I love cork! I hate cork!

I am finishing up a quick trip to Portugal, only eight days, on behalf of Friends of Portugal. Some years ago I spent an entire August here, and learned that it was a time when the word "ferias/vacation", was perhaps only rivaled by "obrigado/thanks"in usage and appearance. With most of their European counterparts, the Portuguese enjoy their extended holidays as much as anyone. And as one hailing from the agricultural towns of Central California, the heat that the Portuguese complain about in August is typically mild to my own senses.

                      

It has been a good visit with many exciting meetings and conversations, and progress made. In the past year, Friends of Portugal has helped start a thrift shop in the town of Massamá, rented a large warehouse for furniture restoration, small appliance repair, bicycle repairs, and clothing sorting and storage for the thrift shop and local bazaars that churches hold for their neighborhoods. Each of these projects has been encouraging and we are touching people's lives in new and exciting ways. We are now working on an even more ambitious plan and set of projects for 2015 and beyond.

For Friends of Portugal, even with local multi-national leadership, our tasks, responsibilities, and initiatives typically take much longer here to get going than I am accustomed to. Sometimes even getting people to return simple phone calls takes days or weeks, and progress can be agonizingly slow. Each time I am in this wonderful country, I can experience equal parts of opportunity and challenge, calm and anxiety, accomplishment and failure, love and hate.  Let me explain.

Last year, I had the good fortune to spend a day in Napa with some dear friends as a guest of some premiere Napa Valley wineries, and enjoyed an amazing lunch, private tours of the caves, and several winemakers shared their vast knowledge of the industry, product, and personalities. During one of the talks, I asked about the use of cork in winemaking, having visited the cork museum some years ago in the south of Portugal in Silves (regrettably, since closed), and at that time had a great conversation with an employee of the long closed factory. That day I learned a great deal of a lost manufacturing process, natural and green and sustainable hundreds of years before its current vogue status emerged. 

Without hesitating, the winemaker said "I love cork! I hate cork!" He went on to explain that as a natural product and technique as contrasted to the more modern screw cap, cork was susceptible to the processes of air, time, contamination, and the uniqueness of one natural product (cork) coming into prolonged contact with another natural product (wine). And he concluded, and it was confirmed by the other winemaker, that on average 2% of all corked bottles of wine failed. Clearly, this was a significant challenge and criticism of using cork, when screw cap wine had a far lower failure rate.

But he went on to explain that cork also had the capacity to provide subtle and almost imperceptible nuances, shadings, and variations to the wine, and that cork could on occasion assist an excellent wine to become a superb wine. Thus, the "love and hate" relationship of cork was created in his mind and experience.

This is an important lesson for all of us who work internationally. When one visits a country (I think I am up to 24 or 25 in my life, not counting Kansas), one sees and experiences things that can bring out the country and people's own particular charm and peculiarities. Inconveniences can be excused and even laughed about when one is on tourist trip, especially when it can be in a country as charming as Portugal. For example, while in the U.S. we are wholly accustomed to having a restaurant modify, substitute, or customize a dish to our own likes, such things are not done in Portugal. Getting bread daily is another. The deep cultural belief that air conditioning causes all sorts of ailments another. Every country has these idiosyncrasies, and as a tourist with great fondness for this country and others, I usually have a tendency to chuckle and actually enjoy these temporary inconveniences.

However, in Portugal when one attempts to obtain a particular license, or receive comparable prices on real estate, or clarity about a particular law or regulation, it is not so simple as going online or calling a private or public office. Many of the things I take for granted in San Diego one simply cannot do so easy here. There is a pace to life here that I love and I hate--and it forces me to have greater patience than I would typically have.

There are probably few Portuguese cultural concepts that are as well known as fado. It is certainly a wonderful and unique musical form, but it is much more than that, for it serves as a philosophy of life that is within the Portuguese of all walks of life. The music and the philosophical perspective is melancholic, reflective, maudlin, fatalistic, and intrinsic. Yet it can also be a weird combination of hopeful and hopeless, and is full of love and affection and yet this is often torn away or unrealized. It can answer some questions of Portugal and yet is silent on even greater ones. 

