This month we open our newsletter with an inspiring conversation with our dear Rosário Louro, CEO of Jervis Pereira, who shared with us her vision of her professional career, the agency and the challenges faced in the communications sector and what she believes is essential for the future.

1. Name, position in the company

Rosário Louro
CEO of Jervis Pereira since 1994

2. When did you become CEO?

In 1994, when I left my job as General Secretary of a Poultry Federation where I had worked for 13 years to dedicate myself exclusively to Jervis Pereira, a company I had founded in 1989, but to which I dedicated very little time.

3. How did the idea of ​​creating Jervis come about? What was the goal at the time?

I always knew that I wanted to have my own company. In 1989, I founded Jervis to work in the economic and management consultancy sector. I knew the agricultural sector well, had the right contacts and knew that I would be well received in this market. For almost 10 years, Jervis worked in the area of ​​economic and management consultancy, but in 1996 it also began to work as a communications and marketing consultancy.

In fact, communications and marketing have always interested me. Even when I worked at the Poultry Federation, I dedicated part of my time to marketing, which in fact proved to be almost revolutionary in the 1980s when little was known about these subjects, much less in the agricultural sector.

The specialization in tourism began in 1996 because one of our agricultural clients decided to open a hotel in Caramulo. At that time, Jervis was challenged to launch Caramulo as a tourist destination. At the time, Caramulo was an agricultural destination, which in the 1930s and 1940s had been a senatorial tuberculosis treatment resort. Therefore, it was far from being considered a tourist destination. The challenge was exciting because we were starting from scratch. We accepted it with enthusiasm and were very successful. After that, we never stopped working on promoting tourist destinations. In 2000, we won the account for the Tourism Authority of Thailand, which ended up being our gateway to promoting international destinations. In 2004, economic consultancy ceased to be our core business and we fully embraced communication and marketing. 4. Have you always dreamed of being a CEO of a company? And being in the world of communication, marketing…? What captivated you about these areas? Being a CEO was never an objective or even a life project. Being a CEO is the consequence of someone who wants to break new ground and control their own destiny. There are two types of CEOs: Managers and Entrepreneurs. They are both leaders, but with different profiles. I am clearly part of the second group, the entrepreneurs. I have an idea, define a path, do my calculations and execute it. It is almost a compulsion! It's been like this my whole life. I move forward without fear and with the confidence that I'm capable of doing things. Entrepreneurs start from scratch and take risks. Managers manage projects that were created by others. Both are necessary and indispensable for the growth of companies.

5. What are the main challenges of running a communications company in Portugal?

My main challenge was not having any training in this area, nor having the profile of traditional communications consultants who, in general, are former journalists. I came from the sciences, they from the literature.

I always had a very clear idea of ​​what a communications agency should be and I always knew that my vision did not coincide with that of typical communications consultants. For traditional consultants, media consultancy was “the soul of the business” and everything else was “puppets”. I always believed that communication only makes sense if it is integrated, i.e., if it combines marketing strategies, advertising, events, media consultancy, social media and, more recently, influencer marketing. Media consultancy in isolation is very reductive and never allows us to achieve great results.

This vision of communication has marked Jervis’ culture since its foundation and has been one of our main distinguishing factors compared to the competition. Today, everything is more standardized and almost all agencies offer other services in addition to media consultancy, but in the 90s and the first decade of the 2000s this was not the case. We were clearly outsiders that the competition did not recognize among their peers, but to whom clients gave credit because they saw the benefits of our positioning.

6. What advice would you give to someone who dreams of being a CEO?

A successful CEO necessarily has to have two characteristics – being confident and self-assured. If that is the case, my advice is “Don’t be afraid, go for it. You will make mistakes and fail a few times, but in the end it will be worth it.”

7. What were the most memorable moments in your career at the helm of Jervis.

• In 1996, the Caramulo project, which launched us into tourism.
• In 2000, the official representation of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, which was decisive in projecting us in the communication of international tourist destinations;
• In 2007, the strategic design and monitoring of the AEP program “Compro o que é Nosso”, later converted into “Portugal Sou Eu”;
• In 2013, the launch of the Travel Fair, which allowed us to establish a unique relationship with the national tourism trade;
• In 2018, Jervis joined the international PR World Network;
• In 2020, the official representation of Dubai Tourism.

All these partners remain linked to Jervis and have provided us with unique and unforgettable professional and human experiences.

8. On a personal and professional level, what makes you happiest?

On a personal level, my family, especially my husband, son and grandchildren. They are my greatest support and my main advisors. I am lucky to have a very solid family structure that fulfills me completely and that is always my first priority.

At a professional level, I feel fulfilled because I have enjoyed everything I have done. Since I left college, I have had the opportunity to meet people and participate in very interesting projects and work with exceptional teams. Basically, for me, working has always been a way of feeling useful and spending time in a pleasant way.

9. What message would you like to pass on to the team, clients and partners who accompany/accompanied you on this journey?

Don't waste a minute doing things you don't like. Life is too short and we can't spend our time being unhappy.]

Watch the full interview here: [Insert link to video]