With an Eye on the Future, Brazilian Oil Company Partners With McCombs and Jackson Schools
By Carolina SandersThe McCombs School of Business in partnership with the Jackson School of Geosciences recently hosted a three-month long custom executive education program for a team of Brazilian oil executives at The University of Texas at Austin.
The executives all work for Brazil’s Petróleo Brasileiro, S.A, also known as Petrobras. Headquartered in Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras was founded in 1953 and had the monopoly for exploration and production of oil until 1997, when, by law, the industry was opened to private companies. Today, it is still a significant oil producer with an output of more than 2 million barrels of oil equivalent per day.
 Brazilian oil company Petrobas sent nine of its executives for leadership development training at The University of Texas at Austin. |
The program, “Business Acumen for the Energy Executive,” was a
Texas Executive Education custom course designed to meet Petrobras
unique needs and offered its participants a rich educational
experience.
“We wanted to get a broad view of the oil industry in order to have
a deeper understanding of all angles of the business from different
perspectives, such as accounting, engineering and geophysics, as
well as the legal ramifications,” said Mariela Martins, geologist
and a Petrobras technical representative for Exploration in Joint
Ventures
The team of nine executives, representing Petrobras’ Exploration and
Production group, also gained a broader vision of the macro-economy
of oil and learned about current trends in the industry.
Establishing a History of Leadership Development
The program was an outgrowth of the university’s 5-year $7.5 million
agreement signed earlier this year with Petrobras for research,
study and continuing education for the company’s high potential,
mid-career managers. In the 1970s, Petrobras and the university had
a similar relationship and several of the students who attended the
university then are now in senior leadership positions. They are
looking to develop the next generation of leaders in the same way
they reached their own potential.
For the university, this provides a tremendous opportunity to help
the company develop its future leaders and to know those leaders.
For McCombs and the Jackson School, this program has been a
springboard for future collaboration on other projects.
McCombs faculty teaching the program included Jim Dyer, Sanford
Leeds, Jim Nolen, Ross Jennings, Janet Dukerich, Gaylen Paulson,
David Spence, Ehud Ronn and John Daly.
Interpreting International Differences
One challenge the faculty faced when teaching the curriculum was
international standards can vary significantly.
“Many financial and accounting concepts are taught from the U.S.
point of view, such as tax policy, accounting standards, and capital
markets, and international standards can be much different, “said
Jim Nolen, senior finance lecturer. We had discussions with the
Petrobras people off-line and at breaks about how issues differed in
Latin America versus the US.
Nolen said the studentso ften initiated the discussion about how
accounting and tax issues were different in Brazil.
“Having different professors examine a given topic from their
respective disciplines helped increase our thinking and
understanding of [different areas such as] risk analysis,” said
Martins. “And while some things were not new, it was great to hear
them again in the context of American oil culture. We’ve created a
new network of relationships with professors and staff from the
McCombs and Jackson schools, and have learned things that have
immediate applicability to improve how we do our work.”
The executives also said the length of the program was a bonus.
“Being away from the demands of daily life, created an opportunity
to concentrate on what we were learning and really think things
through,” Martins said. “And living in a different culture made the
experience even richer.”
Martins added that she appreciated the university’s vast resources,
including the libraries, labs, the Blanton Museum of Art and said
she’ll miss her daily swim in the Gregory Gym pool. The group
arrived in Austin during SXSW and really enjoyed the live music
scene in Austin during and after the festival, also Barton Springs
and Town Lake.
Texas Executive Education has created and conducted custom
programs for clients not only in Texas (which ranks second with 56
of Fortune 500 companies for 2007) and the United States, but also
around the world. The excellence of our custom programs is based on
our outstanding faculty and an unparalleled level of service. We
provide complete program design, development and implementation
services. For more information, please visit our Web site at http://www.mccombs.utexas.edu/ExecEd/custom/
or call Nancy Nagle at 512.475.9086.
For information on specific programs at the McCombs School, consult our contacts page. For media information, contact the Communications Director by phone at 512-471-3314 or by email at CommunicationsDirector@mccombs.utexas.edu.