Promotion, innovation and competitiveness

* By Jamile Sabatini Marques

That the Brazilian is a creative people, everyone knows. But taking advantage of this creativity to generate a more competitive country is what we need to improve. Companies that stood out in terms of their creativity were fostered by a business environment conducive to their activity, generating innovative products and becoming world references, such as the Facebook and Instagram, both with Brazilians in the conception of their projects.

In order to have a more competitive country, we need to give more voice to creative entrepreneurs, who believe in a project and strive to be the first in global markets. For this to happen, we need to promote pioneering services and products so that they are on the market and are competitive.

The promotion through financial resources, relationship and management makes companies accelerate their growth curve, gaining precious time in a competitive market, where being ahead will make a difference to become a reference.

Brazil needs to create conditions for more investment funds to exist in venture capital (Venture Funds), that place bets on innovative ideas, services and products, from the initial phase.

This can be done with few adjustments to the Lei do Bem so that the benefited companies can invest their resources in Venture Funds fostering nascent Brazilian companies, with the acquisition of quotas, shares or convertible debit notes.

ABES has been working on these aspects, demonstrating the importance of fostering innovation in order to have a more competitive Brazil. The development agencies, such as BNDES, FINEP, CNPq and FAPs are looking for a path, they know the importance of this theme, but we still need to improve, have more resources and take more risks. Today, the guarantees required of creative minds are incompatible with the knowledge market, with start-up companies and very good ideas dying for lack of funds, when they are almost there.

Brazilian legislation with a focus on innovation is being perfected so that we are up to date and competitive, with the Government recovering its role as an inducer of innovation. It is known that countries that invest in innovation are among the main world powers. The return on investment made in innovative companies occurs in the form of taxes, employability, regional development and mainly in the formation of managerial staff focused on innovation and creativity.

OECD member countries (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) have sought to invest in innovation through tax incentives, which is a global trend. Brazil needs to promote to get out of the crisis, grow and generate competitiveness. Through small improvements, the Lei do Bem and the Lei de Informática can and should contribute to the generation of new products and services, with new or old companies, fostering entrepreneurship and intra-entrepreneurship.
 
 
* Jamile Sabatini Marques is director of Innovation and Promotion at ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies - Member of the Startups Committee of MCTIC, President of the Chamber of Technology and Innovation of FECOMÉRCIO - Federation of Trade in Goods, Services and Tourism of Santa Catarina and Member of the International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development (IJKBD) Council.
Post-doctoral student in Knowledge Based Development, Engineering and Knowledge Management at the Federal University of Santa Catarina - UFSC. PhD by the Knowledge Management exchange program from QUT / Australia and at UFSC, Jamile Sabatini Marques has a master's degree in Innovation Management from the École de Mines de St-Étienne, France, a specialist in business management. He built his career working mainly in the area of innovation management, development, development banks, investment funds and institutional representation.