“Entrepreneurship is seeing the opportunity and seizing it”, said the businessman
Physician João Luiz Garcia de Faria didn’t need to worry about sun, rain, or any other weather condition to be successful in business. However, he saw an opportunity to invest in the inheritance he received from his father – a farm in São Jerônimo da Serra, in the north of the State of Paraná, and transformed it into a large company. Even better: in four companies, gathered under the Paraná Wood Group.
From the farm that he initially leased to Klabin to plant eucalyptus, Garcia de Faria noticed that profits would be higher if he had his own forest. He then planted, liked the result, and purchased other areas. “When I realized, I had made up quite a large forest. But then I asked myself – What should I do with it? That was when I decided to add value and started a lumber company. And that is what entrepreneurship is all about – seeing an opportunity and seizing it”, he declares.
Livestock farming and agriculture came after the forest. “I had the base structure to continue with the forest, and along with it, the options for diversification and integration came along. In his point of view, that is what agribusiness needs nowadays. “With livestock, forests associated to livestock, agriculture associated to livestock confinement. With that, it is possible to self-feed the entire system”, he says. According to him, looking for the possibilities of parallel and interconnected activities is another example of entrepreneurship. “The most important is that the operating base is the same. In this way, we only have one fixed cost. And then, other activities can easily be added to the process. I analyzed what the farm had, and areas that could be used with agriculture, were used for that purpose; areas that were suitable for livestock were destined to that; and the same happened with the forest. I analyzed the quality of the soil, the geography, and the weather”, he explains.
According to him, everything must be thoroughly studied and planned. “This is the best way to start a business. With organization, with everything aligned.”