CHAPTER SEVEN
THE EXBRUS CORPORATION IS BORN!
“Be great in act, as you have been in thought”
William Shakespeare
On April, 1989 the Exbrus Corporation was founded by Tony, initially to deal with the purchase of computer parts and other products to Brazilian clients. Around this time his marriage with Sophia ended.
The formation of his business to export cars to Brazil happened by accident. One of his Varig customers come to visit him at the dealership, and brought him a copy of a Brazilian newspaper, “O Globo” and showed him a photo in the auto section of a Ford Thunderbird with the license plate of a competitor of his. He got furious! “How can this jerk be selling cars to Brazil in Los Angeles, and I know nothing about it?” He thought. So he got on the phone get a hold of the importer in Brazil, and found that this person had a contact in Burbank who made the purchase of the car for him.
To makes sense of this situation, understand this. Brazil had closed down the import of automobiles since 1976, and with the new President Collor, has opened it again, and everyone was crazy about getting import cars, after so long of only being able to buy local junk cars, produced by the local manufacturers.
So Tony called the guy in Burbank and soon he was dealing directly with the importers in Brazil and a new phase of his life began. The Exbrus Corporation exported more cars to Brazil than any other dealer in California at that time. Tony would buy cars from all states of the USA, because to find the specific cars required by Brazilians was hard to do (most, manual transmission) and Tony would handle that very easily.
About this time he met a friend and business mentor, Michael Santini.
Michael Santini: He had started his own business as a Ford dealership, by himself and was able to make it a very big success. His dealership was among the three biggest Ford dealers in Brazil at the time. Michael was extremely knowledgeable and knew very important people in Sao Paulo. He also is known as “Midas” in Brazil because of the successes he enjoyed at all businesses he had started. They have a mutual passion: Computers.
One thing led to another. The Exbrus Corporation, having started from nothing, took off. Tony was obligated to create a logistics operation to export and import auto parts between the USA and Brazil.
Import auto parts and clear it out of customs. This was the first legal auto parts logistics operations put together in Brazil at the time.
As things were growing and he needed help he asked one of his best friends, Alfredo, to help him in Los Angeles.
Alfredo Alcasar: This was the guy who Tony had met back in Goiania, right before he came to the USA for the first time. He was a nephew of Dominique and had been in Los Angeles for a few years now. He is one of those people who goes out of his way to help people out.
So, Tony had not asked his brother who was living in Los Angeles, because he had a job and was doing very well. When he met his brother and told him about the opening, immediately Richard offered himself to help Tony. That was a surprise for Tony, he did not expect that, but it was his brother, so he told Alfredo that he would not need him anymore. Alfredo was rightfully hurt. Hard decisions for Tony, but after all he would have to protect his brother.
Richard Lima was Tony’s young brother, Richard, since childhood had been around Tony. He had taught his kid brother just about everything. Tony would feel more like a father to Richard than a brother. He came to live with Tony when he was 15, had gone back to Brazil, and returned again, but Tony always was present at his life.
Richard and Tony rented a house in Redondo Beach, and that was the first official office for the Exbrus Corporation in the USA, and they started the work with the auto parts logistics operation.
What Tony had no knowledge of was that Richard, since he was a teenager was consuming drugs (cocaine), and by this time he was already addicted. Tony never imagined that this was something that could happen in his family. He had been around, since he arrived in Los Angeles, with drugs just about everywhere, but never felt the need to use them. He always thought why I need that stuff if I am happy as I am. Why drugs?
Unfortunately that was not the way that Richard saw it! He had an advanced addiction. Richard did not work during the day; he would sleep all day and would work all night. Several times Tony had discussions with Richard about working regular hours. Although things in Los Angeles worked almost 24 hours, this was not the way Tony wanted the business to be run. Richard was responsible for the Los Angeles office, and Tony was selling out.
Tony demanded a lot from Richard, like a father demands from a son. Everything had to be perfect. Tony knew this was a chance of a lifetime that was not to be missed. No mistakes were acceptable. This caused a rift and there were many discussions about it.
But even with his crazy time schedule Richard would manage to do everything as Tony wanted: perfect. As a matter of fact perfection was a part of the Lima family. One of the best things that Richard did was to hire a new employee for Exbrus: Jack, who worked in the company until it re-located to Florida in 1997.
Jack Smith: This American born guy was one of the best employees that Tony ever had. He was what you could call a multi use person. He could do any job you asked for, from packing to talking to the president of any company.
Michael Santini Company was Exbrus’ best client at the time, and among one of the things they would purchase was computers. And that was the next thing that Brazil had opened up by now. You could now import computers in Brazil as well. So, during one of Tony’s visits to Michael in Brazil he introduced him to Jorge Contin, a computer technician, and Michael made a proposal to start a new business in Brazil to sell computers. Tony knew all the suppliers, Jorge could handle all the service and Michael could do all the administrative work and deal with possible clients as well. It seemed to be the perfect combination, especially with all the knowledge and power of Michael Santini, so both accepted the offer.
The new business started in Brazil, and everything went well at first with Tony making the purchases, Jorge with the technical division and Michael with administrative. But soon Jorge and Michael got into a disagreement, because there was little bit of conflict with his old business. So Jorge got out of the partnership.
