CHAPTER SIXTEEN
EXBRUS IS ALIVE!
“Nothing gives one person so much advantage
over another as to remain always cool and
unruffled under all circumstances”
Thomas Jefferson
Tony hired a new crew to develop the old ICO software in to a newer version and worried about all the rumors that they had planted by now, that Exbrus was closed down, bankrupt, etc. He decided to turn the lights on and show the whole world that the Exbrus Corporation was alive and well. So he hired a new crew to write a newer version of the software in a record time.
Until now Tony had been low profile in regards to the business, it was always Marcos Paz and Blacker who appeared in press issues, as a matter of fact all business cards had no titles. Tony always believed that everyone was a part of the business. It was the big belief that the company was built from the foundation by the employees, customer and Exbrus in that order of importance. Tony decided to change this order, so from this day on the company will be formed by Exbrus, clients and employees. Employees you could replace and you could always bring in new customers, but to create a name takes years. You cannot replace it! (Think of this!)
So, from now on he would change his position from low profile to a very high profile, none of this hiding anymore. He was the founder and president, and for sure he would let the world know this!
Tony needed a name for the software and here comes his creative imagination: the slogan of the company is if it is Fast! It must be Exbrus! So his decision to name it e- fast, had a lot to do with it. And does it! The e-fast was born (Exbrus Corporation Trade Operations System) which is an operation system to manage all trading and stocks management online, real time, by Internet, all created by Exbrus Corporation.
Business was good and things were happening. Sadia now was the best client, although they had not placed a contract yet, but a lot of business came from them and other customers as well.
Remember the money Tony had lent to his friend Albert Santos? This is the money that helped him to go on in this time.
Here we go again! Tony prepared this mega event for the launch of the new software! He invited more than 2,000 people (he wants to have 500 at the event), finds a place, prepares it with a Chinese decoration, hires 20 hostess, all dressed as Chinese woman, gets 20 notebooks with wireless technology for demonstration, brings souvenirs from China, and hires 20 computer technicians. Tony was unbelievable when it came to events. He has such magic. Everything happened perfectly and he was so professional.. He chose March 08, for two reasons; he believed in numerology and when you add all the numbers for this date you get number 8, and in Chinese that number is power and money, and second it is his father’s birthday as well.
So his plan was to introduce the new software to customers, suppliers and competitors, as well as the press, and make a tribute to his father, which he did with his permission. It would be a tribute to his father and liberation as well, to send a message to everyone that was trying to get him down. (Tony’s ideas)
Before the event he made a partnership with NNR in Frankfurt, Germany and now Exbrus had an office in Europe as well, since most of the Sadia suppliers were from Europe. He hired a new manager for Hong Kong and brought him over for the event. Tony made sure to bring everyone. The idea was: we are alive and well; as a matter of fact, we have never been better!
March 08, 2004 – Time flies now, and boy that went fast, and Tony was able to do everything, everybody was made part of that; the people from the software worked 24 hours in order to make it on time.
He hired a famous TV sports anchor to be the master of ceremony speaker at the event that introduces Tony.
Tony made a brief speech about Exbrus, how he got up to here, and thanked everyone who helped through the process and then Sandra (his sister) made a presentation of the e-fast, together with the software people.
And after that he made a Tribute to Mr. Lima as follows:
In addition to the launching of e-fast, I would like to take this opportunity to pay tribute a very special person, in fact, my best friend.
This New Year’s Eve was very special to me, because this friend of mine had a heart attack; right on December 31 of last year and I spent the New Year’s Eve at his side, celebrating life!!!
For a second it came in to my mind what it was to lose this best friend of mine; I tell you, it was a big shock This friend of mine that I know for almost 44 years here and maybe even longer in other dimensions, this friend that I am proud to be my father, Ulysses Lima.
Dad, my best friend, I want to thank you for all the things that you have done for me, especially:
For all the education;
To teach me to dream;
To teach me to have no fear;
To let me free;
To give me the incentive to go to the agriculture school;
To give me the incentive to be independent;
To teach me to be innovator and pioneer;
Te teach me to drive;
For loaning the family car when I started Exbrus, and stayed car less;
To come to work with me;
To teach me to take all chances;
To give me all support when I immigrated to the USA;
For being this fireman father, who blew off some fires I started;
To teach me to love what you do (our work, profession);
And much more to teach me the meaning of the word INTEGRITY;
Dad, life has no price, because to live is higher than our own imagination;
It is my wish that I can teach my children all the good things you taught me, especially the meaning of the word INTEGRITY;
And for a coincidence today this friend of mine is getting to be 71 years young; Happy birthday to you!
