Jayme Garfinkel: “Sucesso é até ontem”

For 47 years at the helm of Porto Seguro, Jayme Brasil Garfinkel played a key role in transforming a struggling insurance company into one of the sector's biggest success stories in the country. However, in The Business of Life, presented by Nilton Bonder, he speaks less as a businessman and more as a son who had to assume a mission before feeling ready.

Porto Seguro had existed since 1945, but it was purchased by his father, Abrahão Garfinkel, in 1972. "My father's dream was to be president of an insurance company," he says. Six years later, Abrahão fell ill with cancer in his intestines. "He could have survived," he says. A complication led to septicemia, and he died about a month later.

With his father's death, Rosa Garfinkel, Jayme's mother, took over as president of the company. Jayme became the "jack-of-all-trades" of the business. The succession came with a grave crisis: between 1978 and 1983, Porto Seguro was on the brink of collapse. "We often talk about the dreams of Rosa and Abrahão, who dreamed of a professional, serious company," he says.

At that time, his father's friend suggested two options: selling to a bank or hiring a general - it was the Brazil of the dictatorship. Jayme rejected both. It was, he says, the most important decision of his life. Over the years, Jayme turned an idea into a culture. He encouraged people to decide, protected the innocent by mistake, and used example as a lesson.

Inspired by Bradesco, he created a daily meeting at 8 am - he wanted employees to come in and see the directors' cars parked. When Porto Seguro opened its capital in 2004, Jayme had doubts about how to behave in the market. He decided to maintain the logic of always doing what was best for the company, even if it meant sacrificing profit for a year.

"The shareholder, if the company does well, will do well," he says. The image he uses for himself is not that of a big executive, but of a farmer. "I like to water and see the seedling grow," he says. For him, success is always provisional. "Success is yesterday," he says. "The risk is today." He is also available on Spotify.