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Ribeirão Preto City Hall · Director of Innovation & Economic Development

Public Sector Digital Transformation

A collection of digital government and economic development initiatives

The Secretariat of Innovation and Development of Ribeirão Preto is the city's public engine for innovation, economic growth, and global connectivity, bridging public policy, startups, and global markets.

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Context & Challenge

When I took on the role of Director of Innovation and Development at the Ribeirão Preto City Hall, the municipality faced a structural challenge common to large Brazilian cities:

the process of opening, modifying, and closing a business was highly bureaucratic, fragmented across departments, and largely manual.

At that time, there was no unified digital flow connecting municipal secretariats, state-level systems, and licensing authorities. Entrepreneurs and accountants were required to navigate multiple public offices, duplicating information and dealing with long processing times and low transparency.

Empresa Fácil became the first end-to-end digital transformation project led by the Secretariat of Innovation and Development, with the explicit mandate to modernize the business registration experience and position Ribeirão Preto as a reference in digital government and economic development.

Problem

The existing business registration model presented several systemic issues:

  • Fragmented processes across multiple municipal departments
  • Manual analysis and decision-making for low-risk activities
  • Lack of real-time visibility for entrepreneurs and accountants
  • High bureaucratic burden, discouraging formalization and economic activity
  • Limited interoperability with state-level systems such as VRE / JUCESP

Without structural change, the municipality would continue to operate with high administrative cost, slow service delivery, and low citizen satisfaction.

Approach & Role

I was responsible for leading the project end to end, acting as the central point of coordination between:

  • Municipal secretariats (Finance, Urban Planning, Environment, Health Surveillance, Fiscalization, Mobility, Education, among others)
  • State-level platforms (VRE / REDESIM / JUCESP)
  • Technology partner (Mitra Sistemas)
  • Internal leadership and external stakeholders (entrepreneurs and accounting firms)

My role included:

  • Defining the digital transformation strategy for business registration
  • Coordinating cross-department process mapping and redesign
  • Ensuring regulatory alignment with the Economic Freedom Law and the new municipal decree establishing risk classification
  • Overseeing system configuration, data integration, and interoperability
  • Leading change management, including training of public servants and accountants
  • Managing the rollout, launch, and assisted operation phases

The project was executed across four structured phases: kickoff and mapping, system configuration, homologation and training, and full production rollout with assisted operation.

Solution: Empresa Fácil

Empresa Fácil is a fully digital platform that allows entrepreneurs to:

  • Open, modify, and close companies entirely online
  • Automatically assess location feasibility before renting or purchasing property
  • Benefit from geoprocessing-based automation for low-risk activities
  • Interact with a single digital interface instead of multiple public offices

The platform integrates municipal systems with state-level registries and licensing authorities, enabling automated responses for feasibility analysis and clear routing for cases requiring manual review.

Output & Results

  • Full digitalization of business opening, alteration, and closure processes
  • Elimination of the need for entrepreneurs to physically visit multiple public offices
  • Automated feasibility analysis and licensing flows for low-risk activities
  • Integration with VRE / REDESIM / JUCESP, enabling end-to-end interoperability
  • Establishment of 1,067 low-risk activity classifications, significantly reducing approval time
  • Official public launch on December 21, 2023, followed by full production rollout in January 2024
  • Training of municipal staff and local accountants to ensure adoption
  • Positioning of Ribeirão Preto as:
    • the least bureaucratic Brazilian city with over 500,000 inhabitants, and
    • among the top three cities nationwide in business environment simplification (as stated during the launch)

Context & Challenge

In parallel with leading flagship initiatives such as Empresa Fácil, I was designated by the Secretary of Innovation and Development to operate in an Acting Chief of Staff capacity, supporting the overall management, structure, and execution of the Secretariat.

At the time, the Secretariat consisted of 25 people, with 23 direct reports under my leadership. While there was strong political intent and openness to modern management practices, the organization lacked:

  • A clear operating model
  • Standardized project and work management routines
  • Unified tools for execution tracking and documentation
  • A strategic structure connecting daily execution to long-term priorities

The challenge was to professionalize governance and execution, bringing structure, clarity, and discipline to a complex public-sector environment.

Problem

The absence of a formal operating model resulted in:

  • Limited visibility into priorities, progress, and dependencies
  • Fragmented documentation and informal knowledge transfer
  • Inconsistent leadership practices across teams
  • Misalignment between strategy, people, and execution
  • No consolidated performance reporting to senior executive leadership

As scope and responsibility expanded, these gaps directly constrained the Secretariat's ability to deliver impact at scale.

Approach & Role

Acting as a senior operational leader reporting directly to the Secretary, I led a comprehensive organizational redesign, spanning people, processes, tools, and strategy.

Team & Leadership Structure

  • Conducted a full assessment of team composition, roles, and performance
  • Replaced three leadership roles reporting directly to me to realign execution with strategic priorities
  • Established clearer ownership, accountability, and leadership expectations

Operating Model & Tooling

  • Introduced Notion as the central system for documentation, standards, and knowledge management
  • Implemented Monday.com for project and work tracking across the Secretariat
  • Standardized documentation for initiatives, project intake, prioritization, and reporting

Strategic Planning

  • Led the Secretariat's strategic planning process, structured around two core pillars:
    • Economic Development —focused on reducing bureaucracy and supporting entrepreneurship
    • Innovation —encompassing digital transformation, open innovation, and internal modernization
  • Translated strategy into executable initiatives and clearly defined project portfolios

Management Routines & Governance

  • Implemented regular 1:1 meetings with direct reports
  • Established leadership syncs and cross-team coordination meetings
  • Introduced monthly all-hands meetings to review metrics, results, priorities, and blockers
  • Reinforced a culture of transparency, accountability, and execution discipline

Output & Results

  • Implementation of a professional operating and governance model for the Secretariat
  • Clear alignment between strategy, leadership structure, and execution
  • Standardized work and project management across all teams
  • Increased visibility into priorities, delivery status, and constraints
  • Stronger leadership cadence and clearer accountability at all levels
  • Delivery of the first formal performance report ever presented by the Secretariat to the Mayor at the end of 2023, consolidating:
    • Project outcomes
    • Strategic progress
    • Key metrics
    • Forward-looking priorities

This work established a sustainable management foundation, enabling the Secretariat to operate with greater clarity, speed, and institutional credibility.