Sponsor profiles: three companies that are bridging Brazil and Florida culture and trade

South Florida CEO, March, 2005

AllWorld

AllWorld Crosses Cultural Barriers with Communications Platform

AllWorld Language Consultants is trying to make it a small world with its suite of technical communication services that crosses cultural barriers.

The company, which opened its doors in Washington in 1994, has earned the trust of governments and private industry by offering accuracy, reliability and cost-effectiveness in a one-stop communications shop. Now, the company will leverage its new Miami regional headquarters to service more companies that need a multi-lingual, cross-cultural communications platform.

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Miami is proving an ideal location for the consultancy and its translation, interpretation, transcription, desktop publishing and video production expertise, says AllWorld President Carlos Scandiffio. He plans to use South Florida as a launching pad into Latin America.

"South Florida is a cultural window into South America and the world," Scandiffio says. "There are enormous possibilities for cross culturalization and the use of linguistics as a means of enhancing communication, and Miami allows us to open that window of opportunity."

What exactly is cross-culturalization? Scandiffio says it is something businesses desperately need these days. He describes it as taking a little bit of America and a little bit of Brazil (or any other country) and mixing it together. Each side of the equation--and sometimes the equator--learns about the other's language and culture. You might call it cross-pollenization of the nations.

"While many people talk about destroying cultural barriers, our quest has always been to establish open lines of communication for our clients," Scandiffio says. "Our goal is to bridge gaps and overcome barriers that have historically been the cause of misunderstanding and frustration."

AllWorld opened its Miami office nine months ago with 45 employees. Company-wide, it has 150 employees and about 800 subcontractors that support translations in nearly 150 languages and dialects.

AllWorld is leveraging that talent base to provide the translation services for Focus Brazil 2005, and will also produce a video documentation project that will include interviews with all the dignitaries present. The goal is to create a DVD that is representative of the entire project.

"All of our videos and DVDs are fully interactive and feature multiple language tracks," Scandiffio says. "It's just like if you were in an airplane. You can select the channel of your choice and hear the same message in your native tongue. It's a perfect training tool that uses the power of digital media."

Embraer

Brazil's Largest Aircraft Manufacturer Finds Its South Florida Operation Provides More Than a Sales Base

Many foreign companies have sales centers in South Florida, but aircraft maker Embraer Aircraft has turned its US operation into far more. The Brazilian company has called Fort Lauderdale home since it opened its doors there 35 years ago. The location, says Gary Spulak, president of Embraer Aircraft Holding Inc., Embraer's US subsidiary, is a corporate and commercial sales base, engineering, product support and technical assistance hub, too. It will soon even do aircraft assembly.

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"Embraer supports more that 500 aircraft for customers around the country, so a US base of operations is essential to building a close and highly reactive relationship with them," Spulak says.

The US market is Embraer's largest, accounting for some 67 percent of its sales for commercial and business aircraft. Of 1,519 aircraft delivered worldwide, more than 780 of them have been sent to the US since the company was founded in 1969. These deliveries not only make Embraer one of Brazil's leading exporters, but a leading importer of components as well, with the major portion of this trade coming from US suppliers.

While Brazil is home to Embraer's headquarters and other significant affiliated companies that employ 14,000, its Florida operations employ more than 200.

"The pro-business climate of Florida and the availability of a skilled work force provide the environment for us to grow, bringing more jobs into the region as we expand to meet our customers' requirements," Spulak says.

The exchange of ideas and culture between employees in the US and in Brazil, he adds, has enabled the company to learn new ways of meeting customer needs. Spulak says Embraer also has established significant partnerships with the local communities where it operates, and its employees have benefited from the quality of life and cultural diversity of the area.

Among the functions Embraer's Fort Lauderdale workforce engages in are engineering, product support, sales, marketing and sales engineering, product safety, as well as corporate functions such as finance, operations, human resources, and communications. Spulak says a new Jacksonville aircraft production facility will ultimately add an additional 200 employees.

"One similarity we find is in the people who come to work for Embraer, in Brazil and in Florida," Spulak says. "We find them to be passionate about their work and contributions. They have the ability to adapt to new cultures and have a keen sense of customer satisfaction."