1. BRAZIL: GROWING THE CORPORATE REAL ESTATE TALENT POOL 1
by Beth Mattson-Teig
C o r e N e t G l o b a l R e p o r t
BRAZIL: GROWING THE
CORPORATE REAL ESTATE
TALENT POOL
EXCLUSIVE
RESEARCH

2. BRAZIL: GROWING THE CORPORATE REAL ESTATE TALENT POOL 2
The economic boom and bust in the Brazilian economy over the past several years has created
dramatic shifts in the supply and demand for corporate real estate (CRE) talent. At its peak in 2010,
both multinationals (MNCs) and domestic firms battled to hire and retain key personnel amid stiff
competition and shortages of top people. As the economy stalled, the pendulum swung in the opposite
direction with an increase in layoffs as companies reduced staffing to weather the tougher economic
climate. With the current economy showing signs of recovery, the question is whether the CRE talent
pool will be deep enough to satisfy returning demand for skilled professionals.
Brazil burst into the global spotlight nearly a decade ago with a surging economy and rapid expansion
occurring across sectors such as health care, education, agribusiness, retail, technology and finance.
The growing economy and the country’s large population of nearly 207 million people helped to draw
expansion from a variety of multinational corporations who located or expanded operations in Brazil.
That explosive growth also exposed weaknesses, related to infrastructure and expertise, which can be
typical of emerging markets.
“It was tough to find good skilled and
talented professionals,” says Carlindo
Martins Macedo. Based in São Paulo,
Macedo has worked in CRE and facilities
management in Brazil for nearly 25
years. Currently, Macedo is working as
an independent consultant and project
manager, and serves as a board member
for the CoreNet Global Brazil Chapter.
Althoughtherewasagoodsupplyofpeople
with technical skills, such as engineers,
technicians and mathematicians, the
biggest shortages were for senior
management and supervisory positions.
That lack of supply in the face of
overwhelming growth created a wage war. Compensation packages, including base wages or salaries
and participation in corporate earnings for key executives, became bigger and more sophisticated
among medium-sized enterprises.
“The biggest challenge is really to attract skilled leadership,” agrees Milton Jungman, Latin America
Managing Director, Accenture Workplace Solutions. Brazil does not have many university level corporate
“With the current
economy showing
signs of recovery, the
question is whether
the CRE talent pool
will be deep enough
to satisfy returning
demand for skilled
professionals.
”
BRAZIL: GROWING
THE CORPORATE REAL
ESTATE TALENT POOL

3. BRAZIL: GROWING THE CORPORATE REAL ESTATE TALENT POOL 3
real estate courses or degree programs. As such, companies rely more on professionals with other types
of backgrounds to fill CRE positions, such as finance, business management, engineering, architecture
and sometimes law. However, those same people with good leadership skills also are in demand from
other divisions within an organization, such as finance, human resources and technology. So, both the
lack of CRE programs, as well as the competition for management talent is a dual challenge for the
profession, says Jungman.
Another factor that makes attracting talent even more challenging is a perception that CRE has been
slow to change. “We know that corporate real estate is responsible for the second highest cost in a
company,”saysJungman.“So,CREshouldbeviewedasaveryimportantresource.YetC-levelexecutives
at many organizations do not view CRE as highly as some other areas, such as finance, HR and IT. This
perception is changing, within Brazil and in other countries, but it is still a process that is ongoing.” That
view of CRE creates an added challenge in hiring talent to fill available positions as people can choose
a different career path, he adds.
Brazil has been struggling to climb out of a recession that has produced record high unemployment
affecting 11.4 million people and approximately 11.2 percent of the labour force. According to Michael
Page International, the salary mass for the real estate market has dropped by 20 to 30 percent in the
past 18 months and job offers for senior management positions have declined 59 percent over the
last five years. Specific to CRE, the more requested professionals in 2016 are security managers and,
facility, property and real estate managers.
Due to the current economic crisis, the balance between job offers available is favourable to the
employers. However, this is a temporary condition, considering the forecast for recovering GDP growth,
says Macedo. Economists are predicting GDP growth for 2017 at about 1 percent. Considering the
negative GDP of 2016 at about 3.6 percent, the ramp up is around 4.5 percent over the next 18 months.
“Due to that, the pressure to attract and retain talents will increase within the next two or three years,”
he says. In addition, the construction market for CRE normally reacts strongly when the vacancy rate is
around 10 percent, which is expected to happen in São Paulo in 2019 or 2020, adds Macedo.
“..the pressure to
attract and retain
talent will increase
within the next two
or three years.
”

