Luiz Ros has been manager of the IDB’s Opportunities for the Majority Initiative since 2008. Before coming to the IDB, he worked on sustainable enterprise investments at the World Resources Institute and directed community projects at Brazil’s Ministry of the Environment. As he prepares for the BASE Forum, the IDB’s first international conference on Base of the Pyramid business models which will take place in Sao Paulo on June 27-28, he spoke recently with MajorityMarkets.org about his pride in his home country, the roots of his interest in BOP engagement and his hopes for the conference.
MM: You grew up in Brasilia in the ‘60s and ‘70s, when it was a brand-new city. What kind of perspective did that give you, and what kind of awareness did you have about poverty and inequality in Brazil when you were young?
LR: Brasilia was built during a time when the government was able to spend millions of dollars building an entire city in the middle of nowhere. This was the time of big infrastructure, of big governments. So this might lead you to imagine that I would have a hard time advocating that market forces can promote social change. But funny enough, as I developed my career I gradually began to look at this idea very carefully.
My father is an architect, and as a student I worked with him. Every Friday I went around from one job site to another, bringing cash with me, and paid all his construction workers. There were few people in Brasilia who had less than these men, who were migrants from the poorest parts of Brazil and came to the city to find work. So that led to some heated discussions with my dad about how we could live in a society that had so much inequality. Certainly, it framed my passion for dealing with social issues and being able to address them as part of my life and career.
MM: In recent years, Brazil has experienced rapid economic growth. What kind of effect has that had on Brazilians and on the private sector there? How might this growth be shared with lower-income segments of the population?
LR: Brazil is experiencing a profound transformation—not only from an infrastructure point of view, but from a mindset point of view. I think Brazilians, especially the new generation, are beginning to believe that—as the expression goes in Spanish, “Si, se puede!” It’s a sense that we can develop ourselves as a country, as a strong democracy, as an example of equality, with a thriving private sector.
Brazil experienced many years of low economic growth. In the past 10-15 years it has experienced much higher growth rates. What this has led to is what some are calling a “talent blackout,” or a shortage of qualified workers across all sectors of the economy who can benefit from that growth. You don’t have CEOs, you don’t have middle managers and you don’t have welders. One solution is expanding the number of available qualified workers, the other is providing training to increase worker productivity. Often, especially when it comes to the low-income part of the population, we think of this as something that has to be addressed by the government. But at our event in Brazil, we will look at how the private sector might also provide solutions. How do we help companies realize that hiring and training programs are not only meant to help the poor, they also create a workforce that will strengthen both the company and the entire society?
MM: What are your main goals for this first BASE Forum?
LR: I want the private sector to see that developing the emerging middle class and engaging with it over the long run are both absolutely critical. We need to move from an excessive consumption conversation, where the lower and middle classes are perceived only as a market, and think of them as citizens eager to access quality goods and services. You profit when you look differently at a segment of society that isn’t being served, and as you serve these people, they improve their lives and move upwards, and they bring your business upwards as well. It’s a complex conversation. But I think we have to pursue it because it’s quite powerful, once people “click” and realize what we’re talking about, it all seems to make tremendous sense to target these segments of society.
