An interview with Joao Araujo

Company: MERCAL, Gestao e Marketing Internacional
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Position: Head of the Strategy and International Marketing Department

Where did you learn the basics of running a business?
I have learned the basics of running a business by understanding how to run my own life. Successfully organizing one’s life is a very good head start to understand and apply the basics of organization and time planning, delegation and responsibility, capacity to think under stress and to make hard decisions, networking, the need for innovation and most of all the importance of communication.

Whom did you work with before becoming a consultant?
Since day one I have worked as a Consultant. My career path took me through Deloitte Consulting and KPMG before finding Mercal Consulting Group and a more modern way of helping our client’s to achieve their goals.

What will you do in ten years?
With so many challenges ahead of us and with so many interesting uncertainties in this Global World, achieving Mercal’s strategic plan will lead us to become a reference in the management consulting services in Portugal and successfully run offices in Madrid (Spain), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Luanda (Angola).

What kind of people do you like to work with?
I like to work with people that are passionate about life, are able to think out-of-the-box and that truly believe in the work they do.

Is there someone whom you would describe as intelligent?
I would consider Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance man, as a very intelligent individual. Leornardo was perhaps one of the most diversely talented people ever to have lived. He was a scientist, a mathematician, an engineer, an inventor, a painter, a sculptor, an architect and a writer. Most of all, his creative mind has offered the World marvellous paintings and his engineering skills allowed him to conceive ideas ahead of his own time. A true genius capable of creating!

After working many years as a consultant you managed many projects. Are there really special ones among them?
There are two types of projects that are extremely interesting to manage: start-up projects, because you can share the enthusiasm of new entrepreneurs; and complex projects with a wide range of companies. In 2007 Mercal had the opportunity to work with these two types of projects: not only we have helped a few start-ups with their business plans, but also we were able to cooperate with the Portuguese Institute that supports SME’s in analysing a set of 81 SME’s in order to define which ones were the best SME’s in Portugal.

Why is your company a member of IMCN?
IMCN offers Mercal Consulting Group a modern and flexible way of networking with other Consulting Firms. Every country has its own way of functioning and IMCN allows us to get insights that otherwise would be very difficult to obtain. It really adds value to our international assignments and, therefore, to our clients.