Portuguese people who stand out abroad are helping to find out where the business opportunities are and what kind of companies and activities the country can attract. An initiative that brings together Negócios and the Portuguese Diaspora Council.

1. What led you to leave Portugal?

Curiosity, above all. A desire to travel, too! Finally, the conviction that it was the right time to leave my comfort zone. I didn’t know, in 2005, when I first expatriated to Geneva, that I would be away from Portugal for so long.

2. What advantages or disadvantages has being Portuguese brought you?

More advantages than the opposite. I’ve got used to thinking like that. I think that being a small country can be an advantage: we are quicker to adopt an open attitude to what the world has to offer us. The advantage of a pacifist tradition, in general, also helps. Finally, I feel grateful for the education I’ve had – a victory for democratic Portugal. I admire many of the teachers and schools I went through and I rate the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Porto very highly.

3. What obstacles did you have to overcome and how did you do it?

There are big and small challenges. First of all, my first name, Gonçalo, is hardly appropriate for an international career – I always had to spend time explaining how to read it! I speak metaphorically of language as a challenge, in the specific case of the People’s Republic of China. It’s difficult to learn, but fundamental; it’s an effort that brings you very close to the culture and which I underestimated in my first years living in Shanghai. The distance, too, when we live in cities that involve flights of more than 13 hours without direct air bridges with Portugal. As a country, we have the opportunity to be a much better air hub than we are today.

4. What do you admire most about the country you’re in?

I live between the People’s Republic of China and the United States which, today, is an extraordinary contrast in every way. I admire both countries very much for different reasons. If I had to choose one dimension of China, it would be its secularism. It is too significant, present and profound to be reduced to the last hundred years of history. This is, of course, true of all nations, but in China’s case it is impossible to understand the present without truly understanding its past. Very different from the United States, whose entrepreneurship I essentially admire. It’s extraordinary and winning; they are the largest economy in the world and continue to invent at a rate above the global average.

5. What do you admire most about your company/organization?

I’ve worked all my professional life in consumer goods. First at Procter&Gamble, then at Danone and finally at Lindt & Spungli. These century-old (or almost, in the case of Danone) and absolutely extraordinary organizations combine legacy and entrepreneurship, and I greatly admire what they share in their origin: they all started with an innovator(s) and their innovation.

I currently work in brands owned by a private equity firm that invests in businesses that challenge conventional categories to create sustainable alternatives. I admire, compared to large organizations I’ve worked for before, the speed of our decision-making, very characteristic of the VC and PE world in New York, but also the ability to imagine the future radically differently, without the “if’s and but’s” that we still hear too much in Europe.

6. What recommendations would you give to Portugal and its entrepreneurs and managers?

First, a positive outlook on the future. We have many opportunities “and the only way is up”. I believe strongly in Portugal’s ingredients for the world that is beginning to take shape over the next hundred years. I would like to see less red carpet and more boldness in all sectors of society, but particularly in the internal dynamics of organizations. Finally, to fail more: we need more business units to fail more and faster in order to move up the value chain and start operating in areas with a much higher margin (added value).

7. In which sectors of the country where you live can Portuguese companies find clients?

Many, particularly China and the USA, which are very large countries and economies. The food and consumer goods sector, which I know best, is very underutilized. One example, also metaphorical, is that it is impossible to understand why Portugal, unlike Spain, is not yet accredited to export ham (or pork, more generally) to the People’s Republic of China. It’s an easy thing that just requires organization and discipline on the part of the public and private operators involved.

I am also of the opinion that many small and medium-sized Portuguese industries, with very competitive (and innovative, in many cases) products, could greatly increase sales by being more strategic in their marketing budgets and using online distribution channels with low operating costs that allow them to scale up quickly and profitably.

8. In which sectors of Portugal might companies from the country you’re in want to invest?

All. Both the United States, preferably through its global companies, and the Chinese, in a more institutional way, already invest a lot. In a more unstable, conflict-ridden and autocratic world, I believe that Portugal will greatly increase its capacity to attract foreign investment in the coming decades. I think we’re at a critical moment in terms of stabilizing some of the determining factors in attracting productive investment. For major investments we need, first of all, the quickest and most effective decision, without public actors being afraid of the repercussions and consequences. The last few years have been an example of this. Secondly, we need more stability in contextual measures, with specific emphasis on fiscal policy. Finally, more consultation between the entities that receive public funding for this purpose and diplomacy. The same factors can help in attracting smaller investments, and here I understand that the tourism sector is still much smaller in absolute value than it can and will be.

9. What competitive advantage does your country have that could be replicated in Portugal?

The People’s Republic of China has a characteristic that can and should inspire the modernization of modern democracies. We must defend our political system, but innovate and find mechanisms not to allow the zigzags that ruin major alignments in strategic matters for the country. Democracies should be obliged to make major choices for a much longer-term plan that would benefit from a more stable, multi-annual process, going through legislatures that see different Presidents of the Republic and Heads of Government. Finding a formula adapted to our context in order to have a stable policy on issues that have a major impact on our competitiveness, such as the policy for large companies in the state business sector, priority investment industrial clusters, policy measures to attract investment, among other more complex issues such as justice and innovation. Continuity in these areas would have already multiplied our GDP in recent decades, in which we have accumulated large losses, some very visible and quantifiable and others smaller.

From the United States we have to learn how to adapt a more efficient judicial system that helps companies to win and fail faster. As this is not my area of training, and there is no question of copying the model, which has too many differences, I don’t intend to propose a solution, but this central idea that our justice system must be faster and more effective is fundamental, otherwise we will continue to fail to ensure that natural selection truly applies to the private sector and that the state continues to greatly limit the ability to innovate.

10. Are you thinking of moving back to Portugal? Why do you think so?

Yes, I do and I’m spending more and more time in Portugal. I find it funny that whenever I say in New York that I’m Portuguese, my American colleagues and friends (as well as the Chinese in Shanghai or Hong Kong) ask for advice on where in Portugal would be the best geography for them to locate. While this is a big challenge for Portugal in terms of real estate prices, especially in the big cities, it’s real proof of how much the rest of the world has realized our country’s growing opportunity in the new world order. There’s nothing like living outside Portugal to appreciate even more the country we are, ” in this case the grass is really greener”.