Coopersucar

A Sigalei success story.

‍

The client

A government magnifying glass constantly hovers over Copersucar's areas of action. The company operates in two markets highly regulated by public decision-makers: food and energy. In common is the same agricultural source: sugarcane. Different legislative propositions or executive acts can represent risks or opportunities for the business model, whether inside or outside the gates.

Any movement in this direction can impact superlative numbers. Copersucar is a global leader in the sugar and ethanol trade, with revenues close to R$ 30 billion per year. It represents 34 mills, which together employ around 100,000 workers, and has units in the United States and 7 other countries.

Per year, Copersucar sells 90 million tons of sugar per year and 14 billion liters of ethanol. It is a global, privately held company that generates 620 direct jobs. It maintains an active, but lean, department focused on Institutional and Governmental Relations (IGR) activities.

‍

The problem

The food sector, in which Copersucar operates, has its peculiar challenges. Historically, it is a highly regulated sector, which faces external competition and the watchful eye of different stakeholders.

As the product sold is sugar, a recurrent topic in discussions about healthy eating and public health, one of the challenges is working with a focus on conscious consumption, generating quality information, so that the product does not become a villain unjustifiably. Generating grounded and technical information that can contribute to the formation of the public agenda, anticipating and contributing to the debate, is one of the main objectives.

Operating also in the energy sector derived from an agricultural raw material, the challenges become even more exponential. The market is highly sensitive to variations in price and this is formed from an infinity of uncontrollable factors, among them, the international price of a barrel of oil.

In addition, the entire production process, quality specification, freedom to commercialize and transport is regulated. In other words, from the beginning to the end of the chain, eyes are turned to the sector. Therefore, a public policy that is not grounded and that does not pay attention to the specificities of this market can generate a great loss, including for consumers.

In this discussion, it is also relevant to shed light on the positive externalities of ethanol, which has far more environmental advantages than fossil fuels. Thus, the tripod that involves environmental, social and economic sustainability is a topic that touches all sector discussions.  

Given its comprehensive scope, there are many issues that can generate impact, although some, at first glance, appear not to be so priority. As an example, there are logistics projects not only at the federal level. There are dozens of states that open discussions in this regard and that, without information or supported numbers, can cause more problems than solutions for the whole society.

With a lean team, and the infinity of issues to be monitored, the challenge of putting all these demands on the daily operational radar becomes a Herculean task.

Copersucar needs to rely on multiple sources of information to have a more appropriate reading of what is happening. It is necessary to look carefully at the photograph of the moment and also follow the nuances of moving frames, so that the action is taken in a timely and effective manner, focusing on ethics, veracity, and accuracy.

‍

The solution

In July 2020, Copersucar, which was already a Sigalei client on the monitoring platforms, advanced to a new customized solution according to the demands mentioned above: Operational Management.

It allows the creation of intelligent radars regarding all movements in the Legislative and Executive that may impact the organization and its sector, allowing the anticipation of risks and the identification of opportunities.

The work begins from the mapping, from multiple sources, of what the discussions and the topics of greatest interest are.

The Copersucar team, although they already had access to the Sigalei platform, did not have the time to do all this monitoring. As already mentioned, the sector is highly regulated, which generates a daily bombardment of information.

It was not always possible for the Copersucar team to stop daily activities to try to better capture what could be vital and consolidate this information in high quality reports that are easy to read, even for decision makers who are not so familiar with the political intricacies, a solution that the Sigalei Operational Management team started to make available to Copersucar.

To have a comprehensive view of the political scenario and the movements that could be of interest, Sigalei mapped propositions, stakeholders, changes and movements of projects, agendas of discussions, among others, identifying themes of interest to Copersucar.

From these themes, radars were created that generate intelligent alerts for Copersucar about which propositions are more relevant, which can generate the greatest impact, which are moving faster (a potential indicative of approval), among other points.

In addition to alerts, a report with this information is sent every week. At the end of the month, another report details the main movements identified in each of the chosen themes.

In October 2020, for example, 12 projects were classified as most relevant and monitored more closely.

Opportunities and risks are detailed in the reports, which also provide insights and recommendations. All this work is part of the Sigalei Intelligence solutions, which facilitates and operationalizes the monitoring work, so that Copersucar can build action strategies based on relevant information.

"With Sigalei's Operational Management, it was possible to monitor important projects from the moment they were presented. With well-adjusted monitoring radars, I received alerts that helped me search for the right people at the ideal time. Acting at the right time was very important to be able to contribute effectively and in a republican way in at least two cases in the last 3 months" points out Bruno Alves, Manager of Corporate Communications and Institutional Relations at Copersucar.

‍

Operational Management for your organization

Just as it made the work of Copersucar professionals easier and more effective, Sigalei's Operational Management can also make a lot of difference for your organization.

Sigalei's specialists are available to help build the most effective action strategies. To do this, simply contact us and ask about Operational Management. Click here and learn more.

‍