Commercial Director Fabrício Lemos loves building relationships, and his knowledge, emotion and courage help the team thrive at Gráfica Forma Certa. His sister, Financial Director Vera Lucia Souza, loves engagement. Her ability to galvanize employees, clients and partners while also controlling "the key to the vault," as Fabrício puts it, is second to none. And their brother, Operations Manager Francisco Souza, loves effectiveness. His process-oriented expertise enables the Brazil-based company to print 37,000 jobs a year, including an eye-opening 12 million books in the past year.
Together, all three family members are making a big difference to Forma Certa's clients, leading a company that's garnering attention and praise in Latin America for its innovation and success.
The leaders cherish one another — and detest the status quo. When the company was founded in 2002, it was mostly a prepress bureau that worked for various publishers. Since then, it hasn't stopped growing and "tirelessly wanting to innovate," Fabrício says. Today, Forma Certa focuses on personalization for courseware and books, and appreciates each opportunity to turn a client's ideas into reality.
"We understood that there was a great opportunity in the digital area, and from 2012 until now, basically all our investments have been in this segment," Fabrício says. HP technology has been critical to their advancement. In addition to HP Indigo presses, Forma Certa relies heavily on the HP PageWide Web Press T230 and HP PageWide Web Press T240 HD because the printer's growing audience demands the speed and flexibility of the digital model, but for bound products. Forma Certa has created a model for warehousing on an as-needed basis that avoids long runs and stockouts.
After installing the T230, the company grew its inkjet business by 40% annually, began running 35-40 million pages per month and sold out capacity.
"With HP web presses, we are able to turn discourse into effective practice," Fabrício recently told HP. "It is possible to print in a smarter and more sustainable manner in quantities that customers really need and, thereby, reduce inventory costs. On the other hand, in addition to small quantities, we can help our customers get unique and personalized products on a larger scale."
In this video discussion led by Juliana Pivoto, Dscoop's Community Success Manager for the Americas, Fabrício, Vera Lucia and Francisco share the joys and challenges of running a family business, their vision of the publishing market in Brazil, their focus on reducing the company's carbon footprint and more.
"Through printing," Vera says, "we can transform a lot of things — transform with education, influencing people in a positive way."
