Luiza Helena Trajano: “Industry and retail need to bring their strategies closer together to lower costs and sell more.”
Por Carlos Clur e Leda Cavalcanti
“I’m not a president, I’m a salesperson.” This is how Luiza Helena Trajano, president of the board of directors of Magazine Luiza, a chain that earned R$ 56 billion in 2021, defines herself in this exclusive interview with Eletrolar News. Aiming to rescue the role of sales, she continues to sell over the Internet with intense activity, now through the Caravana Magalu, in which she encourages micro and small retailers from all over the country, showing them that the company has the necessary tools for them to operate in e-commerce.
Elected by the industry as the most relevant national retail figure in the annual survey conducted by this magazine for the “Presidentes” event, scheduled for July, Luiza also chairs the Women of Brazil Group and is one of the most influential people in the country. Here, she talks about the current retail picture, the challenge of selling profitably, the need for industry and retail to work more closely together, and her feeling that the second half of the year will be better in sales. “We have to be prepared,” she says
“Almost all our shops run on solar power. We also work a lot with product returns, and on carbon footprint reduction, we beat all our targets.”
How do you define this moment for Magazine Luiza?
Luiza Helena Trajano – Magazine Luiza is one of the few companies that was born physically, had a history of over 50 years, and managed to keep the physical store, in addition to be a reference in the digital world. This was one of the very important factors for the company. Today, we sell everything through our partners, not only appliances and furniture. We have 26 million items available, and we are working hard through the marketplace. We bought 17 companies to support the scheme. We are a multichannel network that has modernized, but has maintained its tradition in culture and values, and is constantly changing.
What will be the next change in the chain?
LHT – To have stores of the future, where sellers will display their products. We are always looking for innovation, it is a spirit we have had since the beginning of the company. Last May we started a digital fair in the Northeast, and the first stop was in Maceió (AL). The goal is to have eye-to-eye contact with local micro and small entrepreneurs, showing that everyone can take advantage of the opportunities of e-commerce. We have the support of Sebrae, where I have been a volunteer since 1987. I am always present at the event and I am its poster girl
Then, do you practice your vocation as a salesperson?
LHT – I am not a president, I am a saleswoman. People get so involved with operations and bureaucracy that they end up forgetting about selling. Precisely the sale is the fuel of any business.
What is your analysis about the physical store?
LHT – We always believed in the physical store, and we were right. In fact, our major competitors, who started in the digital world, bought physical stores.
Has its role changed?
LHT – The physical store is important, it changed its role, it became a small distribution center. When the company has a physical unit, the trust in the digital one even grows, because it is a support, it helps to leverage the sales of the virtual store. They are complementary experiences. Today, we have small distribution centers in our 1,500 stores distributed in 21 Brazilian states. The person buys on the internet and can pick up the product in the store within two to three hours, without freight. Digital is a reality, not an application or a website, but a culture.
Did going public accelerate the network’s innovation?
LHT – The stock market helped, it brought several positive things, the working capital, which is always welcome, and corporate governance. But this spirit of innovation has always been very big in the company. Since the beginning we have been creative, very “out of the box”. It is a very strong characteristic of ours.
How does the company act regarding sustainability?
LHT – We are concerned about suppliers and everyday we review what we can do for sustainability. Almost all our stores run on solar energy. We also work a lot with the return of products and the saving of carbon dioxide. We achieve all our goals. We must be very responsible on this point.
“We have 26 million items available and we are working hard through the marketplace.”
How do you evaluate the Brazilian retail market?
LHT – It grew, but it needs to work much more closely with the industry. Retail is also a manufacturing industry. One cannot live without the other, but I feel that there is still a gap between the two. The win-win, at this moment, would be very important for everyone. Retail and industry need to be closer together and bring their strategies together to lower costs and sell more.
And the biggest advance that you have achieved?
LHT – Digitalization, no doubt. Before the pandemic I decided to make 10 programs on Instagram to show why the internet was necessary. I thought it wouldn’t be easy, but after I had contact with several kinds of professionals, I can say that Brazil is now ready to digitalize much more than two years ago.
How do you see this second semester?
LHT – It is difficult to predict anything, but I believe that from August we will improve a lot. It is an election year, in August, September and October, it is going to catch fire. In the past everything stopped because of politics, but today I see that people are separating one thing from another. There are problems, such as inflation, which also affects other countries, high interest rates and unemployment. All of this delays consumption. But it is also the year of the World Cup, and we are sponsors. With industry and retail working together, the last quarter of the year will be better. We must be prepared.
