The Professional of the Month of this edition is Mauro Lima Vaz, Vice President of Bosch Security Systems for Latin America and the Caribbean. For 26 years he has belonged to this company. Among his main passions, he highlights his family and photography.
By Santiago Jaramillo Hincapié
Mauro Lima Vaz, our guest as Professional of the Month in SECURITY SALES, was born in Campinas, Brazil, in July 1964. He holds a degree in Economics with a postgraduate degree in Marketing from the School of Economics in Vienna, Austria. He adjusted working 26 years in the Bosch company, of which 11 years have been dedicated to the security industry. It is also worth noting that he has worked in different countries, such as Austria, Poland and Germany. Since July 2014 he assumed the position of Vice President of Bosch Security Systems for Latin America and the Caribbean
As we mentioned, Mauro Lima Vaz has always worked at Bosch in different areas. In 1999 he took over as head of the business of Bosch's Telecommunications division in Austria, which contained a small security systems integration business, especially in relation to intrusion and fire. It was at this stage that he developed a passion for this industry. After an interruption, his second contact with the industry was in Germany, where, between 2006 and 2013, he was Regional Director of the Building Technologies area in Berlin, with responsibility for the security and communications business.
Precisely to expand his history and, at the same time, his vision of the regional industry, we invited Mauro Lima Vaz.
SECURITY SALES: What challenges do you face in technology, as a manager and in the relationship with your subordinates and collaborators?
MAURO LIMA VAZ: I think one of the fundamental challenges of the industry is the transition and integration with the IP world. Which brings us not only a technological change but also adaptations in the way we think and organize our work. It is not a new change, but it will accompany us for a long time.
Since the intensity of the change is different between the different product lines that we handle. For example, video surveillance is an already established change, however in areas such as Fire Detection Systems work is just beginning on the subject. Internally, we are increasingly looking to focus on the most important fundamentals of our business and have a stronger synchronization between the different regions of Latin America to create more synergies and learn from each other.
What I like most in the work in our continent is precisely the diversity of cultures and ideas and at the same time the challenge is to organize ourselves in such a way that we can take advantage of this without losing the focus of our market.
SECURITY SALES: Do you remember any anecdotes, or some anecdotes, that you want to mention and from which you gained learning for your professional work and personal activity?
MAURO LIMA VAZ: Yes, an anecdote that I like a lot for the content and which corresponds a lot to my way of thinking is the following:- The CFO of a company enters the CEO's room and asks: Mr. Perez's training is very expensive will cost us more than 10,000 dollars. Are you sure we should send you to training? What happens if Mr. Perez leaves the company after training? - The CEO's answer: Yes, we're going to send it to training. The costs of the possible case that Mr. Perez is going to leave us after training are lower than the costs we would have if Mr. Perez stays with us and does not perform the training! The message is, the expenses to develop skills in a person are an investment and not a cost.
SECURITY SALES: Tell us about your family, hobbies, other interests (music, sports, travel, other fields of knowledge) apart from security integration.
MAURO LIMA VAZ: I am happily married and we have three wonderful daughters. The older ones are studying in Vienna and the youngest one is with us in Brazil. Outside of work I have a very great passion for photography, which includes a very extensive collection of cameras. The oldest camera I have is from 1933. If you are interested I invite you to visit my photography page. Link: http://www.maurolimavaz.com/
SECURITY SALES: In a nutshell: what, or what are the objectives that a manager must achieve in the field of a security company?
MAURO LIMA VAZ: In the same vein: what, or what are the comprehensive goals (for customers and employees) that a security integration company should have?
I believe that the most important success factors are the following: - Ability to understand well the business of our clients and their most important challenges. - Ensure high technological competence in our teams using the most modern means of accessible communications - The flexibility to adapt to changes. We live in an age where this happens faster and faster. I think these factors are important with equal intensity for the industry, for distribution and for integration into the security industry.
SECURITY SALES: Briefly, describe a day of your work: time of arrival at work, tasks developed, problems and solutions, interpersonal exchange of opinions and concepts, transfers, personnel management, decision making, pending issues, departure time, etc?
MAURO LIMA VAZ: I don't have a very defined work routine, as my work is influenced by different factors. More than half of my working time I am traveling, visiting clients and our teams in the different regions of Latin America. When I travel to the different regions, they are very full of activities trips since I really like being able to visit the clients to understand the challenges and problems of these, also meet with our internal staff in each region. When I am in Campinas, Brazil our headquarters logically I have many tasks of planning, organization and meetings, which are part of my function.
SECURITY SALES: Latin America has normalized economically: there are greater capital flows and foreign investors are turning their eyes to the region. How do you see the immediate future and possibilities for industry expansion in the region?
MAURO LIMA VAZ: One of the factors that have attracted me to come to Latin America is precisely the number of opportunities we have here. The demand for investments in the area of public and private security is enormous. The mineral reserves on our continent have great potential. We have many projects in different verticals such as transport, entertainment, banks, retail, among others. It is a region in full development, which allows us to grow strongly.
SECURITY SALES: What, from your point of view, is the evolution that the security industry has had in your country in the years you have been working in it? What are the particularities of the electronic security industry in your country from the point of view of the technologies that are demanded and offered, the needs of customers and the solutions offered by companies?
MAURO LIMA VAZ: I don't find myself in Latin America for long, but I do think that the challenges here are very similar to the global challenges in terms of our electronic security industry. From the point of view of technologies, the development and integration of convergent open platforms is a great evolution.
We who traditionally had the reputation of being a closed company with our systems, today we are already making use of open technologies and offering the possibility to third parties to integrate with our systems. Another element of relevance is the increasingly strong integration of high-sensitivity sensors supporting fire detection, intrusion, and video surveillance. The intelligent video analysis app is also in very high demand.
Our differential is that the Intelligent Analysis technology is embedded in the camera, which allows the client to save resources on servers. If I think about the "commercial" and "public safety" segments, I think we can talk about the following general demands - Prevention before detection - Be accessible anywhere at any time - Intelligent Evacuation Systems - High level in data security - Portable sensors (video) complementing the installed sensors - Security integrated to Communications in public projects.
We, as Bosch, have the advantage of relying on 38,000 people working in development and research globally (out of a total of 300,000 employees in the world) That is why we have the ability to be present in all these trends. This ensures our participation in all technological developments in our industry
SECURITY SALES: What is your opinion regarding the education, training and updating of all personnel working in the field of security integration?
MAURO LIMA VAZ: According to the anecdote told above, it can be understood that my point of view is in favor of the investment in Trainings and trainings of our collaborators, since it is fundamental for success in the security industry.
SECURITY SALES: List your company's success factors:
MAURO LIMA VAZ: There are four values of the Bosch corporation, which are based on the long term:
Our financial stability
Our Innovation Force
Our Brands
The people we work with are clients and collaborators
