When the legacy passes from father to daughter: a story of learning and succession.

More than 2/3 of Brazilian companies are family-owned, and this Father's Day, we're sharing the perspective of a company in the solar sector as an example of practices focused on succession and preparing future generations.

In a constantly transforming market like the solar energy sector, family businesses face a challenge that goes beyond financial results: preparing the next generation to assume leadership responsibilities without losing the values ​​that helped build the business.

Over 70% of Brazilian family businesses do not reach the second generation.

In an interview with Papo Solar, Roberto Saheli, CEO of Ourolux, and Beatriz Saheli, Head of New Business at the company, shared how father and daughter are experiencing this process within the company, with the support of the founding partners, the executive board, and other family members.

After a challenging experience working with his own father, Roberto decided that his children should build careers outside the company before any possibility of joining the family business.

The intention was to provide independent professional experiences and also to avoid family conflicts similar to those he himself experienced.

In practice, the founding partners of the Saheli family established that the second generation should become familiar with other organizational cultures, develop professional experience outside the company, and only join Ourolux when they could contribute new knowledge to the business. And that is how this process has been conducted.

Succession and innovation

Upon recognizing the potential of commercial and industrial energy storage solutions through BESS systems, the founding partners realized that Ourolux needed to structure an area dedicated to this segment.

It was at this moment that a new challenge arose for Beatriz, who had already been building her professional experience in a multinational company in the agricultural commodities sector.

The invitation went beyond simply taking a position in the family business: she was given the mission of helping to build a new business unit from scratch.

With no prior experience in the electricity sector, but with guidance and support from different areas of Ourolux, Beatriz began her career through a trainee program and later took on the leadership of New Business focused on energy storage.

Coming from the commodities market, she states that much of what she learned about the electricity sector was built within Ourolux itself, with the support of the technical, commercial, financial, and management teams.

“This learning process was very important because I came from the commodities market, I learned what energy was the day I stepped into Ourolux. I had the support of the company as a whole. From the marketing team, which was my first internship in the trainee program, to the finance area,” he stated.

According to the executive, her previous experience at a multinational company was also crucial to her development. In addition to the knowledge she acquired, she brought new perspectives on management, processes, and international trade practices that now contribute to the company's growth.

Family and work have rules.

While succession has been built up over the years, the relationship between father and daughter also follows well-defined principles. One of the main rules established by Roberto is to separate the professional environment from personal life.

"We completely avoid it; we don't talk about work at home and we don't talk about home at work. These are things you need to keep separate."

Today, both seek to maintain this division. Beatriz states that, even being the daughter of one of the founders, she follows the company's organizational structure and seeks to resolve issues through internal channels before directly contacting the CEO.

“I avoid bringing my concerns to the Solar director and CEO, who would be Roberto, and pass them on to the manager, following the hierarchy, so that he can escalate the issue if necessary. (…) Always respecting the hierarchy.”

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