News
Segunda-feira, 4 - Abril - 2011
Flavio gives interview to Estado de S. Paulo
"If my plan had been a flop, I would've been in debt today."
The CEO of Ometz Group, Flávio Augusto, gave an interview to journalist Luiz Guilherme Gerbelli, the newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo, published in the print edition and the web, this Monday, April 4, a day after the 16th birthday of Wise Up
Gerbelli introduces the interview by saying that when the reader reaches the end of the text, Ometz Group, which is part of the English School Wise Up, will have obtained two more students. "Five minutes is the elapsed time between enrollment and another chain created by 39 year-old entrepreneur Flávio Augusto,in 1995."
Below is the interview published by the newspaper:
Estado de Sao Paulo: How did the idea of opening a language school come about?
Flávio Augusto: At 19, I started working at a language school and four years later I was the district manager.At the time,I didnt think too much of the product offered and I felt pretty bad working in the comercial department.At 23, I decided to open the first Wise Up branch in Rio. Months later, we opened another branch in the Avenida Paulista in Sao Paulo. I started with a $ 20 000 real investment with an overdraft protection agreement and 12% interest rate. If my plan had gone wrong,I would've been paying dues today.
Estado: What factors prompted the expansion?
FA: Between 1998 and 2000, we rearrenged the business to franchise brands and also created other types of market.Wise Up was more focused on the upper and middle class. Other brands such as Lexical, reached the middle and working classes, while the Go Getter got the corporate market. This year, we inaugurated a course for the teenage audience. Our DNA has always been expanding, but never came into my head that a company with initial capital of $ 20 000 could reach a market value of $ 800 million.
Estado: What's the expectation entering upon a more young oriented course?
FA: We are already leaders in teaching English to adults.For teenagers, we're gonna offer a different program, in the morning and afternoon. We invested approximately $ 4 million in this new program and the expectation is to enroll 20 000 students in the first semester.
Status: In 2010, Wizard bought Yázigi. How do you see this market concentration?
FA: Some of our competitors in our industry are betting on the path of acquisitions, but this is not our priority.Each company will seek to explore what it has as its strongest competitors. In our case, it is innovation and investment in people. For now, let's keep that direction.
Estado: Does Ometz receive takeover bids from other groups?
FA: We are the target of proposals for international groups that have shown great interest in our growth.So far, we had no interest in these proposals because we have sufficient capital to maintain our expansion without additional contributions. This year we have an ambitious goal: to grow 100%.
Estado: What other projects do you have for this year?
FA: We may invest heavily in international expansion.We are close to finish our seventh school in Argentina and three in the States, where we are teaching English to latin people. I think the American market is very promising, because half of the 60 million latins living in the U.S. has no fluency in the language. And those who speak English have more chances to get good opportunities. We must also continue with our expansion to Bogota (Colombia), Guadalajara (Mexico) and Santiago (Chile).
Estado: What is the perspective on the domestic market?
FA: Less than 3% of the Brazilian population speaks English in a scenario where major international companies are investing in our country, which increases the requirement of the language to get a position in a multinational company.This is aside from the events we will host like the World Cup in 2014 and the 2016 Olympics. Futhermore, we have increased household income, making plausible more than 30 million new consumers in the working class. Thus, the demand for people who want to master the language grows by the day, supporting the expansion of the sector.
Estado: What is your educational background?
FA: I came from a lower middle class family in Rio and my educational background is funny. I studied computer science, but dropped out my major, which currently wouldn't serve much of anything to me. It turns out that I have reached executive positions in a very quick way and that led me into business administration. I think of myself as an inborn manager, but also learned to develop this side. I overlook 10000 employees and I consider myself an active president. I work with professionals in the areas of finance, communication, among others, and I'm good at uniting everyone in favor of a group project as a whole. I think this as being an entrepreneur.