André Coutinho’s professional career had several valuable stages in acquiring experience and knowledge, until he became an entrepreneur. The current Director of Brighten, who completed the Executive MBA AESE in 2016, believes that he knew how to take the right steps to move forward against “his cause”, overcoming the challenges that were presented.
In the future, he sees himself continuing to collaborate with his clients by simplifying business and positively influencing a new generation of consultants and future leaders.
What are the main milestones in your professional career, which contributed to reaching the position of Brighten Director?
I believe that the position I hold today at Brighten (formerly Procensus) is the result of a sum of experiences, a set of cycles of trial and error, which have contributed to my growth as a professional. I highlight, however, 4 great moments: 1) the beginning of my consulting career at the then Deloitte Consulting (which gave me many of the foundations for the professional I am today); 2) the international experience provided at Capgemini (which gave me the space and autonomy to grow); 3) the opportunity to help create a new consulting project in Portugal at the age of 30; and finally 4) the acquisition of Procensus (now Brighten) which marks a second phase of my career as an entrepreneur and which allowed me to implement the consulting vision that I have been building throughout my professional career.
What were your main achievements?
Achievements happen whenever we take a step towards advancing our cause and overcome the challenges that take us away from it. Brighten is undoubtedly my greatest achievement, it is today the result of many challenges overcome and many small achievements, since the day I decided that there was room for a new consulting project in Portugal.
What are the main lessons that make you the leader you are today?
Much of what I am today, I owe to a group of extraordinary people who were and are part of my personal and professional path. Along the way, I identified some characteristics with which I saw myself in the various leaders I had the opportunity to collaborate with (the way they listened, how they delegated, how their performance and speech were aligned, how they predicted, how they systematized and structured and solved challenges and the way they communicated and motivated their teams are some of the examples). This empirical observation together with the investment in training are the main contributions to the leader I am today.
What values do you govern yourself by and that you transmit to your teams?
More than values, what I look for in my teams are attitudes and behaviors that together form a unique culture that we live every day at Brighten: Wear the jersey (ours and our customers’), challenge ourselves every day, always add value, help first, simplify and do what we say.
If you could go back in time, what would you do differently?
There are always those moments when we question and if… These moments have happened to me in every decision process of major professional changes. Nevertheless, I consider that the choices I made contributed to being where I am, in this case contributing to a project that I believe surrounded by excellent people. In that sense, I wouldn’t do anything different.
Professionally, how do you see yourself in 5 years?
In 5 years’ time, I hope to continue to contribute to simplifying the business of Brighten’s clients, continue to positively influence a new generation of consultants and future leaders, and continue to learn every day.
