The secret of success - high-ranking delegation from Brazil is showing interest in the model of success of the Fasihi GmbH

On the 30rd of November 2009, Paulo Okamotto, president of SEBRAE  visited various companies in Ludwigshafen together with his team and with a Brazilian delegation of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technologie und Zusammenarbeit. The visiting team was most interested in how small and medium-sized enterprises could participate in the growth of large-scale enterprises, such as BASF - The Cemical Company, within their environment. As model of success, BASF chose the Fasihi GmbH and invited their chief executive Saeid Fasihi to participate in the meeting.

(from left to right) Paulo Volker (analyst, International Department SEBRAE), Paulo Okamotto (president SEBRAE), Saeid Fasihi (CEO Fasihi GmbH) and Ulrich Krammenschneider (office supervisor GTZ Brasil)

Mr. Fasihi illustrated the close interaction of his company's model of success with BASF: Twenty years ago, he started there as a freelancer. Ten years ago, he rented an office room within BASF for him and his first employees. Since then, his enterprise has grown continuously. Today, about 20 Fasihi staff members have their workplaces on the premises of BASF in order to stay in direct contact with their customer and to provide optimal services. By now, altogether 28 employees are working with Fasihi GmbH. The corporate management is located in the Sternstraße in Ludwigshafen. The Fasihi Enterprise Portal® developed in 2004 represents the flagship of the IT enterprise and every day it is used by 40.000 BASF employees, instead of other products by major enterprises such as Microsoft or IBM which is a proof for the high quality of the Fasihi portal solutions.

Referring to the win-win business relation with BASF, Mr Fasihi stressed various success factors he llikewise sees embedded in his enterprise as well as in the framework conditions at BASF. For the benefit of BASF are the high-quality IT landscape, numerous innovative minds and a management assisting those innovative minds.

For the Fasihi GmbH, Mr Fasihi stressed the high motivation, the great willingness to learn and the outstanding customer focus of his employees. Moreover, he referred to the efforts his company makes with regard to the qualification of young people.

  „ All these factors have been decisive for us to achieve a quality grade allowing us to offer an own product on the market with a state of the art technology. We are very proud that we have been able to achieve this quality together with BASF! ", declares Saeid Fasihi.

SEBRAE

Serviço Brasileiro de Apoio às Micro e Pequenas Empresas

Brazilian Advice and Support Service for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

SEBRAE was founded in 1972 and it is a national and federal structured non-profit organization for the advancement of small and medium-sized enterprises. With an annual budget of 2,1 billions R$ (approx. 800millions in euros) and with a presence in all the federal states, SEBRAE represents a unique and powerfully linked-up institution for the advancement of a sustainable and competitive entrepreneurship as well as of the policy formulation. For a considerable time SEBRAE is strategically pursuing the goal to establish itself also internationally with its basic approaches, methods and policies.

Paulo Tarciso Okamotto , born in 1956, is one of the founders of the ruling party PT (Partido dos Trabalhadores) and personal friend of president Lula. Son of a vegetable farmer in the upcountry of São Paulo, he has been working since his 7th birthday. In the past, he ran a bar, a kiosk, worked as a street vendor and metal worker with Volkswagen, as treasurer of the metalworkers' union and president of PT within the federal state of São Paulo. In 2003 he was nominated Chief Financial Officer and chief administrator of SEBRAE. In 2005 he became president and in 2007 he was reelected in this capacity.

GTZ