What is the biggest challenge for our retail?
LHT – To be able to meet its objectives, that is, to make sales with profitability.
How to attract the consumer in times when the money is short?
LHT – I usually say that the cake has been reduced. So, we have to look for the biggest slice, and, for this, we need creativity, customer service, fair prices, but also profitability and the right product at the right time.
Are the industry and the importers supplied? How is the price competition?
LHT – The price is going up, inflation is there, there is unemployment. We need to be united in order not to let interest rates rise to contain inflation. The scenario is difficult, but, as I said, in August the situation will be better than today. We haven’t had any supply problems; I hope it stays that way. Industry and retail are creative. Let’s value our achievements. I would like people to believe in the last three months of the year.
How do you see Magazine Luiza a few years from now?
LHT – In the last three years we had a tremendous growth. I never imagined that we would reach the R$ 56 billion revenues, as the one registered in 2021. We are keeping an eye on it. In a few years we will be modern, active, and with physical and digital stores. What I wish the most is not to lose our values and culture
With this title, the biography of the president of the board of directors of Magazine Luiza, written by Pedro Bial and launched in June this year, is a dive into the history of one of the most important women in Brazil. The book begins with the subtitle “From blenders to bricks”.
Bial writes: “She never sold a single blender”. How so, Bial? – You may well find it strange, dear reader. How come the biggest saleswoman in the parish, leader of the biggest retailer in the history of Brazil, has never sold a blender? “[…] she has never sold just one, she has sold millions and millions of blenders, refrigerators, household appliances in general”.
Luiza Helena Trajano, 70 years old, tells in the book her personal and professional life trajectory. She narrates her journey through testimonials, reports, dialogues, small glossaries, photos and personal records. Here are some extracts:
“The future for her is now”, Bial describes, when he asked her what the first sentence of the book should be, and she replied quoting her heart motto: ‘It’s right now’. “Selling what is priceless is what Luiza knows how to do, she has always known”. Luiza Helena’s family history is told in a light way and portrays how her entrepreneurship, her talent for sales and Magazine Luiza began, since the creation of the name, through a contest in November 1957, until today.
“Perhaps because she had pioneered a business environment where the virtue of intuition was dismissed as a ‘feminine’ characteristic – so often the only person without a tie at the boardroom table in the male-dominated universe of retail executives – she knew not to use the word intuition. She gave her way, a feminine way of managing, joining rational and emotional, finding paths and shortcuts where to circulate – and decide”.
Luiza Helena tells in the book: “I am unfinished, I am always renewing myself. I have always had a managerial spirit. But I do a chaordic administration, first I put into practice, and then I go on fixing what I’m doing.” Chaordic is the method that Luiza determined from the combination of chaos and order. Or rather, as she prefers to say, it is the inversion of the flag’s motto. First, progress, moving forward, setting in motion. Then order, in dynamic organization, without stopping.
“Now it is a matter of seizing opportunities and moments. I want our company to be an example of a company that makes money and develops people. That is my life goal, to show that a capitalist company can make people happy and develop people so that they believe in them.”
“My mother is crowd and mix. She’s a question machine. She would never say ‘you can’t’. Or, when she wanted to say ‘you can’t’, she would send a ‘talk to your father’. My mother was always different from the standard, for everything. She was always the different mother, but very present”, says the youngest, Luciana, with the clarity of who arrived last and benefited from a certain relaxation of the parental reins”.
“If we try to synthesize mother Luiza Helena’s parenting philosophy, we can say that she had two main objectives: to teach her children that everything is interconnected and that it would be better if they understood early on that life does not only give back what is expected of it. In other words: that they should know the consequences of their actions and deal with frustrations.”
“My father always admired her a lot. My mother (Luiza Helena), on the other hand, respected his masculine side a lot. Even when she disagreed, she thought it was important that some of his opinions on family matters prevailed.” Erasmo ran his petrol station, Luiza grew up with Magazine. They relied on the help of family and employees to make sure their children didn’t lack attention.
“The best thing about my family are the values we have, our commitment to society, to make this world a better world – our commitment to the bonds of family and our friends,” says Ana Luiza, Luiza Helena’s middle daughter.
“To keep the difficult balance (that she maintains) between always being busy and yet always being accessible, Luiza Helena makes use of some codes with her collaborators. With the Magazine’s security team, it was agreed that, for important notices, they would send messages, she doesn’t stay long without checking them. Calling directly, only if the situation is very serious”.
Fonte: Eletrolar News Ed. #149
