Name of Center
CEATS – Centro de Empreendedorismo Social e Administração em Terceiro Setor at FIA – Fundação Instituto de Administração – www.ceats.org.br
About the Center
CEATS – Centro de Empreendedorismo Social e Administração em Terceiro Setor is aimed at developing studies, research and education programs, consulting and training on the management of sustainable development processes and social entrepreneurships. The Center is a program at FIA – Fundação Instituto de Administração (www.fia.com.br), a non for-profit organization created by the faculty of FEA/USP (the School of Economics, Management and Accounting at São Paulo University – www.fea.usp.br/) some 20 years ago.
Its team, coordinated by Rosa Maria Fischer, Ph.D., is formed by professors, researchers and students with multiple educational backgrounds, interested in understanding and stimulating sustainable social development in Brazil – which is effective through the participation of corporations, non-governmental and governmental organizations. For that purpose, the CEATS team develops research and analyses, publishes the gathered conclusions in Brazil and abroad.
Aimed at disseminating knowledge, courses and disciplines are also offered at undergraduate and graduate levels and in-company. CEATS is also distinguished for the adoption of research-action methods in most projects, as well as for the balanced combination of theoretical precision and practical application of academic knowledge.
3 Major Education Initiatives
MBA on Management & Social Entrepreneurship
This is the only Brazilian post-graduate specialization course simultaneously focused on managers of companies, Third Sector organizations and civil service. It is designed to provide an understanding of social, political and economic realities, allowing students to identify opportunities for acting in the Third Sector and/or Corporate Social Responsibility programs and develop a profile of entrepreneurial skills suitable for the sector’s managerial needs. The course was launched in 2002, aiming to provide post-graduate training to entrepreneurs and managers to the extent of making them apt to take over the management of social undertakings, Third Sector organizations, socio-environmental responsibility areas and institutes from private companies, as well as sustainable development civil service areas. The class of 2006/2007, with 31 students from the three sectors, is currently taking place.
Course on Social Responsibility and Third Sector
This is a course offered by CEATS since 2001, designed for individuals interested in acquiring theoretical and practical knowledge on themes of social responsibility and the Third Sector, in addition to concepts, legal aspects and models of cooperation between corporations and civil society organizations. In 72 hours, notions and data on the recent strengthening of Third Sector in Brazil are presented. The students make contact with several management tools for social actions, linking theory and practice. By the end of the course, they envision a broader perspective on the current context of social development in the country, besides having guidelines to make a more profound study on specific themes.
In 2006, four courses took place, namely CEATS’ 13th, 14th, 15th and 16th, with an average of 35 students per group. In March 2007, as in 2006, the classes of groups number 17 and 18 simultaneously began, due to the great demand.
Course on Evaluation of Social Projects & Programs
The advance in private social investment and in the demand for programs & projects for rationalizing resources requires assessment practices that will allow these processes to be monitored, accounts to be submitted and goal achievement to be checked. All such improvements must happen along with strategic planning and organizational development. The faculty is made up of professors and consultants with varied backgrounds in Brazil, professional experience abroad and participation in the training program offered by Western Michigan University to evaluators.
Created in 2003, the fourth group of 35 students took the course in 2006. Most of them were professionals from the Second Sector and the others came from the First and Third Sectors.
3 Major Research Projects
SEKN – Social Enterprise Knowledge Network
Representing FEA/USP, CEATS is the only Brazilian organization that is member of SEKN – a network of Iberian-American universities launched by the Harvard Business School, with the mission of strengthening research, teaching and the practice of social entrepreneurship. Its activities consist of the joint development of teaching material and publications on social entrepreneurship, cross-sector strategic alliances and management in the Third Sector.
The teaching model used was developed by Harvard University and shared with the other universities in the network. It is student-centered, leading him or her to develop technical and managerial competences. The material used in class is produced in Portuguese, Spanish and English and forms a knowledge base that is shared by all the schools, which makes it feasible to present real cases that have occurred in the various participating countries. The method is used at FEA on undergraduate subjects and on all post-graduate degree levels. It is also employed at FIA in its Management & Social Entrepreneurship MBA program and in professionalization and in-company courses (www.sekn.org).
The other members of the group are: EGADE – Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey (TEC-Monterrey/ Mexico); ESADE – Escuela Superior de Administración y Dirección de Empresas (Spain); Faculdad de Economía da Pontificia Universidad Católica (Chile); IESA – Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración (Venezuela); INCAE – Instituto Centroamericano de Administración de Empresas (Costa Rica); Universidad de Los Andes (Colombia); Universidad del Pacífico (Peru) and Universidad de San Andrés (Argentina). From the outset, the project has been sponsored by the Avina Foundation.
