Fabiano Nahoum <<email>> sends:

"Taking-off Into the Future", a business seminar based on a hang-glider pilot's approach

The newspaper "Gazeta Mercantil" founded in 1920 is the Brazilian equivalent to the American "Wall Street Journal" or the British "Financial Times", and, much like its foreign siblings, it has a very conservative format and its market niche is basically the executive and entrepreneurial public.

Why then should it have portrayed, in its March 17th edition - and on a section cover nonetheless! - a discussion on hang-gliding technique?

Indeed, that feat was achieved by business teacher and hang-glider pilot and instructor Glauco Cavalcanti, from Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

Glauco belongs in the selected group of pilots who have flown over 300Km in Brazil and, over the years, he has been engaged in developing a seminar that draws parallels between cross-country decision making and business decision making.

His seminar has been quite successful in two ways . While the theme of hang-gliding applied to business has a very original approach and really pleases the business students or executive audiences its focus, it also portrays hang-gliding under the best of lights, that is, a sport where long term goals are built both on solid previous planning and dynamic adapting to the environment.

Glauco speaks fluent English and can be contacted through his seminar webpage www.decolandoparaofuturo.com.br in case anyone is interested in having this seminar presented abroad. He is also the owner of Mega Fly www.megafly.com.br a tourism company oriented towards tandem flights and hang-gliding instruction"

The entire translation for the newspaper article follows:

"At the end of 2008, entrepreneur and athlete Glauco Cavalcanti, 43, travelled more than 300 Km in his hang-glider to complete a task between the cities of Quixadá-CE and Juazeiro-PI. With this achievement – which took place in November, during the Xceará, the biggest national hang-gliding event – he entered the selected group of pilots who have broken this milestone in the sport.

According to Cavalcanti, the practice has a lot of similarities with corporate life, mainly, because it requires planning and strategy, besides forcing the practitioner to make decisions and deal with risks.

His experience as a pilot is the basis for the seminar “Taking Off Into the Future” in which he uses the sport as a metaphor to induce reflections about the entrepreneurial world.

With a Masters degree in Business and an MBA in Marketing, Cavalcanti has working experiences in large corporations such as Coca-Cola. Today, he lectures on Marketing and Negotiation at the MBA courses of Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV, a prestigious business school in Brazil) and is the owner of Mega Fly, which tackles training and hang-gliding instruction.

In order to be able to fly more than 300 Km, Cavalcanti involved himself in a true war-operation. Physical and mental preparation was fundamental in helping him complete the task and handle more than six hours flying over the Brazilian northeastern semi-arid terrain.

Cavalcanti swims between two and three thousand meters, three times a week. The pool helps him stay motivated and in good physical condition. Meditation helps with breathing techniques, a very important factor in controlling anxiety during the flights. Once airborne he still needs to take care: “There's energy and liquid loss, so adequate nutrition is needed. I carry two liters of water and gel protein for strength reposition.”, he reveals.

Other important preparations include the use of complicated named equipment, like GPS, Variometer and the Spot, a fundamental item in case of an unexpected landing in rugged territory. Logistics have also deserved special attention. “We had ten support vehicles. We did a study of the maps and wind patterns. All this preparation takes about a year”, he explains. “There's a meticulous work before a long distance flight” he adds.

All that preparation is also necessary to face corporate life. Be it starting out in a new career, or changing companies, or creating products, it is important to analyze the market and evaluate where the opportunities are. “But planning only is no good. The take-off is the moment of truth. It is only when you launch yourself that you face the reality”, he warns.

Invisible Opportunities

According to Cavalcanti, during a flight, the athlete must search for the “invisible opportunities”, which are what is called “thermals” (ascending currents of air that push the aircraft up). “Mustn't the entrepreneur or the executive also search for invisible opportunities? After you enter a thermal you get high. Then it is time to start looking for the next one. That's what allows you to reach long distances”, he compares.

Another teaching from the air is that external factors influence the development of the flight. The wind for instance can modify a thermal's shape. Similarly, there's many economic factors that will affect the performance of a business. Cavalcanti observes that one needs to get to know these factors in order to make adjustments. According to the pilot, studying the many strategic approaches helps the executive and the entrepreneur: strategic planning emerging processes analysis, games strategy and vision of the dynamic competencies are some of the indicated theories. “You may say you'll reach a record or that you get such a position on the market place. After all, a blank piece of paper will accept any number. But the starting point is the shaping of competencies. There are the basic ones and the complimentary ones. But it's the exclusive competences that really count”, he says.

In the case of free-flying, Cavalcanti points out that the capacity of finding thermals makes all the difference. In the business world there's a similar phenomenon: “Warren Buffet and Bill Gates knew how to profit from 'thermals'. And not only once. They've been identifying the market signs for a long time”.

In Cavalcanti's views, flying teaches exactly that: that it is paramount to understand signs from nature, from the environment. “There are those that open the newspaper in the financial pages and see only numbers, whereas others see opportunities.”

To him, hang-gliding flying allows the executive to understand how it feels to navigate in a sea of uncertainty in which one needs to make decisions, assume risks, and, of course, generate results. “Long distance flying, is not about making one big hit, like finding one good thermal, because then everybody else will leave you behind. In the long run, avoiding mistakes is more important. While free-flying we assume risks, but not unnecessary ones” he concludes."