Everyone was very moved with the tribute to Mr. Lima. How many would not like to say that to your father? How many haven’t done it yet?
Tony did it again! His message was loud and clear and published in all parts of the world. The Exbrus Corporation has never been so alive! As a matter of fact, it has never been growing so fast!
But still there was a lot to do yet; he needed to get all the import licenses for his Brazilian corporation, and to stop outsourcing to others and in addition he needed a company with registered high capital, because that was one of the several Brazilian customs requirements to be able to handle high volumes of export and import.
In one of the meetings with the consulting companies that he had hired to revise all the paperwork for all Brazilian corporations, he asked if anyone knew of any company with a registered capital high, because he wanted to acquire one. Tony’s big dream was to open the capital of the Exbrus Corporation and have it listed on Wall Street. When he finished the question one of the guys asked, “Would it be OK if the company was listed on the Bovespa (Stock Market of Sao Paulo)?” Tony obviously opened a wide smile and said yes. So the guy said that he would bring more information on the company. Those are the moments when all of a sudden things start to make sense and that’s how Tony felt at this very moment; everything suggested that he was going in the right direction.
A few days later Tony signed the contract and acquired the Bovespa Company with a registered capital of about two and half million dollars. Tony then established a new plan; he would make this company operational because it was a shell company, and had not been used for past few years. He would merge it with the Brazilian and Chilean Corporations, then the stocks were going to be offered for sale (he bought 99.9% of the stocks) that would be the only way to pay the approximately two million dollars of bills left. He always had in mind of bringing in a partner but with a public company now, it would be very easy, and make it very transparent. This type of business in Brazil was considered not very serious; Exbrus would be the first corporation in foreign commerce to be listed in Brazil. And there was no doubt in his mind about the concept he created, the End-to-End concept created by the Exbrus Corporation, was the perfect formula for success and was a truly win-win formula.
In the meantime Tony also got to know some people from the government of the state of Minas Gerais, who invited Exbrus to participate in a logistics project at the Airport of Belo Horizonte; this was a major airport created few years ago, and was un operational, and they wanted to reactivate it.
Tony then created the project “Take off Minas Gerais”, a logistic project for distribution based in Belo Horizonte, with taxes incentives. The idea also was brilliant; the city was located at the center of all capitals of Brazil. It really would make sense. Of course he would need money to activate the project, but since now he had a publicly listed corporation he thought that would be easy!
I think that Tony was so determined to get the money to pay the old corporation bills, and with all his marketing strategies, we have to admit, the guy is good! That also busted his ego, and he forgot to care about the day-to-day operation and several problems started to appear; all employees were new, and were not used to the way that Exbrus had been in the past, where Tony had slowly trained them one by one. The client list was long and there was no problem getting the initial business, but maintaining it was getting to be very difficult. His sister Sandra was running the Sao Paulo office, but she also did not have any experience, although she did have the will to work but made several mistakes in the management of people. Management and leadership skills do not come easy.
The next target was to create an event in Hong Kong, advertising the End-to-End concept (a concept created by Exbrus) in order to provide Trade Finance, Exbrus acquires the merchandise, transports, makes all the payments of all relevant duties and taxes and delivers the goods at the final destination, invoicing in that country’s local currency, something never done before. And he also would try to attract a Chinese company to be part of Exbrus Brazilian listed corporation, and they could re launch the stocks in Brazil; for sure it would be a great success!
I believe this visionary side of Tony was hard for most people to understand; it seems that he looked too far into the future and instead of believing some times, they get scared that it was too good to be true. What do you think?
Tony was looking now for a professional well known in the market to be the president of Exbrus Brazil; actually he wanted to make it Exbrus South America, after the merger, and give it the exclusive rights to operate with the brand name “Exbrus” in all South America. For this he needed someone well known worldwide, who had been a president of a major corporation.
Let’s stop for a second here again; the guy never did it in his life, he had no idea, yet he acted like he knows all that stuff. Where does he get all this information?
So he talked to a lot of people; everyone was thrilled with the idea, but when push came to shove they got scared.
Tony called the reporter from “Gazeta Mercantil” and explained his idea; he got it published on the front page as follows:
EXBRUS, from the US, to go public in Brazil
The American Exbrus is going public in Brazil. For that purpose, Exbrus purchased a corporation formed in 1993, the name of which has not been released, and will be amended so to encompass Exbrus’ operations in South America. The expectation of Exbrus founder and President, Tony Lima, is that the transfer of the South American assets to the new public company should occur by November.