In the 2001/2003 period, studies focused on cross-sector strategic alliances and CEATS produced four teaching cases / teaching notes. The book “Social Partnerships in Latin America – lessons drawn from collaborations of businesses and civil society organizations” was also published, adding to the comparative international analyses that already existed. The Portuguese version of the book was launched in Brazil in 2006 and two editions were produced that year, aiming to serve the demand. It has been distributed in English and Spanish.
Between 2003 and 2005, the group studied Social Entrepreneurship and Governance and four new teaching cases / teaching notes were produced by the CEATS team. Once again, the local and transnational analysis made by the networks was compiled into a book, which as yet has only been launched in English and Spanish, entitled: “Effective Management of Social Enterprises – lessons from Businesses and Civil Society Organizations in Iberoamerica”. The CEATS team contributed a chapter to it on Organizational Culture.
Between 2006 and 2009, the SEKN group is analyzing corporate models that lead to social inclusion.
Building a System of Socio-Economic Indicators for Assessing the Impact of Production Enterprises on the Agro-Industrial Pulp System in the State of Rio Grande do Sul
The concept, modeling and introduction of a system for monitoring and assessing social enterprises conceived and implemented by VCP [Votorantim Pulp & Paper], in the State of Rio Grande do Sul (extreme South of Brazil). The project aims:
- To identify the consequences of the productive enterprises stimulated by the company in the areas under its influence in the region.
- To integrate the Votorantim Institute’s own actions with initiatives that focus on emancipating local entrepreneurship.
- To monitor and redirect the activity planning, investments and strategic alliances.
- To contribute to the advance of practical and theoretical knowledge of issues related to entrepreneurship, sustainability and local development.
In October 2006, the CEATS team prepared and coordinated a workshop aimed at prioritizing categories and perspective lines of socioeconomic impact indexes that might express the extent of sustainable development in the community affected by the company’s productive enterprises. For that meeting, twenty specialists were invited, from the areas of Environmental Management /Political Science /Human and Community Security /Institutional Environment and Agro-industrial Systems /Environmental Impact in Productive Enterprises /Public Health /Socio-environmental Management /Social Balance Indexes /Local economic performance /Territorial development /Rural development /Corporate Social Responsibility indexes /Poverty and social inequality /Social Organization, Development Councils, Public Participation.
During the event, prioritization was the leading word, from the joint analysis of a list of categories and possible index lines, which had been obtained from the ‘Survey, analysis and consolidation of bibliographical data’ and from a first round for validating them with local social actors (representatives of farmers, members of rural unions, members of the municipalities, members of environmental NGOs, workforce in the local farms and so forth). In December 2006, a Workshop for classification of indexes along with the company’s top management ensued.
From January to March 2007, meetings were held with specialists in the environmental and social areas, for detailing the indexes. In April, data on these indexes were collected in three trial areas in the region covered by the VCP enterprises in the Rio Grande do Sul state.
Socio-Environmental Diagnosis of the Rural Communities in Areas Controlled by the Orsa Group in the Jarí Valley Region
This project consisted of a diagnosis of the specific characteristics of the social, economic, cultural and environmental realities of the communities living in areas that are owned by or under the control of the Jarí Pulp company. This project consisted of a diagnosis designed to lead to an understanding of the specific characteristics of the social, economic, cultural and environmental realities of communities living in areas owned by or under the control of the Jarí Pulp company, acquired by the Orsa Group in 2000.
This diagnosis will serve as base for the Group to elaborate strategies of support and incentive to community enterprises, aiming at the sustainable development in the region.
The project comprised activities of coordination and supervision of:
- Tasks performed by the CEATS team
- Tasks jointly performed by the CEATS team and Orsa employees working on actions of local development;
- Projects developed by technical teams from partner organizations hired by the Group.
The diagnosis of demands and potential of the rural communities in the Jarí Valley comprised 127 municipalities and 1087 rural communities and leaderships, totaling 330 hours of field work.
Then, CEATS prepared an analysis of primary and secondary data, according to the following dimensions: geo-demographic framing of the communities, territorial ranking, health, education, existing social action programs, unionism, occupation and professional formation. The analysis of socio-economical reality of the rural communities in the face of the abovementioned dimensions led to the suggestion of lines of action for accomplishing a Sustainable Development Program in the region, which has been jointly discussed and analyzed by CEATS, the Orsa Group and other public and private partners, so as to lead to the development of such socio-economical enterprises in the Amazon region. In 2006, the CEATS team prepared an Executive Report and helped prepare the report for ITERPA – Instituto de Terras do Pará.