4. BRAZIL: GROWING THE CORPORATE REAL ESTATE TALENT POOL 4
A Young Profession
One of the challenges to finding talent is that corporate real estate is still a fairly new profession in Brazil.
The maturity of the CRE profession is quite recent, starting with the introduction of the Plano Real or
Real Plan in 1994. The Real Plan was a series of fiscal policies and measures put in place to stabilize
the currency and control inflation. “Because of this, there are quite few experienced professionals with
track-records and background,” says Macedo. “In addition, there is a lack of (CRE) educational programs,
restricted only to a couple of Real Estate and Facilities MBAs in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.”
Prior to 1995, it was very hard to predict how the real estate market would behave due to big cyclical
swings in the Brazilian economy. As a result, the real estate market was restricted to a few players
– construction companies, developers and some of the large international advisory companies, such
as CBRE, JLL, Colliers International, Cushman & Wakefield, etc. In the past two decades, there has
been a boom in mid-size companies and other international players entering the Brazilian market to do
business and foster investment in real estate.
Some of the mid-size companies and new players had to fight to create a space in the existing market,
and at the same time they were working to create their own CRE teams. Most of the talent, both then
and now, has been developed by coaching, mentoring and training CRE professionals internally within
companies. “The good professionals are those experienced ones, the senior managers, who developed
their skills during their career,” says Macedo. “The younger professionals have a lack of training and
expertise due to the absence of educational programs.” Certain functions, such as financial analysts for
real estate funds with enough strategic expertise, are very rare. The talent gap also is bigger for subject
matter experts and executive directors, adds Macedo. In addition, the distribution is proportional to the
size of the real estate market, with 80 percent concentrated in São Paulo and Rio, and there are not
enough SMEs or technical managers / supervisors available in smaller cities, he says.
Larger cities such as Rio and São Paulo, as well as other major cities like Curitiba, Porto Alegre and
Belo Horizonte, do have better access to talent. That also is where most of the largest domestic and
MNCs are located. What happens is that CRE has to cover business activity all over Brazil. Oftentimes,
corporations will have technicians and local managers in those smaller markets and the management
people will oversee those operations from the larger cities as more of a regional operation, notes
Jungman.
“In my opinion, good CRE talent is becoming more common with the growing office and industrial
markets and the key players like CBRE, JLL, and Cushman & Wakefield are training their staff to work
withinternationalqualityinservice,”saysDavidPersons,aprojectmanageratLincolnPropertyCompany
in the Miami/Ft. Lauderdale area. Previously, Persons worked in Brazil’s corporate real estate services
market for five years and currently serves as a board member for CoreNet Global’s Brazil Chapter.
Oftentimes, the preference for MNCs operating in Brazil is to hire domestic professionals who have some
level of international experience, such as foreign MBAs or some other type of international coursework,
says Persons. “Mostly, I’ve seen MNCs use domestic staff with international experience, although
companies like Samsung bring their own executives and many key roles from their home country in
order to maintain their corporate philosophy,” he adds.
Many MNCs also outsource all or part of those CRE functions to third party service firms.
Developing CRE Talent
Even in the more challenging economic climate, there are still shortages of subject matter experts or
very specialized positions, such as investment fund analysts or portfolio managers for a corporate plants
and distribution facilities. For example, one service provider was recently struggling to fill a position for
a manager with experience in lease management in the city of Curitiba. One option would be to put a
lawyer in that position. But, there was no lawyer that had the required level of real estate experience,
says Macedo. In other cases, CRE teams have hired the best available people to fill positions, such as

