NSU Horizons Spring 2017

47 NSU HORIZONS U I “In 2001 we decided to really be different by opening small stores, putting signs in windows showing low prices, and handing out free samples,” he said. “Every neighbor- hood and every mall wanted us.” Soon, they developed strategies to open 50 stores before Christmas and 50 more in time for Easter. Later, when the duo offered franchise opportunities for Cacau Show, applicants rushed for a piece of the action. “We weren’t just a store. We were a brand, we were chocolate, and a place where everyone wanted to work and visit—we became a happy place,” Butuem said. Meanwhile, Butuem studied Taxation at Brazil’s Instituto Brasileiro de Estudos Tributarios, and earned an M.B.A. degree from FGV—Fundação Getulio Vargas. By 2014, the business had 1,600 workers—400 in produc- tion and 800 in packaging alone. Shortly after, Butuem sold his shares in the company, became a board adviser, and moved to Florida. “Money was not an issue anymore,” Butuem said. He was concerned more about his wife and children. The economic gap between the “haves and have nots” in Brazil had become a chasm and crimes against the wealthy had escalated to include kidnapping for ransom. “If you want to be safe you have to move to a gated area away from the criminals, buy a bulletproof car, and hire bodyguards,” Butuem said. “I am a simple person. I want to be able to walk the streets. I wanted freedom.” The United States seemed the perfect place to launch a new business like Cacau Show, Butuem said, because 25 percent of the world’s chocolate is sold and consumed here. Additionally, it had a gross domestic product rating more than 10 times greater than Brazil. Although Butuem had three academic degrees, he needed to learn U.S. entrepre- neurialism. He visited several universities in Florida before enrolling at NSU. Butuem, the lifelong learner, will graduate in May with his M.B.A. Returning to NSU as a faculty member is an additional goal. After all, he pointed out, the NSU faculty is wholly composed of professors with real-world success as entrepreneurs. He listed Miguel Orta, J.D., M.I.B.A., who teaches law and international sales, and Thomas Tworoger, D.B.A., professor and chair of Entrepreneurship and Sport Management, as two who stand out. “At other schools, if professors have no real-life experi- ence, the students learn how to be managers,’’ Butuem said. “At NSU the entrepreneur shows students how to start from scratch, how to build a business plan and handle legal problems, how to advertise and trade, how to use social media for promotions and advertising. It’s amazing.” “Here is our mantra: come to class on Wednesday and on Thursday you can change your business,” Tworoger said. “We have deliverables and takeaways. Frankly, the success of my own business is from my NSU experience.” Orta said he was quickly impressed by Butuem. During a recent teaching assignment in China, Orta called Butuem for assistance because he felt that the students were not responding. “There we were in the middle of nowhere, five hours from Beijing, where no one spoke English, and Sergio got through to the students within three days because he told them how (Cacau Show) started in the basement,” Orta said. “Sergio was an accidental return on that (Chinese) project.” Butuem has found NSU’s entrepreneurship program the perfect fit for his extended education. He especially appreciated that NSU makes mentoring and career management available and that class schedules are flexi- ble, which suits busy lives. “If you want to marry entre- preneurial knowledge with managing your day-to-day business to make it grow and build a future, NSU is the place to be,” Butuem said. n “If you want to marry entrepreneurial knowledge with managing your day-to-day business to make it grow and build a future, NSU is the place to be.” —Sergio Butuem