Much more than most, Sérgio Maria’s occupation has been about transition and transformation. In a doing the job daily life serving to regular enterprises navigate the upheavals of new technologies, he has also rethought his own path together the way.
For extra than a decade, the 48-calendar year-outdated senior digital govt, who lives in São Paulo, has worked with organisations adapting to digital disruption and innovation, initially at Google and now with Brazilian media and amusement team Rede Globo. All the when, establishing the techniques to set himself in others’ sneakers, divine their enterprise desires and connect how he can support has been at the centre of his occupation.
Throughout twelve years at Google, Maria’s core operate was constructing associations with publishers, which include newspapers, broadcasters and shops. “In 2011 in Brazil, the information sector was extremely averse to Google,” he remembers. “I could not have a conversation with a newspaper CEO — they wouldn’t even react to my calls.”
The icy reception was comprehensible. At the time, digital was decimating the regular information sector. Audience have been locating their information on the internet, advertisers have been pursuing them and the print earnings model was struggling.
In opposition to this backdrop, the Brazilian was tasked with locating areas exactly where the competitor could turn out to be a collaborator. He joined Google as a strategic lover manager and ultimately rose to turn out to be director of world partnerships for Latin The us and Brazil across broadcast, information and commerce.
“Google has the advertising and marketing sales purpose that competes with all the other teams for advertising and marketing budgets . . . and that is how it is heading to operate permanently,” Maria acknowledges. “But I was in a team that was seeking at the other facet — which is, how can we support these partners acquire by themselves, be extra productive in the way they do their enterprise and also create earnings?”
He also worked with journalists, explaining how to mine Google info for investigative operate he taught publishers how technologies could support them fully grasp users’ behaviour and he aided optimise mobile merchandise. The world accumulation of these types of operate grew into the Google News Initiative, which supports journalism in the type of a education centre and an innovation fund, for instance.
Immediately after twelve years at Google, Maria was at a crossroads. If he stayed, the upcoming step would be a go overseas, in a new purpose and culture. That did not healthy with his personalized designs, so he decided to get a occupation split, spend time with his family members — he has a few sons — and replicate on his upcoming go.
CV
2004-2005 Solution and products and services director, Oi Internet
2006-2007 Solution manager, Brasil Telecom Internet
2007-2011 Strategic lover manager, Google
2011-2016 Head of strategic partnerships, Latin The us, Google
2016-2017 Director of world partnerships, Latin The us, Google
2017-2019 Director of world partnerships: broadcast, information and commerce, Google
2019-existing Director of new enterprise development, Rede Globo
Professions, he says, are a a few-phase journey. At the commencing, professionals’ techniques have a tendency to be extra technical. Then they may possibly turn out to be people today managers, providing up a lot of the practical operate and establishing techniques in foremost teams and constructing a eyesight. The third is the govt level, seeking at corporations strategically in the prolonged time period.
Maria was prepared to transition to the third phase. So in 2018, when at Google, he enrolled for the counsellors development programme, a company governance program, at Fundação Dom Cabral enterprise faculty in Brazil.
“It was appropriate for that instant in my occupation,” he says. “It allow me invest some time to fully grasp the strategic purpose of boards superior and how to then impact the administration team of the organisation.”
The programme, which he accomplished at FDC’s Belo Horizonte campus, prepares foreseeable future board customers. Together with educating the ideas of administration and governance, it explores how to utilize this — for instance, contributors get ready for and guide mock conferences of administrators.
The return to formal learning was “amazing”, Maria says. His occupation split meant he was spared balancing family members, operate and examine for the duration of the program, which was taught in two 7 days-prolonged blocks a number of months apart. This allowed him to have interaction completely, he provides, one thing that those people thinking about govt programs should really be prepared to do.
“People should really be organized to stay offline and join to the people today on the program and join to the program itself,” he says. “It is predicted that you participate a great deal and there is serious benefit in bringing your practical experience. It enriches the conversation and the practical routines.”
This also means students should really share any troubles or areas for improvement with classmates. “Be existing, be genuine and be fearless,” Maria says. “The extra you are open, the extra people today will be equipped to support you and you will be equipped to support [other] people today.”
One of the gains was constructing a solid network of like-minded peers, and Maria proceeds to support people today stay in contact as a class ambassador.
The programme has aided in his purpose as director of new enterprise development at Globo, which he began past June. “It’s not the distinct technical matters that I use,” he says, “It is a lot extra of a attitude modify on how to search at and technique matters in the prolonged operate, seeking at what is in the minds of executives and the board.”
Globo may possibly be Maria’s major challenge still. As aspect of its digital transformation, the organization introduced past calendar year that it was bringing some of its enterprises jointly in one particular team, which include broadcast and cable television corporations, its internet site and movie on-demand services.
Together with the internal modify, Maria is doing the job on constructing this new media technologies enterprise for advertisers. “The possibility is how to integrate all these mediums,” he says, so that advertisers can connect their messages seamlessly across all of Globo’s channels. For instance, he provides: “Can we search at the journey when people today go out of Tv and go to an app to go on consuming the information?”
This technique and information would support advertisers fully grasp what concept works greatest exactly where and when. It also gains buyers, he says, in that adverts should really experience significantly less jarring if picked in these types of a way.
“We continue to serve interruption,” he says. “But we need to make interruption a lot superior in a way that is related to the information and to what is relevant to people today.”
It was the scale of the challenge that persuaded Maria to get the purpose at Globo. When the chief govt presented his eyesight for the enterprise, a few aspects clicked into area: the level of transformation a realisation that Maria could use his education in digital and fast-relocating environments and locating one thing that he was great at and psyched about.
“I reported, ‘OK, a few or five years later, if I search again and we have been equipped to apply the level of transformation that the eyesight says, I’m heading to be extremely proud of that.’ And that’s a legacy I’m heading to go away. Talking about a media team, it’s basically a legacy that my young children are heading to know about.”
