
It all starts with respect, writes Jorge Gerdau Johannpeter in his book The Search, an inspiring text, with teachings based on simplicity and focused on essential values for those who lead or want to become leaders – in their family, in a company, in society. It is not a biography, as is also explained at the beginning, although it addresses relevant moments in the journey of one of the most influential business leaders in Brazil.
Jorge Gerdau, whose career is associated with the rationality of steel, transposed his teachings from sports to the corporate world – and to his first book – a tradition cherished by the four brothers who control Gerdau and their descendants. There are many analogies with surfing, a sport in which he was one of the pioneers, and with horse riding, in which the Gerdau Johannpeter family seeks, as the book's title suggests, the same excellence pursued by the company, based on solid values. That is why he chose to pose on the cover with a wooden surfboard, which he used in his youth.
Right from the start, the author makes it clear that he does not want to be pretentious, a concern he maintains throughout the text. And he justifies this with humility, inaugurating the many indispensable teachings for leaders: “Those who think they are geniuses or superior lose the ability to learn.” If someone does not have the humility to listen, he claims, they will not know what to say: “When I see people who achieve some result and begin to show signs of a lack of humility, I feel sorry for them: they have set their ceiling.”
Respect and love
There are many teachings throughout the 176 pages, based on family values, mainly those of the father, Curt Johannpeter, and those of the mother, Helda Gerdau, taken to the company. In the end, everything is summarized in 23 words, which begin with “Respect” and end with “Love”. “Respect, in essence, presupposes the awareness of the importance of each individual and the exercise of our ethical, moral and legal limits”, he explains. “And love is what gives dimension to our attitudes.”
Respect, in the author's view, is a value closely associated with education, one of his flags as a leader, along with Total Quality, defense of freedoms and causes ranging from health to the arts, in addition to sports. “Respect and transparency define the stage of educational and cultural development of a nation,” he argues.
The more humble the employee’s position, he writes, the more he should be treated with attitude and respect. “It’s not just what I do or say, but how it will be perceived in a world where hierarchy and symbols of power, whether we like it or not, still make a big difference.”
Values to perpetuate the legacy
With the death of patriarch Curt Johannpeter in 1983, Jorge and his brothers decided to list the conglomerate’s values, an unusual initiative at the time, formalized three years later – most of them inspired by the family’s principles and concepts. “We felt that expressing them clearly would help perpetuate the legacy of our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents.”
Principles that guide the search
- Respect
- Austerity
- Search
- Community
- Education
- Spirituality
- Excellence
- Family
- Faith
- Future
- Governance
- Generosity
- Humility
- Freedom
- People
- Fullness
- Purpose
- Results
- Healthcare
- Simplicity
- Sustainability
- Transparency
- Love
Gerdau was the family, and the family was Gerdau, because of the purpose, values and enthusiasm with which we lived this experience, says Jorge Gerdau, who started working at the age of 16 in the nail factory acquired by his great-grandfather João Gerdau in 1901. “It is difficult to define, in my life, what is a company and what is a family, since the foundations and the supporting beams are the same and, therefore, inseparable.”
People management is crucial
“Gerdau has truly grown with the participation of our employees at all levels. This has meant involvement and engagement.”
“People only work well and as a team when there is respect.”
The author makes an emphatic defense of sustainability, focusing precisely on people: “The barriers between human beings and nature are increasingly being broken down. Everything is one and interdependent.” Economic sustainability is the basis, the pillar of the other areas – and, by mentioning them, he expands the concepts usually translated by the acronym ESG, including the cultural and political dimensions. On its own, economic sustainability completely loses its purpose, he warns.
The search for immediate results, without a greater purpose, is not justified, in the opinion of the author, one of the controlling shareholders of Gerdau. “We have come to believe that money is an end. It is not. Money has always been and always should be a means for economic and social development.”
The businessman makes a point of expressing his vision on inclusion: “Inclusion means generating more income, more consumption, more taxes, more dignity, more individual happiness and more collective development. This is not communism or liberalism: it is common sense.”
Learning through dialogue with the sea
Neither the values nor their practical application make sense without a clear purpose, in the author's view, who shares the permanent search for excellence with the activities of his wife Maria Elena, a reference for the efficiency she imprinted on the NGO Volunteer Partners. “The word purpose, for me, is one of those that guides my personal trajectory, whether in family, social or professional life, but also when I think about my neighbor, in society as a whole.”
When reflecting on the topic, the business leader seeks inspiration from the sea and surfing of his youth, in Rio de Janeiro, where he was born almost 88 years ago, and in Torres, where he spent his summers with his family. Surfing, he explains, makes us swim against the current and against the force of the waves that will later propel us forward, back to the beach: “The sea has a certain regularity in its movements. On the other hand, each wave is different. These are lessons and experiences that are completely applicable to life.”
Jorge Gerdau reports that he always uses these lessons at boardrooms and in complex negotiations, and shares insights such as these in the book:
- “Agility, adaptability and courage to decide: this is how you face big waves.”
- “Those who surf learn to communicate and, therefore, to understand the sea.”
- “Falling is part of it. Knowing how to get up is also part of it. It is at these times that the dialogue with the sea becomes a question that needs an immediate answer. And the right one.”
- “It’s interesting to think how the same energy can be a problem or a solution, depending on how we position ourselves in relation to it.”
- “Dialogue with the sea is an incomparable form of learning.”
In times of polarization within and outside companies, Jorge Gerdau laments that the radicalization of the political environment and the personalistic exercise of power impose a certain constraint on businesspeople. The business leader confesses to thinking in a pluralistic way and understands that no one should be afraid to say what they think, whether for the right, the center or the left. “We may not like or agree with a ruler’s line of action or thought, but we always have the duty to build the best, driven not by vanity or personal interest, but by coherence.”
In this case too, the premise is respect.
The leader's thought
Some points of view of Jorge Gerdau in the book A Busca:
“When it comes to leadership, the power of example is unique and irreplaceable.”
“I often say that the highest possible grade for any project or achievement is nine.
Ten is what I will do best, tomorrow.”“Obstacles are part of winning paths.”
“Losing in a sporting competition is almost never the end, but rather a step in the search for excellence.”
“I learned that there is a right time to dare and that we need training and maturity to face certain challenges.”
“It is not the finish line that improves the human, economic, social and political development of a community.
It is the search.”
Schedule an appointment
Upcoming launch events The Search:
São Paulo
6/12
Tomie Ohtake Institute
Coropé Street, 88
Schedule: 6pm to 9pm
Brasilia
10/12
CNI
SBN Quadra 1 – Block C
Ed. Roberto Simonsen
Schedule: 6pm to 9pm
Belo Horizonte
12/12
Gerdau Mines and Metal Museum
Freedom Square, 680
Schedule: 6pm to 9pm

The Quest: Lessons from a Journey of Concerns and Achievements
Jorge Gerdau
Citadel, 176 p.
R$62.90
Also available online at Amazon
Clovis Malta is a journalist
clovis.malta@ankreputation.com.br