Boeing's sales force is crucial for Embraer, says Brazilian founder

Founder of Embraer and one of the main leaders of the privatization project of the aircraft manufacturer in 1994, Ozires Silva sees in the agreement between the Brazilian and the American Boeing l 39; opportunity to develop the Embraer sales force. "The Boeing sales force is very important to us," he says, which also raises the possibility that the Embraer aircraft is "Americanized". "This means that they could be sold in the United States, the world's largest market, like domestic planes."

Negotiations between the two companies were announced late last year and could lead to the creation of a third company, in which Boeing would have 80% stake and Embraer, 20%. The new company should only involve the arm of Brazilian commercial aviation. The military segment will be excluded from the agreement by the determination of the Brazilian government, which holds a special share ("golden share") of Embraer that entitles it to a veto in negotiations such as the one underway .

In the United States itself, the government prohibits Boeing from selling military aircraft without its authorization. The Brazilian government has followed the same procedure and is right, "explains Silva." Imagine Boeing Selling to the US Enemy Governments. "

For the former president of Embraer, a drawback of the agreement between manufacturers is the possibility that the American "disinterested" in the Brazilian. "

Silva, however, believes that the scenario is favorable to the agreement, as the European Airbus joined, in October of last year, at Canadian Bombardier in a program of development and sale of aircraft with up to 150 seats. Bombardier competes directly with Embraer, which also focuses on aircraft of this size. With the partnership between the two, Boeing and Embraer eventually lost their strength to compete in the global market.

Interest In addition to this need to face the partnership between Bombardier and Airbus, Boeing seeks, in the purchase of a part of Embraer, to develop rapidly in one of the most promising markets in the industry and in which it still does not work: medium-sized aircraft. Silva says that when he presented to the Brazilian government the proposal to create Embraer in the 1960s, he already believed that this market had great potential as it could link the interior with capital

"Today Now, you are looking at the world market., They are really thinking about the Embraer plane. "At that time, Boeing, seeing what happened to Airbus and Bombardier, reflected on the situation. where we could go.We said: let's build everything (medium-sized planes) from scratch "No, let's talk about Embraer."

In the evaluation of Silva, so that regional aviation progress in Brazil, it is necessary to put an end to Infraero's monopoly, which, he said, would make airports more competitive, which would have the effect of depreciating airlines and pbadengers.

Still according to him, greater openness of Brazil to international trade would also give more competitiveness for Brazilian companies and allowed the emergence of new success stories such as Embraer. "Embraer has won the international market because it has entered a competition and won this competition. The market welcomes people if they are protected by a legal device."

Silva is surprised by Boeing's intention to buy Embraer – American "has always been a reference here" – and points out that the spirit of entrepreneur working in a moment of negotiation like the one of today. "A key characteristic of the entrepreneur is courage and daring, we do not know what the risks are, but the entrepreneur works to minimize those risks."