The Brazilian business environment has changed a lot in the last 20 years: from a country known abroad by its default on the foreign debt market in the late '80s to a potential investment grade in 2008.

The introduction of the "real" currency, which slashed the hyperinflation and ended the unstable currency, and the election and mandate of Brazil's President Lula, which despite being the country's first left-wing president didn't make any disruption at all on the economic guidance, are two important milestones that gave a broad stability to Brazil.

Meanwhile, global companies have been doing business in Brazil for a long time, like IBM Corp. and General Electric Co. But after Brazil joined the BRIC club, the country immediately appeared on the radar of most of the global companies. Today, nearly 200 of the Fortune 500 have a presence in Brazil, and two segments illustrate some of the strategies these companies have pursued.

In retail, Carrefour SA arrived in Brazil in the 1970s and grew both organically and through acquisitions. About 15 years ago, the market was mostly dominated by domestic players. By then, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. decided to enter the Brazilian market, and did it first through a joint venture with a local player and then grew organically. After years of a relatively shy presence, Wal-Mart recently acquired two medium chains. French supermarket group Casino Guichard-Perrachon SA came in the late '90s thru a joint venture with Cia. Brasileira de Distribuicao-Grupo Pao de Acucar, Brazil's largest retailer. Today they are the top three retailers in the market.

And in finance, many foreigners entered the Brazilian market in the '90s, mostly through organic growth, but only a few of them were successful, mainly because local competition was fierce. Fleet Boston established a presence in 1947, but it never reached large scale and in 2006 sold its local operations to a domestic player in an exchange of shares to retain a minority partnership at Itau, Brazil's No. 2 player.

On the other hand, Credit Suisse entered the market in 1998, acquiring a domestic investment banking player. By 2007, Credit Suisse merged its operations with another domestic player on the asset management and brokerage area, and consolidated its position as one of the market leaders.

So, there is no one key to success, but as Brazil is booming right now, opportunities abound.  - Michael Harari

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