5. BRAZIL: GROWING THE CORPORATE REAL ESTATE TALENT POOL 5
hiring a plant manager to fill a facilities manager position. It takes time for that individual to understand
the idiosyncrasies and get the pulse of the market in terms of pace, rhythm, priorities and even the
language to trade and negotiate, says Macedo.
The concern is that once the economy starts accelerating, there will be a repeat of the talent shortage
that existed a few years ago. “It is very difficult to secure the best talent since qualified professionals are
scarce and are constantly offered better conditions to work for other excellent MNCs,” says Persons. The
downturn in the economy also forced many qualified individuals to seek alternative positions outside of
CRE, he adds. So, as the economy recovers, the talent gap may be more prevalent due to people having
left the profession.
In recognition of the current and future CRE talent needs, companies are working to develop the existing
talent that they have on CRE teams. Professional organizations such as CoreNet Global are continuing to
work on educational programming to benefit CRE professionals. CoreNet Global’s Brazil Chapter worked
with the University of São Paulo (USP) to offer an MCR course that was adapted for the local culture. The
MCR course, which is aimed at senior management, prepares professionals for the final MCR Capstone
seminar that is offered at the CoreNet Global Summits. “We are running it here in Brazil with quite
some success,” says Macedo. Introduced in Brazil in 2013, the CoreNet Global MCR program is now
graduating its third class with each class averaging about 8 people. As of this year, the program in Brazil
had 45 MCR candidates and 23 people who have received their MCR designations.
In addition to these efforts, with the aim of further contributing to development of talent and skills,
CoreNet Global’s Brazil Chapter is developing a Six Sigma Green Belt Certification program for middle
management that will likely launch in the beginning of 2017. The Six Sigma Green Belt operates in
support of or under the supervision of a Six Sigma Black Belt; analyzes and solves quality problems;
and is involved in quality improvement and cost reduction projects. A Green Belt is someone with at
least three years of work experience who wants to demonstrate his or her knowledge of Six Sigma tools
and processes. The Brazil Chapter is working with the Foundation for Administration Institute, which is
connected to the USP Business School, to develop that program. “We are very confident that both of
these programs will help to better certify local professionals,” he adds.
The Brazilian government has also made education a bigger priority over the past decade as it works
to reduce illiteracy and poverty in the country, and also improve worker productivity. In 2014, the
government passed an ambitious 10-year education reform program. The Plano Nacional de Educação
(PNE) includes 20 different targets that range from improving access to early childhood education to
expanding post-graduate level enrollment at universities. To reach the targets established by PNE, the
government intended to significantly increase its investment in education from about 5.7 percent of the
country’s GDP in 2014 to 10 percent by 2024.1
Although it may be too soon to tell how effective that
plan will be in improving education levels, and ultimately raising the quality of the broader workforce, it
is at least a promising step in the right direction.
Some universities as well as
professional organizations, such as
CoreNet Global, the Royal Institution
of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and
the Associação Brasileira de Facilities
(ABRAFAC) among others, have
recognized CRE as an opportunity
and they have developed courses to
meet that opportunity, notes Persons.
Another factor that could help develop
CRE talent for the future is if MNCs
invested more time and resources in
those professional organizations, he
adds.
1
“Has Brazil Take the Right Approach to Education Reforms?” Emily Gustafsson-Wright and Barbara Bruns. July 23, 2014.The Brookings
Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/on-the-record/has-brazil-taken-the-right-approach-to-education-reforms

6. BRAZIL: GROWING THE CORPORATE REAL ESTATE TALENT POOL 6
There are already signs that the Brazil economy is on the road to recovery, and Brazil is likely to be more
open to foreign investment in the future as the government recognizes the benefits of that investment
to the broader economy. International firms also recognize the opportunities that exist in Brazil’s growing
consumer market. Those international firms will be looking for CRE professionals who have a track record
of experience and know how to operate strategies such as portfolio optimization and lean management.
However, while demand for CRE talent is expected to increase in the near future, the ongoing focus on
education and professional development – as well as a more gradual, sustainable pace of recovery –
should help to reduce the extreme talent shortages that existed in the past cycle. “When we get out of
this economic crisis, the demand for more strategic professionals and subject matter experts will still
exist and will again be an issue, but not as much as it was in the beginning of 2010 when the lack of
qualified labor was more generalized across the majority of sectors,” says Macedo.
Special thanks to the following organizations for their research assistance:
Accenture
CoreNet Global Brazil Chapter