My observation is that fado underscores both the challenges and the opportunities for long term work in Portugal. It is something that one can both love and hate. It speaks of both the Portugal of the past and the Portugal that is.  And as I look out into the future, it makes me wonder what the Portugal of the future will be.

Why Portugal Needs Entrepreneurs by Randy M. Ataíde

In the midst of what has been, from all reports and correspondence I have had, an amazing summer in Portugal for record numbers of tourists, a dark shadow has crept in amidst the sunny days full of great sights, culinary delights, and stunning history of this delightful country. And as is typical in Portugal, it has to do with the abuses of a few in powerful positions, and yet the entire country and its people is tarnished. I am speaking here of the news about Banco Espírito Santo, and what appears to be its imminent collapse.
There are few families as storied as the Espírito Santo family, whose investments include hotels in Europe and farms in South America, holding companies, and a murky balance sheet of intertwined companies across countries. Intertwined with the contemporary history of Portugal, the family has had a strong influence over Portugal’s economy for well over a hundred years, through the collapse of the monarchy in 1910, to the rise and fall of the Republic, the long gloom of Salazar, and through the Carnation Revolution of 1974 and the entry into the EU. As the highly leveraged "family business" struggles to survive, it appears that the bank will become nationalized, with the assistance of the EU banking system and the Portuguese Central Bank. 

Through all of this, the family and its empire has survived, and while the monarchy abdicated long ago, the aristocracy of the family persisted, and to some extent with its financial power and globalization, thrived. While every nation, including the U.S., has excessive power and wealth in the hands of of individuals, families, and companies, what Portugal lacks and struggles to implement is a culture of entrepreneurship. And until it reimagines what entrepreneurship is, and takes steps to create a more robust, friendly, and accepting climates of micro-enterprises both in the for-profit and the non-profit sector, it will remain overly susceptible to the abuse and neglect of the aristocracy of all sorts and shapes. 

Amidst the oft-cited reasons for fostering entrepreneurship in any country, one is often overlooked, and it is something that I have written and presented at an academic conference about--what I refer to as "the aristocracy of economics." The excessive and centralized consolidation of economic power and influence in the hands of any person, government, industry, etc., is, as history has shown, typically bad for all. Further, one should not view a "one size fits all" when it comes to economic systems and countries and regions, for there are unique elements to each setting and people should always have the freedom and liberty to choose what works best for them. History is rife with passionate advocates who replace one system with another, and simply replace the one set of powerful actors in control with another set.

All of these systems are always susceptible to being undermined and controlled by the aristocrats. And there is where entrepreneurship comes in, and why they are so important to  all of our futures, our communities, our nations. At its core, entrepreneurs disrupt existing power structures and systems, seeking efficiencies, uniqueness, and unrealized value. They wait not for the permission to do such things, nor do they typically have to cope with the organizational inertia and stagnation that larger existing entities have. They are much more free to fail, to "dust themselves off" and to try again, learning more from the experience and not letting it define who they are.

When aristocrats consolidate their power, and inherited wealth is freely passed to generations who have no knowledge, experience, and conception of the struggles of the lower and middle classes, one sows the seeds of disaster. That is one of the main reasons why billionaire investor Warren Buffett has refused to transfer his wealth to his children, and some other mega-rich families are agreeing to follow his example. This approach to inheritance would likely diminish the examples of those like Ricardo Espírito Santo Silva Salgado, the family patriarch and former head of the bank, who was arrested this past week in Portugal and charged with tax evasion and money laundering.

The good citizens of Portugal, and other countries as well including the U.S. and northern Europe, need to learn from these lessons. There are some nascent steps being taken within the EU, such as the Go Conference held earlier this year in Lisbon, fostering and stimulating young entrepreneurs. There are new programs and advocacy groups for entrepreneurship emerging, both within and outside of formal education in Portugal. These are all hopeful signs.

We need to seek more ways in which these young people, and young thinking people of any age, can reimagine and disrupt their own enterprises, ventures, churches, economies, political structures, not for the mere sake of change, but rather to foster new growth and prosperity for all.

