Scott and Angelo Visit NSF’s Brazil and Peru Labs

In early December, Scott Morris, Vice President of Global Labs, and Angelo Petrillo, Vice President of Global Business Development, visited NSF’s labs in Lima-San Miguel, Peru, and Porto Alegre, Brazil, to learn about their operations.

Scott joined NSF in early November, and these visits completed his initial discovery tour to introduce himself to our global lab team. When we asked Scott and Angelo about their top takeaways from the trip, here’s what they had to say:

Scott: We have truly excellent technical talent and laboratory resources in Brazil and Peru, with highly vested team members at both locations.

Angelo: I echo Scott’s sentiments — our commercial and lab professionals in Brazil and Peru are fantastic. Their technical expertise, passion for customers and connection to our mission were phenomenal.

Angelo: I had the opportunity to visit one potential customer in Brazil — BRF Global, one of the biggest food companies in the world, with no significant business with NSF. Our local sales team had a successful meeting with BRF; we presented our mission and all our lines of business in Brazil. The customer was highly interested to learn more about our company, and we defined several follow-up actions. It was a positive experience and confirmed that we have many growth opportunities in Brazil, with the right team to do it.

Scott: Certainly unexpected but very fortunate for me was that our team members’ English was excellent. I have committed to learning some basic Spanish on Mango, an online learning app, ahead of my next visit as a thank-you for the efforts the team made for me. From a business perspective, my view of our businesses in both Brazil and Peru was that the laboratories were operationally oriented versus client-/growth-oriented. Thus, there is an opportunity for sales and operations to work more closely together to enable growth.

Angelo: I learned that we have a gap in collaboration between the commercial sales and lab teams in both locations. One of my major takeaways from this trip is setting up a solid baseline to create a “One NSF” culture.

Scott: On a business level, it was truly inspiring to see how the sales and operations teams bonded together and defined concrete actions and achievable goals jointly. Our team members left enthused and excited about our future. On a personal level — what can I say, the food was excellent, requiring lots of work at the gym over the coming days!

Angelo: From a business perspective, I have similar highlights as Scott — it was inspiring to see all of our functions (marketing, sales, HR, finance, etc.) and divisions (water, food, lab, etc.) engaged in our discussions and motivated about the future. Personally, it was emotional to connect with the Latin American culture; it was apparent how humble, fun, hardworking and smart our team members are in this region.

Scott: The care and attention that the Porto Alegre laboratory team puts into operating a clean, tidy and safety-conscious operation was impressive. The physical working environment and employee adherence to health and safety are the first things I look at to understand a company culture, and I was highly impressed with the Brazil team on that front.

The Peru laboratory has operations on six floors of their building, which presents challenges in operation flow. However, the team’s work ethic and passion shine through — every person I saw was focused on the task at hand to meet their customers’ turnaround times. Seeing them work gave me great confidence in their future success.

Angelo: My favorite part about the Brazil lab was the commitment our team members have to achieve our mission for the well-being of the people in Brazil. It’s apparent how proud the entire team is to work at NSF and how passionate they are to build a better country.

My favorite part about the Peru lab was the team members’ professionalism and technical expertise. They’re genuinely committed to providing excellent customer service.

For more information on NSF’s Brazil and Peru labs, contact comercial@nsf.org.