Tony had to handle Jorge’s duties now as well, and to make things a little more complicated, even though the imports are legal in Brazil, people still prefer to buy on the black market to avoid high taxes charged by customs and government. This problem is still alive today.
Tony didn’t feel comfortable in proceeding with this business, and he was very concerned with Michael’s friendship. This alone was more important then anything else. So he talked to Michael and he agrees to close the business out.
Around this time, a supplier had introduced Tony to these gentlemen, John Blacker, Jr. and some other guy. They were looking for new partnerships.
John Blacker Jr.: He had been introduced to Tony as an entrepreneur from Itacu, he had a company that specialized in computer automation for large companies, and he was an electronic engineer. He also worked for a helicopter manufacturer in Brazil, and according to him had worked during the Falklands War (Argentina & British - 1982).
Tony told Michael about these people and Michael asked him to do a background check on both people. And later he said he would talk to John Blacker Jr., The idea was to make him a partner of the Computer Company or to sell it to him.
Tony went back to Los Angeles, where Michael and Blacker were supposed to meet at a later time. Later they talked and to Tony’s surprise no deal was made, and the business was closed out.
Michael decided to use the building they originally rented for the business, to establish a new business for his wife (money factoring) and Tony rented two rooms to follow his auto parts operation and car sales.
Interesting fact: One of the first tools used to market your services in Brazil; the Exbrus Corporation uses the fax machine. In Brazil very few people had fax machines by this time, and the few that had installed them near the big boss’s office, and they would pray to receive a new fax, and Tony made use of that. So 100% of the target was achieved!
Time went by and the Exbrus Corporation would grow very fast. They now had offices in Los Angeles, Sao Paulo, Miami and the city of Goiania, Go Brazil.
Tony had learned the American way of doing business, and applied all his knowledge in Brazil. He setup a distribution company in Goiania, to take advantage of tax benefits, everything officially done under the laws of Brazil. And with a demand much higher than the offer, he saw the opportunity in his hands.
Things were going so fast, that Tony had to quit his job at Manhattan Ford, to dedicate himself exclusively to his business. He started hiring new people, initially sales people, managers, etc.
One of the first things Tony did was to bring his father to work with him in the Sao Paulo office. His father was doing nothing in Jaguariuna and he helped Tony a lot with his charisma and kindness with new clients and employees. Everyone loves Tony’s father. Not to like him is almost impossible.
The first sales person for Exbrus in Sao Paulo was Brad, this young guy, in his early 20’s, son of one of the customs ladies, who had advised Tony in a lot of operations. Tony liked the kid and even though he had no experience, he trained him and soon he became a good professional.
Blacker initiated business with Tony, and they made friends later. Tony met a Korean representative for the fax division in Los Angeles, and he made an offer to Tony to be the exclusive distributor for Brazil. Tony had little interest in this operation and offered to share it with Blacker, who accepted it. Blacker was an excellent sales person. He was able to sell the first container in no time. So came the first shipment and someone had to go to Korea to follow the first air shipment. Since Brazil’s laws are so strict, no mistake could be made with the shipment, otherwise it would take lots of time and fines to clear it out of customs. Tony had no problem in going to Korea to follow this, but he made a suggestion to Blacker to go and to follow it through. To Tony’s surprise he accepted, and did an excellent job! He followed Tony’s instructions and everything came out perfect.
Blacker and Tony became very close friends, always going out together, and always doing some business together as well.
Exbrus did not stop growing and, Tony asked Blacker to help him out, since he had a lot of experience, worked in several large companies, and had owned his business for some time. When Tony would be in Los Angeles Blacker ran the business in Sao Paulo. And one of his first decisions was to lower the commission of Brad (the salesperson). Tony liked Brad very much, and he would not agree to that, but Blacker suggested that he would convince Brad to accept it. What Tony did not know is how Blacker would manipulate people. This is how he did it: he first told Tony that, then he told Brad that Tony had ordered him to lower his commission.
That was a sure thing, Brad got very mad at Tony and encouraged the operational manager to quit and to establish a new corporation, as they believed that they had learned everything by now and could do it by themselves.
This was the first business surprise for Tony. However Tony discovered the move before it happened, but it was still hard to control such a situation. It was a small company and the two key persons in the operation were now gone. Not to mention the impact on clients when they learned this news. He got very upset and wanted to exterminate both of them!
Tony’s advantage was that he had created the entire process and he knew every part of the operation so he could train new people for the job in no times.
So he went in search of new professionals to work at the Sao Paulo office, deciding to hire someone with experience and a decent background, so surprises like that would not happen again. One of his clients Davie Palumbo, sent him a referral for an ex coworker Francisco, who had worked in a multinational company as an engineer and according to Davie a very honest person. So he hired Francisco as the new sales manager for Sao Paulo.
Davie Palumbo: This person was introduced by Blacker to Tony and became one the best clients of Exbrus. His company specialized in promotional sales, and they sell to companies such Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Frito-Lay, etc. He also became a good friend of Tony’s.
His personal life was going fantastic, nothing to complain about. With all the financial success, having the best cars, going to the best restaurants, and having as many girl friends as he wished. But he felt alone and decided to look for someone, but this time did not want to make the same mistake that he had before. So he devised a plan to find someone according to his needs. He made a profile of the perfect girl for him and went to search for her. But however we plan these things, they never seem to work out the way you expect.