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Surprise and Progress in Portugal by Randy M. Ataíde

In May 2014, my wife and I returned to Portugal, which is I believe my 12th or 13th trip there in the past ten years. Each time I journey to Portugal I am surprised by unexpected experiences, something I likely share with many visitors to this wonderful land. Of course, there are the great meals, the spectacular scenery, and the amazing history. These blessings seem to be never-ending, but I don't take them for granted.

Throughout this past decade, I was a witness, albeit at a distance, to the spectacular ascent, plateau, and then rapid decline of the economy in Portugal. Malls that were once full of shoppers strolling arm in arm with loaded bags of new purchases grew quiet, with only the food courts remaining busy. Portuguese people I know and care deeply for have lost their jobs, pensions have been slashed, the austerity painful and prolonged. Many of us in North America can hardly relate to what the Portuguese have endured, usually in a dignified silence shaped by a deep cultural mythology of fado. From my observations, the Portuguese have assigned primary blame upon themselves and their choices of leaders, something that perhaps we in North America could learn from.

Now, it appears that this long dark period may be slowly coming to an end, for there is indeed some "Progress in Portugal." I will write more upon the unique Portuguese response to this hopeful turn of events in a coming blog post, but for the moment I want to return to a more personal story and experience, a surprise, a blessing, a moment I am very grateful for.

When we arrived in Portugal in May, we discovered that a group of young Canadians had been in the country for a week or so as well, on a short term service trip from several churches. They were an eclectic group--some were quiet while others were outgoing; one would be fairly clear and determined in life plans and goals and perhaps another was in a process of searching. They were wonderfully alike and yet preciously distinctive.

Unbeknownst to the Canadians, they arrived at a time when the non-profit group I am grateful to be a part of, Friends of Portugal, was making some important decisions related to various projects and initiatives. (For more details on FOP, see www.friendsofportugal.net)  National leadership for FOP had written a feasibility study for several micro-projects designed to renovate vintage furniture and household appliances, the first phase of a more comprehensive vision of FOP to develop skills, job training, and self-sufficiency for the Portuguese. In less than 48 hours after our arrival, FOP succeeded in leasing a 2,500 square foot warehouse in an ideal location to support its various projects, and began to secure additional equipment such as storage racks, tools, and even a delivery and service van for FOP.

For many years I have often been in the role of decision-maker and leader in a number of ventures and businesses, and my observation is we typically get too much credit when things go really well and conversely we shoulder too much blame when things go poorly. But in this particular instance, despite whatever role I may have had in any decisions, the real credit goes to others in the supporting roles. And for Friends of Portugal and the leasing of this new facility, these young Canadians provided critical support at the exact time that it was needed. Their youthful enthusiasm, creativity, physical strength, and willingness to do the unglamorous work necessary to any enterprise was an enormous blessing and necessary injection of energy. Watching them sorting through hundreds of boxes of clothes, carefully examining and folding each piece, or young men jumping into the back of a storage van and "man-handling" appliances that can cause us older "lions" to chew Tylenol like chewing gum, is a source of deep appreciation, affection, and most importantly for all of us, hope.

Often, when young people contemplate doing some form of service on behalf of a community group, social enterprise, church, or other non-profit, they can approach such activities as "mountain top experiences" where results are palpable, quick, and gratifying. I don't know many who think of folding clothes for many days, or cleaning and sweeping an empty warehouse, or playing a simple game of football with some neighbor kids, as worthy of traveling thousands of miles at great expense, with accompanying inconveniences.

But these are the steps of progress that need to occur not only in the working out of our own lives and careers, but also in the lives of an entire country such as Portugal. Too often we want to focus upon a dramatic and colorful "breakthrough" but the reality is that these rarely can occur without a great deal of behind the scenes service, sweat, and toil.

So yes, we can say that there is "Progress in Portugal" just as much as we can say there is progress in the nonprofit Friends of Portugal. But this progress comes when one is blessed--even surprised--by the willingness of others to step in and provide help when it is most needed. This is what these young Canadians did in May and June of 2014.

