TheAmigo

Brazilian business professionals face a wrenching struggle with endemic corruption, one that would leave most Europeans and North Americans reeling. One of my friends endured death threats for three months after he reported an internal corruption scheme to his company’s president. Imagine going to work each day wondering if you could be shot.

Another lost his job, after 15 years in the company, when he wouldn’t participate with a top-level bookkeeping scam that hid profits from the parent company.

Still another friend once had to decide if he should pay a huge bribe (we’re talking five figures) to government port authorities who refused to release a large supply of imported materials if he didn’t pay. Without these supplies his company would not have been able to manufacture their product and would lose millions of dollars.

If you are a corporate lawyer in Brazil who needs to move your clients’ lawsuits through the justice system, you can bet that even low-level bureaucrats will politely ask you to make a “contribution” at each step of the process. If you refuse, the lawsuit lands at the bottom of the pile. And that means your case won’t move forward for months.

Behind the corruption is the common attitude that self-interest takes precedent over all regulations, social considerations, and laws. Brazilians even have a name for this attitude. It’s called “Gérson’s Law,” named after the great soccer player, Gérson de Oliveira Nunes, who played on Brazil’s 1966 and 1970 World Cup teams with Pelé.

Gérson was hired in the 70s to do a nationally televised commercial for the Vila Rica cigarette company. The company wanted to promote their product as being better and cheaper than other cigarettes. At the end of the commercial, Gérson says: “You like to take advantage in everything, too, right?”

Brazilians knew what the tag line meant. “You know you like to dodge all the rules in order to get your way, right?” Poor Gérson. After that commercial, his name has been used for the past 40-years by the general population to describe the cultural ethos of taking advantage of others for selfish gain. (Gérson later said doing the commercial was a mistake.)

Gérson’s Law seems to be harder to change than the Brazilian constitution. Underlying the daily struggle with corruption is a feeling among many business professionals, at least those who try to be honest, that changing the business environment is impossible. They feel impotent and deeply frustrated.

And that’s where the catch-22 comes in.

One of the primary results of generalized corruption is generalized distrust. As you might expect, distrust is pervasive in business here. Therefore, while Brazilians thrive in informal social gatherings with friends and family, they find it difficult to form associations that aim to bring about social improvements. As soon as a collective effort is needed to improve the community, fear caused by Gérson’s Law kills the trust between people. And so the associations unravel and the problems persist.

So Brazil is caught in a vicious cycle: Corruption breeds distrust, which leaves people more disconnected and impotent. That opens the door for more corruption.

I certainly don’t have all the answers. And I don’t think corruption will ever be fully eradicated. But I believe there is an opportunity and a responsibility for people in business and leadership to initiate change. Brazilians are hungry for a safer and more stable life. The economic improvements, brought about in large part by the moral leadership of former president Fernando Henrique Cardoso in the 1990s, have injected optimism and hope into the culture. People see the benefits of integrity and they like it. Reading the international business press, it’s obvious that Brazil is not alone in this hunger for a better way.

I believe one important factor in the change process is for people to examine and understand God’s original design for business and leadership. Without that, business practices tend to mimic the status quo. This is why I am coordinating an effort to translate InsideWork’s study series, The Scriptural Roots of Commerce, into Portuguese. A small team of Brazilian businessmen has joined the effort to adapt the SRC for the Brazilian context. We hope to have all six modules of the series ready for publication and national distribution by the beginning of 2010.

The SRC is designed to be used inside pre-existing relational networks of business professionals. This is a perfect fit in Brazil, because Brazilians—especially those in business and in positions of influence—tend to distrust large institutional efforts, including churches. The SRC is personal, like reading a good book. It simply becomes the content that launches purposeful dialogue among people who already trust each other. There is no call to belong to an organization.

My hope is that our efforts will encourage leaders to repeal Gérson’s Law and work together for a more trusting Brazil.

Glenn McMahan is a frequent contributor to InsideWork from his home Brazil. Glenn is the author, with David Russ and Jim Petersen, of More Than Me: The 4 Essentials of Relational Wholeness.