{"id":154378,"date":"2014-07-21T16:47:41","date_gmt":"2014-07-21T19:47:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=154378"},"modified":"2014-08-21T16:54:20","modified_gmt":"2014-08-21T19:54:20","slug":"precocious-entrepreneurship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/precocious-entrepreneurship\/","title":{"rendered":"Precocious Entrepreneurship"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CARREIRASDaniel Bueno<\/span>Entrepreneurship came into the life of H\u00e9lio Rotenberg at a very early age. Rotenberg, 52, has been the president of Positivo Inform\u00e1tica since 1989 and of the Positivo Group, which is in the education business, since 2012. \u201cAt 14 I was already giving private classes, and at 18, I started my first business venture, Pattin, a roller skating rink in Curitiba,\u201d he says. Rotenberg received a bachelor\u2019s degree in civil engineering from the Federal University of Paran\u00e1 (UFPR) and a master\u2019s in information technology from the Pontifical University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RJ). When he finished his master\u2019s in 1987, he returned to the Paran\u00e1 state capital with one burning question: would he pursue a PhD or start a business? Uncertain, he taught classes at the Information Technology Department of the Federal Technology Education Center of Paran\u00e1 (Cefet-PR).<\/p>\n

A TV commercial about the information technology course offered by Faculdades Positivo\u2014now Positivo University\u2014helped him make the decision. \u201cMy father knew one of the professors, who suggested I talk to Professor Oriovisto Guimar\u00e3es, one of the founders of the Positivo group,\u201d he recalls. \u201cDuring our first conversation I explained what information technology is, without using buzzwords or technical terms, and was hired.\u201d In 1988, he started teaching and became director of the information technology program. \u201cThat was when I saw an opportunity to sell computers to those schools that had already purchased our educational material,\u201d he says. After researching the market, he realized that it would be feasible to set up a computer factory, and so he took the idea to the Positivo partners. And so the company, which was already a well-known educational group, branched off into a new area, which, at the time, was just beginning to take its first steps. In May 1989, Positivo Inform\u00e1tica was born and Rotenberg, then 27, became the company\u2019s top executive.<\/p>\n

\"Rotenberg:

Grupo Positivo<\/span>Rotenberg: from education to the development of computer manufacturingGrupo Positivo<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

The project of getting the company started began, as he tells it, with a simple realization: that the more than one thousand schools that had acquired the right to use the Positivo methodology could teach information technology to their students, using the most suitable educational materials\u2014computers. They could be manufactured and sold to the schools along with the methodology. \u201cI talked to one of our teachers, who assured me that it was a simple matter to assemble a computer,\u201d says Rotenberg. He learned how to make them and developed a business plan to sell 30 computers a month at a price that today would be the equivalent of R$15,000. \u201cNow we sell more than 200,000 pieces of equipment a month,\u201d says Rotenberg, who in his free time likes to read, watch good movies, and spend time with family and friends. He says his academic training was vital: \u201cThe academic experience gave me the foundation and the confidence that enabled me to take risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his opinion, the biggest challenge facing any business leader these days is finding the best talents on the market: identifying them, attracting them, and retaining them. \u201cThe competition for good people is becoming increasingly stiff,\u201d he says. Especially in a technology company, another challenge is remaining current in the midst of a scenario of more and more technological products. \u201cResearch, and investing in innovation are the keys to success,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To Rotenberg, investing in innovation is the key to success","protected":false},"author":475,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1204],"tags":[226,243],"coauthors":[785],"class_list":["post-154378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-careers","tag-education","tag-innovation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154378\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154378"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=154378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}