If the Portuguese youth are similar to the Canadian youth I met this spring, then one can indeed be hopeful that there are good days ahead for Portugal. And in my heart that pumps  blood from my Portuguese ancestors, I believe that these are signs of good "Progress in Portugal."

Espaço Vida Mais para o Espaço Vida Novo (More Life Space for the New Life Space)

One of the key goals for the Friends of Portugal nonprofit organization is to assist the Portuguese in specific projects that are positive and uplifting, and those that seek to address pressing needs for the Portuguese. Due to the global financial crisis of the past five years, Portugal has been especially hit hard and many middle class Portuguese have lost their jobs and struggle to make ends meet.

In the fall of 2011, I helped with bringing a group of my MBA students to Portugal, and several of them worked on a class project for a business plan for a used clothing and household items store in Massama, a large town in the Lisbon suburbs. They envisioned a project that could serve as an extension of the very successful clothing bazaars that are held in the town of Loures on a regular basis, distributing at low cost to needy people clothing donated by various churches in Germany to Portugal. These bazaars have been going on for some years, but to reach additional people an another town and people group was sought out to launch a new venture, with the assistance of Friends of Portugal but needed as well the critical local leadership and guidance of the Portuguese who would operate the site..

After examination of many different sites and consideration of various approaches and concepts for the project, the local leadership proposed to Friends of Portugal to use a building adjoining the existing  Espaço Vida  Novo congregation in Massama, which formerly housed a butcher ("talho") shop. The Massama congregation began to rent this area a few years ago, and it has been used for various meetings, storage and additional church needs. Over the past months, an entire team effort was undertaken, leading to the creation of Espaço Vida Mais  ("New Space") to serve as the vintage clothing site.

Near the front entrance with a sign announcing the opening for September 15, 2013

 Espaço Vida Mais is truly a team project, and required a large group of volunteers coming from North Fresno MB Church recently to assist in a major renovation of the adjoining church facility, which allowed the church to make better use of its existing space. Leaders within the Massama congregation stepped forth to work long hours to conceive, organize and design a site appropriate to the community needs. A project manager for  Espaço Vida Mais emerged, R, who along with her husband E have been inspirational, creative, disciplined and well-organized, providing the creative "spark" needed to launch a new venture. Critical financial support for new cabinets, clothing racks, furniture, dressing room and other items was provided by Friends of Portugal. A local shipping company provides free space for the trucks and trailers from Germany to unload and store the clothes awaiting distribution. It has been an authentic team effort!

Massama and Friends of Portugal leadership preparing for the grand opening

These are exactly the kinds of projects that Friends of Portugal wants to assist with. They are a practical manifestation of creating partnerships using the strengths and resources of various individuals and organizations, from the United States, Germany and Portugal, none of which could likely accomplish Espaço Vida Mais on their own. And the Friends of Portugal leadership is grateful for any support it receives to help in projects like this one.

Be watching for a blog update once the store opens in September! God bless you Espaço Vida Mais e Espaço Vida Novo! Parabens!

When History Proves Kings to be Fools

One of the most interesting recurring discussions I have with Europeans (as well as other members of the British Commonwealth), is the view we Yank’s hold of the royalty. Now, regardless of what Good Morning America may tell you, other than a few spots in the eastern U.S., I think the vast majority of us are at best, ambivalent regarding royal families. Some of the recent “shenanigans” with the Dutch and Belgium royal families has a tendency to take the luster off the spectacle of a new baby for Kate and William.

It was not all that long ago that we mere commoners had no real opinion on such matters, for the “divine right of kings” had a long and fairly painful history before finally abandoned. A very severe example of this can be found in Portugal at the incredible Palacio Nacional de Mafra, located about 20 miles northwest of Lisbon.

I have visited the Mafra Palace many times, and it is indeed a spectacle to behold. Built in the 1700’s to fulfill a vow made by the Portuguese king if his wife gave birth (she happened to be an Austrian, but the interrelationships of the royals is entirely another tale), it stands nearly 800 feet long along the front, has 1,200 rooms and nearly 5,000 windows and doors! At one point nearly 45,000 workers toiled on the project, not including the soldiers needed to police the project and keep order, the cooks, butchers and thousands of others. It was an unparalleled project for Portugal, as King John V ordered that the finest craftsman and laborers from throughout Europe come to Mafra to create his palace. When finally completed over thirteen years later, the royal family then found it too gloomy for their tastes, and preferred to stay at one of their many other palaces throughout the land.