When Tony got to the office his phone was flooded with calls; he had no idea it would make the front page. And he said, “YES, I got it!” It’s amazing once thing appears on paper, how it becomes reality! Several others articles were published in several newspapers and magazines in Brazil.
With all the publicity, he got the attention of the ex-president of Tiger Airlines – Martin Bologna, who accepted the invitation to work with Exbrus. He initially would come as a consultant and would become the new president for Exbrus South America. Tony could not contain his happiness; everything was working as planned.
He called everyone for a meeting and this day he almost cried when he released the news about Bologna coming to the company. For him that was a very big accomplishment, and he was thinking everything will work.
As Bologna came to work he liked everything he saw, but didn’t think that this was the time to go in to the stock market.
See, this is the thing. Brazilians have no understanding about the great concept of listing a corporation. In Brazil only 300 companies are listed, and Exbrus was one of them. In the past several scandals in the stock market left everyone with a bad taste in their mouths. So when you talk about going public, there is no way!
After hearing all the negativity he gave up the idea of going in the stock market now, but he worried; he still needed to find a way to pay the old Exbrus bills. He could not hold that anymore, and it was affecting his credit on the USA. Although by now a lot of attorneys in the USA had recommended him to file for bankruptcy, but when he remembered his last experience, he got a chill, as the name Exbrus and his credibility was so important to him, and he wanted to pay everybody off, even though he was robbed. But how could he pay if he did not have money?
So he still planned to go on with the event in Hong Kong hoping he could convince a Chinese company to be his partner for now. And he had a great instinct about this large Hong Kong Company that he would try to bring. And his second target was to advertise the End-to-End concept, so if he could bring other companies to apply his concept it would certainly give Exbrus credibility.
Now tell me, how many people do you know, who want to share their concepts, and still think that they will benefit! Tony for sure was visionary, no doubt about that!
In his travels from Miami to Sao Paulo, he wrote a movie script for a cartoon to show the End-to-End concept and he called Sergio Nakamura (the video guy) to help him to create this cartoon showing how people and companies could benefit from the concept, and he also redid the Exbrus DVD presentation. Think of any major company presentation. That was how the Exbrus presentation was, it was so good that after you viewed it you had to wait a few seconds to grasp everything you just saw and heard! I mean that!
He traveled to Hong Kong two weeks prior to the date of the event; nothing was done yet, he needed to find a place, to hire the buffet, sound people, hostesses, etc. Again, for a regular guy that would be impossible, but not for Tony.
On the plane he drew out a plan to approach this Hong Kong company called LiFung. He had known those guys through Coca-Cola; they were the company that does all sourcing for lots of major corporations, the only thing that they don’t have is the logistics management, and the End-to-End concept will make them the biggest sourcing company on the planet. He was sure about that. But how to get those guys’ attention? In prior times he had meetings with them, and they were afraid of Exbrus (believe or not) competing with them and taking business away, but that never ever was Tony’s idea; he just wanted to show the End-to-End concept and its advantages.
He sent an e-mail to Anna Paola and told her about the event and invited her to come, and to Tony’s surprise she accepted. So she came with Sergio Nakamura and Sylvio Costa. Tony was flying now, he felt like Superman. To be in Hong Kong, the city he loved, and together with Bella, there was nothing better in the world.
I am sure you have loved, or are in love right now; you know the power of love is the highest emotion we have on earth. When someone is in love the world is more colorful, life becomes so bright and you can see that in the lovers by just looking at them.
Tony hired 20 models to host the event; he really wanted to make a point and we know by now what women mean to him. This time he invited all the logistics companies, target clients and Trade Finance people. He chose the old Chinese market, converted it to a restaurant, giving the place an ancient Chinese look; he helped to design uniforms for the hostesses and the decoration was Chinese and Brazilian. He brought Brazilian souvenirs and coffee as well. He invited the Brazilian ambassador to speak at the event.
Meanwhile he tried everything with the people of LiFung, from managers to the CEO and president, and nothing; they did not even talk to him. And I mean the guy tried every way possible. I guess the door is closed for now, he thought.
November 18, 2004 – Trading with Brazil, Hong Kong
As usual everything was perfect; Tony was so happy that more than 300 people showed up to the event. Bella helped him in everything and motivated him so much.
Some times it’s the small things that make the difference. Right before his speech, Bella called Tony aside and gave him this small pocket book, and asked him to open to a page; he opened and then she read a motivational message for him. Those are the little things that make Tony really happy.
