To Trust and to Serve is the result of reflections by a Brazilian entrepreneur about his 40 years’ experience of participation in the development of countries, businesses and individuals. At the outset one needs to know that in the opinion of the author, who is the President of the Management Board of Odebrecht Group, the inter-relationship among the three elements above is evident: businesses develop in the same pace as the people who compose them and countries progress to the extent that their businesses are strengthened. For this reason there is also no essential distinction and neither contradiction between the sustainability of companies and that of the communities to which they belong.


We are thus dealing with a chain whose links are connected by mutual trust and the spirit of service, as advocated by the Odebrecht Entrepreneurial Technology (OET), the philosophy that guides the action of the people at Odebrecht, one of the largest Brazilian organizations, with over 60 years of existence and present in every continent.

From this perspective Emilio Odebrecht examines and above all proposes solutions for contemporary questions such as the crisis of the Brazilian State, the development of the regional Latin American economy, Brazilian insertion in the global market, the perpetuity of companies and work relationships.

While containing philosophical concepts, these texts are not theoretical, but rather the record of a glimpse on the application of such concepts to issues of interest to Brazil, to its businesses and to all those who follow the spirit of entrepreneurship as a way of life. It is a legacy of 40 years of trusting and serving.