Howdy fellas! You read the title, now it’s time to understand and discuss!
First of All – What Is Guanxi, and what is the Jeitinho Brasileiro?
Guanxi (Chinese: 关系) or Guanshi describes the basic dynamic in personalized networks of influence (which can be best described as the relationships individuals cultivate with other individuals) and is a central idea in Chinese society.
Jeitinho Brasileiro (Brazilian Portuguese: [ʒejˈtʃĩɲu], literally "little way") is more than finding a way to accomplish something by circumventing or bending the rules or social conventions.
One way to understand jeitinho is as a recurso de esperteza, which means a resource used by espertos — savvy, cunning, or sly individuals who use common sense and prior knowledge, as well as naturally gifted intelligence in their thought processes.
It implies that a person is "street-smart", but not necessarily "book-smart." It typically also connotes opportunism, pragmatism, and using one's networks, with little regard for the law, the state or for persons outside of one's own circle or family.
Now that you have a general definition, I will tell you guys my experience with both of them.
As NuuuNNN stated in our first post ever here on Steemit, I came to Brazil in order to work on some projects and understand how the world flows – call me an idiot, but I don’t want to spend my day doing the same thing over and over without understanding what surrounds us.
So here in Brazil, things work a bit different from where some of you might live.
Just to give an example – In Portugal you can open a bank account and set up a credit card in a week’s time AT MOST.
Here in Brazil it took me 3 months because I just wasn’t looking where I had to!
You see, in Portugal, you fill out forms, you submit the papers required and after the process is complete everything is set up.
In Brazil, I tried the same method for 3 whole months with different banks, just to get the same results – “We cannot help you because you are a foreigner”.
After a while, I almost gave up, when a friend of mine, co-worker, invited me over to dinner.
During dinner at his house, he explained to me something essencial, that I had missed entirely.
There is a sort of un-written rule, the Jeitinho Brasileiro, that helps get things done – and how.
The next day, this friend walked with me to another agency of the same bank and explained my situation – amidst talking about football, politics and other non-related subjects.
Guess what? Turns out he solved a problem I had been tackling for three months in about an hour, without directly addressing the issue.
I got a bank account opened with no files needed whatsoever – just word of mouth and details given in the conversation.
I was astonished, baffled to say the least at this new method of solving problems.
Thus, from this point onwards I sat and observed how the flow of society works and how the Jeitinho Brasileiro really comes in handy when you need to get stuff done that otherwise would take an enormous amount of time or it’s above your resources.
Fast forward 8 months – I am fully aware of the Jeitinho Brasileiro now and I just laugh internally when we have business meetings.
But then… Business with China happened.
Boy was I mistaken about them – neither me nor my colleagues knew about Guanxi before this meeting and I still am not sure how it works.
Except that it’s very similar to the Jeitinho Brasileiro, in which no contracts or laws are invoked at any time. They just chat and trade favours – bringing a personal relationship into the business world.
If you read my last post about Blockchain you may understand my point of view in how all of this works, but just in case you didn’t know – I believe that unnecessary paperwork should be avoided such as most human interaction – due to having seen huge frauds committed.
Although it is very welcoming and fun to watch the flow of life between Brazilians and Chinese in business, I believe that Guanxi and Jeitinho Brasileiro will not be required in the society that follows the wide-spreading of Blockchain and Smart Contracts!
Love, Nex
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