It is not unusual to hear from foreigners (quite often investors qualified with high education) that Brazil is a country where most activities are compromised by lack of planning. Before moving on, it would be good to clarify this point of view by adding that these comments do not necessarily implies that one is going to fail on its action or goal. It means, on the other hand, that if one succeeds, one would not do as great as it could if preceded by good old planning.
Looking around, it is easy do notice that these gentlemen are not wrong, especially if considering public services or any kind of public affairs at all. But it does not stop there. This so called cultural deficiency seems to affect all matters at all spheres, regardless of public or private sector.
Take natural disaster recoverability as a good example. Developed countries, formed upon good education - as conscious citizenship respect, more than only learned knowledge – have greater ability to recover from unwanted events, such as natural disasters. A recent earthquake devastated Japan (once again), but, yet, Japanese People amazed the world (once again) on how fast they reacted to that. In the shortest period of time, the country raised and re-established itself even better than before. It seems that one of their little secrets is planning ahead.
Success, most of the times, is the result of planning. The question, on the other hand, gets a little more complicated when trying to establish where the lack of planning can lead one to. Failure, despite its bitter taste, is a probable stopover, but, sometimes, it goes further.
Brazilians are worldwide famous for their unique optimism and for their natural born entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, an enormous amount of fresh companies, if passed to the second year of life, never get to see the fifth year of foundation. And the most common causa mortis: lack of planning.
The Brazilian national legal system, just to illustrate a serious flaw that affects all human relationship, does not operate differently. To keep the focus on short term results and, most times, to answer quickly to public demand (usually inflated by some real episodes with great repercussion), Brazilians congressmen approve and pass bills that are not only retrograde, but mismatches previous bills as well, making the system confused, slow and a great environment for litigation.
So, considering all these matters and looking at the lack of planning through the civil rights lens, especially regarding civil liability, it is not possible to ignore that the duty to make amends may come, after facing expensive and time consuming lawsuits in courts, by making this simple (and common, unfortunately) mistake.
As the rule of law determines that one should repair any kind of damage caused to another person by action or omission, negligence or imprudence (Civil Code, articles 186 combined with 927), it is undeniable that, eventually, lack of planning can lead to expensive obligations, making the bitter taste of failure seems a little worse.
When opening a new business, it is indispensable to follow strictly what has been planned ahead, especially if dealing with consumers and service customers. By doing that, not only one minimizes the chance of lapse, but also, if an unwanted event actually happens, one gets the chance to have a good and efficient defense in an eventual court dispute.
To trust only in optimism is risky and proven to be financially inadvisable.
Towards public sector, same principle should be applied. Analyzing recent Brazilian public policy, it is noteworthy that the government acts completely detached of any plan (assuming its good faith and making eligible the innocence presumption of its components).
The choices made by government’s elite staff, undeniably taken to succeed at national election pledge occurred on October of 2014, led the nation to a severe economic crisis and to an instable domestic market.
So, according to this reasoning, companies, national or alien, that started their activities in Brazil attracted by these fallacious promises should have the right to be amended by the government, if business declined and loss increased. Despite the difficulty of actually receiving any kind of indemnification from public savings, a fair way to recompense these enterprises (that makes domestic economy moves, undeniably) would be rearranging (during certain period of time) all the existing taxes applied to their activities.
In any court dispute, of course, one needs evidences and proofs in order to be claimed victorious. In this case, particularly, it is hard (but not impossible) to demonstrate the link between damage and lack of planning. Nevertheless, the idea behind this little essay is to point out the importance of having a master plan guiding the way, and, at the same, time to point out how dangerous it is not having it.
Brazilian culture, at least under this specific flaw, must evolve, otherwise this valuable country will remain considered as future potency, never getting to live and enjoy this future time.
___________
*Alexandre Gindler de Oliveira partner of the law firm Advocacia Hamilton de Oliveira.