However, what is most fascinating to me about Mafra is that it does indeed appear to be a project that nearly destroyed a nation, and the true price of it is still being felt 300 years later. While in 2013 we think of Portugal as a “peripheral” member of the European Union, one of the weakest and least economically productive, during the reign of John V, this tiny country reaped vast sums from its colonies, most notably from Brazil. Literal shiploads of gold came from new mines in Brazil, and the trunks that carried it are still on display in some of the museums around Lisbon. There was a great wealth shift from Portugal to other countries as the bills for Mafra became due, including Germany, France, Italy and others. Among other historical events, the horrific earthquake of 1755 struck Lisbon and caused ruin and destruction, and the independence movement of Brazil erupted in the early 1800’s, sealed Portugal’s fate.

History can prove kings, and politicians, to be utter fools. While I greatly admire the Mafra Palace, and believe it is a treasure of Portugal and indeed the world, I wonder what could have occurred in the fate of Portugal if instead of a royal class being feted and catered to, entrepreneurship, mercantilism, free enterprise, manufacturing and political and religious freedom would have been nurtured. Did Mafra prevent Portugal from being a “small giant,” a country big enough to have leadership in business but small enough to be discreet, nimble and astute? We will never know, but many historians believe that these forays into the fulfillment of the ruling class’s desires, be they initiatives, programs, legacies, or palaces, can commit later generations to obligations they simply cannot fulfill, and the entire course of history is changed. This is not just a lesson from the history of Portugal, but one all of us in the 21^st century, regardless of where we call home, need to keep in mind.

Of Palaces, Paintings, Portugal and Price of Admission

For many years I have enjoyed visiting museums, monuments, and other major landmarks that this wonderful world has to offer. From the spectacular Louvre in Paris, the Getty in Los Angeles, or the Imperial War Museum in London, and even the Mennonite Settlement Museum in Hillsboro, Kansas, I have always enjoyed seeking out what the local culture has to offer in the way of palaces, museums, galleries and related points of interest. (Sidebar—a few weeks ago I took a cab from one train station to another in Paris and the summer crowds at the Louvre were absolutely stunning. Total gridlock!)

Portugal is no exception and boasts many fine exhibitions throughout the country. One of my favorites is Quinta da Regaleira near Sintra, an amazing estate with a palace, grottoes, tunnels, ponds, gardens and terraces. The Palácio Nacional de Queluz is a charming palace with whimsical gardens, a great collection of silver, and a sense that the royal family of Portugal is simply away on holiday. The Gulbenkian Museum is world renowned for its amazing collection of Rembrandts, Rubens and other masters, and boasts a symphony and cultural activities. And amazingly, many of these exhibitions in Portugal are free or very low cost. I recall a few years ago wandering acres of amazing Roman excavations of Conimbriga, of a scale, size and condition rivaling any other site in Europe, and being charged a single Euro! Many other examples abound of free or heavily discounted admissions throughout Portugal. But I have long wondered at the wisdom of what I perceive to be an overly generous pricing system in Portugal for its cultural and historical treasures.

Recently, I visited for the first time Palácio Nacional da Pena above the charming town of Sintra, and wandered the stunning hillside terraces, gardens and pathways that led to one of the most amazing palaces I have ever seen. A whimsical, eclectic and romantic mixture of styles the Pena Palace is a feast for the senses. And as we walked up to the set of small kiosks at the Palace entrance, an amazing thing happened—they charged admission! And for the first time in all of my journeys to Portugal, I paid an admission fee that, while still quite low at 13 euros, was in line with what one pays at other museums in Europe. Clearly, for a palace and grounds of this size, the Pena Palace needs to charge at least this amount to manage its preservation, restoration and heritage. And it was actually a very good thing to see a crew of artisans at Pena carefully working in the main hall to return it to its past glory.

