Emerson de Almeida and the Creation of Fundação Dom Cabral: Leading a Brazilian Revolution in Executive Education
ISBN: 978-1-83797-013-1, eISBN: 978-1-83797-012-4
Publication date: 13 December 2023
Abstract
As of 2020, London's Financial Times had ranked Fundação Dom Cabral (FDC) as one of the world's leading executive education institutions and the top such institution in Latin America for 15 consecutive years. In 2011, FDC was also ranked fifth on the Financial Times' list of the 40 most respected business schools in the world. For FDC itself and for its co-founder, Emerson de Almeida, this recognition was a wonderful way of celebrating the 35th anniversary of an institution that has become a leader in applied management education in Brazil.
How did this young Brazilian institution achieve this? As is the case for any great undertaking, many people played crucial roles in its creation and consolidation. However, its history is closely tied to the life of its co-founder, Emerson de Almeida.
Emerson was FDC's Chief Executive from its foundation in 1976 until 2012, when he became President of its Board of Governance. 1 He is primarily an innovator and drew his inspiration from visits to world-renowned business schools. Once he understood the needs arising from executive thinking processes, he was able to adapt these schools' best practices to suit the Brazilian culture and context.
‘You must always try the impossible’, he says. This case study presents the story of an exceptional institutional intrapreneur who championed and led the transformation of executive education in Brazil.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgements
The authors thank the HEC Montréal Case Center for its support (http://www.hec.ca/en/case_centre). The citations in the current version of the case study, produced in 2020, were taken from several interviews with Emerson de Almeida. The first was conducted on 8 May 2006, by Fernando Dolabela and Louis Jacques Filion at Emerson de Almeida's office on the institution's new campus at Alphaville, Lagoa dos Ingleses, in Nova Lima, a suburb of Belo Horizonte, in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. The second was conducted on 1 June 2006, by Cândido Borges and Louis Jacques Filion at HEC Montréal. Both interviews lasted about three hours. They were taped and transcribed. Additional information on Fundação Dom Cabral can be found on the following website: www.fdc.org.br. The authors thank Emerson de Almeida for his gracious collaboration throughout the years.
Citation
Borges, C., Dolabela, F. and Filion, L.J. (2023), "Emerson de Almeida and the Creation of Fundação Dom Cabral: Leading a Brazilian Revolution in Executive Education", Agents of Innovation, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 169-192. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83797-012-420231006
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2024 Cândido Borges, Fernando Dolabela and Louis Jacques Filion. Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited