The merger of Itaú and Unibanco is not to be rushed, says Roberto Setubal, CEO of the new bank, who believes the two very different management styles will be dovetailed to create a highly productive organisation.
Some analysts have argued that merging the cultures of Itaú and Unibanco will be challenging. Itaú, they say, has been run by engineers who favour a very process-driven approach; Unibanco is run by diplomats, who have a more innovative style. However, Itaú Unibanco's CEO Roberto Setubal thinks that is an out-of-date way of looking at things.
"I don't think the cultures are very different," he says. "We were coming from different spots but probably moving towards the same spot. Before the merger we had been working for four years to include in our culture ingredients that we didn't have - being more informal and innovative - and those were ingredients that Unibanco had.
"At the same time, Unibanco was also working on its culture to become more process oriented and more organised. We were on course to meet at some point in the future," adds Mr Setubal.
Family business
As companies with strong family involvement there were bound to be emotional issues to deal with as well as the difficult issue as to who would be CEO and chairman.
"We talked a lot about culture, about how we would manage this new company, about how we would fit with each other; we had time to discuss a lot and reflect because these are life decisions, they are not day-to-day decisions. I had time to discuss things with my family, [Unibanco's CEO Pedro Moreira Salles] had time to discuss it with his family," says Mr Setubal.
"Both of us were in some ways losing something. [Mr Moreira Salles'] family controlled the bank and would not control it any more. My family controlled Itaú, and we are not alone in control of Itaú any more. Those things need a lot of reflection.
"We are not making an acquisition, we are marrying, it is a partnership so you have to have a lot of confidence in your partner and in the company you are joining. It was a long process," he adds.
Moving fast
"The merger is going very well, we are four months from the announcement [at the time of the interview] and we have already announced the first and second layers of the new organisation.
"Things are moving quite fast, the mood is very positive, we have created 18 committees in different areas of the banks to learn what each bank was doing, and to do analysis on what works better here, what works better there. It is all very open and positive," says Mr Setubal.
"Pedro proposed that I should be CEO and he would be on the board of directors. He did not propose to be the chairman because my father was chairman. My father has a very strong history in Brazil and Pedro thought that he should not ask for that post. But at some point in the discussions, my father decided that he should step down and Pedro should be chairman."
Learning from experience
Mr Setubal says of the 11 acquisitions Itaú has made since 1995: "Some are easy, some are much more complex. We have acquired a lot of very different banks, state-owned banks that are bureaucratic, banks that are international banks and BBA, which is an investment banking franchise. We learned from those cultures and integrated other values into our company, "The most challenging integration was BBA, a lot of people said this was impossible and wouldn't match at all but we both learned over time to respect each other," he adds.
