When you walk past the main offices of Serasa, one of the main credit information and business support companies in the world, in São Paulo, you will soon notice some strange elements added to the building’s original design. Its glass exterior displays several EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) shapes. They represent hawks and their purpose is to protect birds. “They used to fly straight into the glass and die", says Elcio Aníbal de Lucca, CEO of the company between 1991 and 2008. The solution to use fake hawks, a bird of prey, to scare away birds is one of the many measures adopted by Elcio.

Based on this same philosophy, the Serasa headquarters became the first building to earn the NBR 9050:94 Certificate of Accessibility for People with Disabilities to Buildings, Space, Furniture and Urban Equipments.  This means that the place provides those with disabilities with adequate and safe accessibility and work conditions. There are wheelchairs in the reception area. A section of the floor was fitted with a different type of carpet that provides more support to those with canes. The signs in each of the departments are also written in Braille. “There are g fmany ways to make money”, teaches De Lucca. “So, why not make it by doing things right?”

Father of four and grandfather of two, De Lucca, aged 61, was born in Ribeirão Claro, Paraná. He has a Masters degree from the Business School of the Getúlio Vargas Foundation .  He has always believed in investing in well-being in order to make profits. Based on the results of his long tenure, he was successful. While he was CEO, the company’s net earnings increased by 4.331% and the net profit, by 34.233%. Serasa became the largest organization in its sector outside the USA. The company is frequently mixed up with SPC, the Credit Protection Service. However, Serasa does not add or exclude anyone from a “debtor’s list”. It only supplies credit information to corporate and individual taxpayers. Now, he has compiled his ideas and experiences in a book called Gestão para um Mundo Melhor – Management for a Better World (Editora Campus, 217 pages). Elcio, who is currently vice-president of the Serasa Board of Management, gives a first-person account of his 40-year career, during which he consolidated his ethical and humanistic values and principles.