Our laws and bureaucracy do not encourage productivity

Resumo

Luiza Helena Trajano is known for being active and optimistic, and this is reflected in her company’s performance. In the last five years, Magazine Luiza, a chain of retail stores, has more than doubled its turnover: In 2014 alone, the company served 39 million customers and grossed R$12 billion, mostly generated in 647 stores in four regions of the country. Today, however, she worries about low consumer confidence. “We will have to work to lower costs, increase productivity, and think out of the box to attract consumers into the store,” she says. She is a member of the Council for Economic and Social Development (CDES) and Chairperson of the Board of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games Rio 2016. She advocates increasing the country’s productivity, but disagrees with the view that labor is expensive. “What’s added to wages makes labor more expensive,” she says.