Sao Paulo – Day 2 (May 3)

pfizer sao paulo
Originally uploaded by PBryden.

Up early for breakfast and out to the Sao Paulo Business School for a presentation on “Doing Business in Brazil”. Prof. Gregorio Stukart was very candid and animated about the situation in Brazil; in his estimation the two biggest issues that Brazil faces are the disparity between the rich and the poor, and the level of government bureaucracy.

Lunch was at the weigh-what-you-eat buffet, a great idea that might work well in Calgary. Basically you load up your plate, pop it on a scale, a receipt prints out and you settle up after you’re finished. Both the lunch and the B-School visit were in the newer business district of the city, although I am not sure which of the 7 or 8 downtowns it was,…this city is simply massive! We visited DowAgro Brazil after lunch and had a great presentation by Dave from Texas,...of all places. At 4:30 we took the bus back to the hotel and experienced my first real traffic jam in Sao Paulo, rush hour in any other city pales in comparison.

Barry, Luc, Eric and I walked a few blocks down the local Extra Foods, this is what they call a “hyper-mart” (think of a regular sized North American Wal-Mart and then add two more). On the way to and back from the hyper-mart we saw many cool little shops that seemed to cater to the middle to upper middle class. The stores were mostly small boutiques with Brazilian clothes, shoes, toys etc,… but none of the International name brand things.

Dinner was at a really fantastic restaurant named Figueira Rubaiyat. Frommer’s describes it as “surely the most beautiful restaurant in the city“. The centerpiece of the restaurant is a 150 year old fig tree that the entire restaurant is built around. The ceiling is all glass and the major branches of the tree stick right our of the roof. Now a fig tree that is 150 yrs. old might not be that big in Canada where we have a five month growing season, but remember that Brazil has a twelve month growing season so this would be like a 300 year old tree in Canada. It was truly a neat experience and might be worth the trip to Sao Paulo alone, not to mention the unbelievable dessert bar at the place! Back to the hotel for a 2 beer night cap and then off to bed.

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Thoughts:
Sao Paulo is a massive city 17 to 18 million inhabitants
People dress very business-like and a very friendly
It is not hard at all to find someone who speaks very good English.