On stage he started to speak in Chinese, nobody could understand how this Western guy could speak Chinese, but that was only for a few minutes He had prepared a welcome speech in Chinese, and everyone applauded and from that point on he really got the attention of everyone. He made the presentation of Exbrus and the End-to-End concept with the cartoon, and closed the presentation with some Brazilian samba dancers. It was wonderful!
Upon his return to Brazil things started to go wrong again, Exbrus lost Sadia, their biggest client at the time, because of some stupid contract that a bank wanted to have, and got into a disagreement with the Legal Department, which recommended that they should not do business with Exbrus. Since Tony had been out a sales lady, Carmen handled it. Although she had the best intention at the time, she made a lot of mistakes, not explaining correctly to the legal department how the End-to-End concept would work.
On top of this Martin Bologna, using some excuses about needing to work on a government contract, just stopped coming in to the office and later quit. But there were still a lot of new projects coming and Tony plunged ahead.
It is December, 2004 now; Tony was seeing Anna Paola and invited her to a spiritual therapy group. When they were returning from the place, Tony received a call from Sandra that their father has had another heart attack. This time he needed major bypass surgery, but everything went well and Tony kidded with Mr. Lima, “Are you liking the idea of every year ending at the hospital?”
Carmen managed to get few very important clients in Brazil with some mining companies, CRVD & PAB, and a supplier from an ex-Russian republic, Belarus, a manufacturer of off road tires, but they required payment in advance in order to manufacture the tires. The representative for the Russian supplier saw in the End-to- End of Exbrus the solution to provide the tires to these mining companies. Tony initially didn’t like the deal, in other times he would just reject it, but under the currency scenario, he had to take a careful look.
At this point Tony already had sold everything he could, and had invested all the money to try to revive Exbrus. After all, Exbrus was his big dream, was everything he had and a dream does not die ever! He would never give up; he would keep trying to the end. Nobody was going to take this away from him.
It’s March, 2005 and everything at Exbrus is on an emergency basis; things are getting really bad. Tony, by coincidence, met a Japanese guy, Taku Moto, ex-director of a Brazilian bank, with lots of experience with credit. Tony briefed him on the situation and he agreed to come and help. At this point Tony accepted help from anyone.
His birthday was coming up and Tony’s head was going crazy, he was running out of options. He needed to go to Hong Kong to follow some leads as well, and he wanted to take one week off to get away. Who knows how some idea came to mind.
He once more told Sharon he wanted a divorce, and that he wanted to start a new life on his birthday, and he thought that what was still wrong with him was he wanted to get out of this relationship.
Once more he called Anna Paola to come with him; he wanted to surprise her and tell her that he finally got out of his relationship. And he wanted to go to India for a week with Bella to visit the Taj Mahal. So she accepted.
In Hong Kong Sharon suspected that Tony is with her, and kept calling her parents’ house. Anna Paola found out and got really upset with that, and then Tony told her that he was willing to stay with her and I believe that she got scared. She realized that being with Tony had a high price, and she was not sure that she wanted to go on. So at his birthday dinner she started crying saying that it was over, and the next day she asked to return and this time, Tony let her go.
Tony, very sad now, changed his plan to go to Bali, Indonesia for a week hoping to find a lot of single people so he could have fun. When he arrived there he learned that it was Japan’s school vacation and there were a lot of families at the resort. So he started to think that maybe his destiny was to stay with Sharon, since Bella had walked away. So he decided once more to return to Sharon and would try to conquer her again. He would try to make his relationship work.
And Taku was the person who made it happen! In little time, in less than 60 days Exbrus had all kinds of credit in Brazil, thanks to his expertise and know how! If it hadn’t been for Taku, Exbrus would have closed its doors by now. However, interest rates were very high, we are talking about 36% per year (that’s Brazil) but Tony would believe that some miracle would happen, because so many had happened in the past, and somehow he was able to pay it. Taku also brought a few people to work in the Sales Department, some really good contacts.
In the past Tony had had some good experience with Japanese people. Remember the restaurant, and later on some Japanese clients at a Ford dealer, and his father’s best friend had been a Japanese guy as well. So Tony felt very comfortable with this community coming to help him.
Taku was very similar to Tony, he was fast on decisions and stubborn as hell, so it did not take much before he got into a disagreement with Tony. Since he felt that he saved the company, he proposed to Tony that he wanted 50% of Exbrus to stay on, and it’s amazing everyone wanted to get Exbrus, but didn’t want to pay for it, thought Tony – and told him to take a hike.
By this time Taku had the operation of the Russian tires approved and Tony now needed to go to Belarus to visit the supplier and get the contract, so he could pay them.