution needs to hold values aligned with the institution, since you have to believe in what you are doing.
I was very lucky to be able to lead two very important business schools in Brazil, first a public business school, at University of Sao Paulo, with a very different governance style from the privately run FGV I led afterwards. In both cases I had to discuss and negotiate the agenda with peers, mobilize resources, formulate the strategy, and foster its implementation. Unless you feel a strong sense of identity and share the values of your institution all those challenges become unbearable.”
Fleury believes in the power of education to transform a society: “Education is decisive for a country’s development; business schools can play a big role preparing the next generation of leaders.
I led a group of colleagues who created the first MBA program at the University of Sao Paulo, because we wanted to prepare the next generations to face the challenges of the 1990s and the beginning of the new century. And I think somehow, we made difference, because we were pioneers. We also implemented a quota system giving preference to students from public, rather than private schools. This helped the inclusion not only of females but also of minorities”
During her mandate as dean of FGV, Fleury consolidated the school’s international presence. I have met her at several forums and networking events, from the OECD annual conference in Paris, to the Academy of International Business meeting, which I have chaired. She is a tireless presence on panels, running conferences, participating in committees and boards, as well as meeting one-on-one with colleagues. She is multifaceted, able to move easily from research to management, taking part in a range of forums where she interacts with the most relevant stakeholders in the academic and business worlds. This ability to be not just a generator of knowledge, a guru, but also an academic leader in every sense makes her what I like to call a kangaroo, adept at leaping from one activity to another and performing equally well in all.?
Fleury is an optimist by nature, despite the challenges facing the world, and her own country. She is currently teaching a course on International Business, addressing the problems raised by the trade war between China and the United States, in which she believes the EU could play a role as mediator.?
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She believes that technology means global integration an irreversible process, making the role of government and multilateral organizations is particularly relevant in supervising and creating regulations and controls to promote innovation and sustainability. Brazil will be important in agriculture, she says, but the Amazon must be protected for the good of the planet.?
At a meeting in Brighton in 2019 organized by the University of Sussex, she says she was struck by how sad and nostalgic one of her colleagues was as he told her he was writing a book for his?descendants about how the world is heading for annihilation. For her part, Fleury says were she to write a book for her grandchildren, she would try to come up with something positive, emphasizing all the good things that have been achieved, as well as what can still be done. “We have to prepare the new generations promoting diversity, promoting inclusion, and changing the mindset of the Brazilian leaders as regards the people who come from different parts of the country, people with different backgrounds, gender, and status.?"
I believe that we can help to transform the mindset of this new generation and prepare them to be more entrepreneurial, more socially committed and open to new opportunities in technology. We have to prepare them for this new scenario with careers spanning 50 years and that will change many times. At the same time, while we try to instill ethical values in our students, we know that what’s happening in the business world is not setting a good example. We have to reinforce ethics constantly.”
Fleury says that she has been fortunate to have been supported at key moments over her career, highlighting the mentorship of Ruth Cardoso, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Sao Paulo, social entrepreneur and the wife of Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a former president of Brazil. Ruth Cardoso was behind the creation of the Bolsa Familia, the social welfare program introduced by President Lula da Silva in 2003. Cardoso was due to accompany Fleury at her inauguration as dean of FGV in 2008, but died a few days before.?
As a sociologist, Fleury is familiar with the work of Hannah Arendt and believes her ideas, while formulated in the early 20th?century, are still relevant. Arendt wrote about work, labor relations and the workplace. Fleury explains that since the last century, thinkers have done much to contribute to improving labor conditions. Taylorism was a major breakthrough in defining posts and performance. Peter Drucker’s proposals for management by objectives, although initially criticized, has been implemented in many ways in most companies, while the concept of the knowledge worker has gradually replaced that of the traditional factory operative or the sales clerk. Japanese management techniques, which Fleury has also studied, has influenced the modern workplace through concepts such as quality circles, long-term employment and team work.?
Fleury believes that labor relations and working practices will continue to be subjected to rapid change, driven by the development of new technologies. She cites the example of an event shortly before we spoke, in July 2019, when truck drivers went on strike and blockaded roads and ports, bringing the country to a standstill. Rather than through traditional union meetings, the strike was organized through social networks. “This is the way that social movements now organize. I believe that if Hannah Arendt were alive, she would be very active on??social media” concludes Fleury.?
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Note: An extended version of this article, along with references, was published in my book In an Ideal Business