Now, don’t get me wrong, because I like free things. In fact, I love free things and I even have a lecture in my entrepreneurship courses titled “Why spend a dollar when a dime will do?” And I also have a pretty good sense of market forces, competition and proper pricing for goods and services. But I have long felt that Portugal has undervalued its treasures, products, collections, culture and history. As a Californian, I frequently say that in my home state when something hits one hundred years old, we promptly close it and turn it into a museum and charge admission. One of my favorites is Hearst Castle, where I have visited around 20 or more times, and admission is $25 for a fairly limited and highly restricted tour. The Pena Palace gives absolutely nothing away to Hearst Castle!

Not so here—the sense of antiquity, history and culture simply oozes from the pores of Portugal, and yet it is too often not properly recognized by its citizens, let alone the touring masses that are flooding Venice, Rome, London, Athens and other European sites. Even at the current peak tourist season, it is still a fairly simple thing to move around the country. But Portugal needs to understand and value its treasures even more, and do a far better job at marketing them. Being here in August, it is clear that the U.K., Germans and some other northern European nations have figured out the incredible bargain that is warm and sunny Portugal. It is to other markets and populations that Portugal needs to reach out to, for there is much to see, do and experience, and all at rock bottom prices, in this amazing land.

Is a Vacation a Vacation? Summer in Portugal

We are now in Portugal for the month of August, which is a bit unusual as most of my trips have been during months other than the prime vacation season. I had heard for many years that in Portugal, like the majority of the European Union, effectively took the month of August off and went for holiday, usually to the southern area of the Algarve or other coastal regions. And I have found that, despite the economic difficulties, the tradition remains generally in place in Portugal.

It has been long reported that such is not the case in Canada and the U.S. Most countries throughout the world, as diverse as England and Venezuela, have labor laws requiring paid vacation for employees. Such is not the case in the U.S, where no such laws exist. Now before one accuses the U.S. of sheer barbarism when it comes to leisure, the reality is that business practices and customs in the U.S. often set a standard of 10-14 days of paid vacation per year for   a full-time employee, plus holidays. This means that for many U.S. employees, there is a total of about 15-20 total paid days off per year.

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But in Europe, things are much different, and the majority of countries, including Portugal, have a total of 30-40 paid holidays per year, required by law. While the economic crisis has removed some of the traditional holidays from the Portuguese schedule, by U.S. and Canadian standards, Portugal is still far more generous than North America. Indeed, I have met many Europeans who have 45-60 paid holidays per year, affording them the time (and money) to do major international travel.

In Portugal, I am observing some small and nascent signs of economic life and vitality once again, like sprouts of grass after a long winter. There are cranes over some buildings, homes under construction, automobile dealers open for business. But there are also many empty buildings and stores, and one sees many structures in disrepair. However, some economic data is emerging that after a long period of contraction; the economy is stabilizing and growing, even if just a small amount. This is very welcome news.

But what should one think about the vacation generosity of Europe? I think we can view this in several ways. First, I have always been a firm believer in the economic, spiritual, personal, and financial value of having employees who have sufficient time for rest. Coming from the agricultural industry, which can be notoriously stingy in granting paid vacations, I strove to have a company policy that was generous on vacations and holidays, and I believe that our company success was positively influenced in how we treated our employees in this regard.

However, if I were a young Portuguese, or even a not so young Portuguese, and needed to establish my enterprise, career, or profession, I would take the month of August, as well as other slow times, and use it to further my goals and interests. If the competition has gone on vacation, then be counter-intuitive and provide great service or products during this time. View it as an opportunity or option and not something mandatory, unless you have achieved your personal and professional goals and take this time away from a position of strength and prosperity.

In the final analysis, it may well be that both cultural approaches are correct. I think that the U.S. should have a longer paid vacation system than we currently have, and possibly even a minimum required by law of 7-10 days for full-time employees and 5-7 for part time employees. But I don’t think that the country should shut down in August, with a bulk of the workforce heading out for holidays. We already do much of this during Christmas and New Years, but when the Portuguese, French and even the Germans disappear for holiday in the summer, they give emerging and established competitors a great foothold to succeed. Take time off, but not all at once!