Open Comments, hosted by The Open Group
Welcome to Open Comments hosted by The Open Group*, where we’ll discuss things openly with our guests from a variety of backgrounds and from different walks of life. Through this podcast, we hope to give you an inside look into a variety of topics with an equal mix of humor and candor.
In this series so far, we have touched on the following topics: Healthcare, HR, Diversity + Access to Technology, Cybersecurity, and lots more. We hope you enjoy our show and look forward to bringing more topics into the fold. Let’s get started!
*The Open Group is a global consortium that enables the achievement of business objectives through technology standards and open source initiatives by fostering a culture of collaboration, inclusivity, and mutual respect among our diverse group of 900+ memberships. Our Membership includes customers, systems and solutions suppliers, tool vendors, integrators, academics, and consultants across multiple industries.
Disclaimer: The Open Comments Podcast (hosted by The Open Group) is presented purely for informational and educational purposes only. The views and opinions expressed by the hosts and the guests are their own and are not intended to harm or offend any group, organization, company, individual, anyone, or anything.
Host: Ash (Marketing Specialist, The Open Group)
Open Comments, hosted by The Open Group
Open Comments - Episode 29: Staying Resilient and Continuing to Grow within Your Career with Roberto Severo
Experience the journey of Roberto Severo, whose passion for programming at the tender age of 13 set the stage for a distinguished career in IT and Enterprise Architecture. As the Country Manager for The Open Group in Brazil, Colombia, and Peru, Roberto takes us through his transition from the corporate world to leading the charge in adapting global strategies for local contexts. Discover how a chance encounter steered him towards The Open Group, where he has thrived for over a decade, honing invaluable skills such as resilience and empathy. Through Roberto's narrative, we explore the cultural nuances and language barriers that shape the unique challenges of working in Brazil, offering a compelling glimpse into his enduring commitment and happiness in his role.
Explore the evolution of the values of The Open Group, as we focus on its transformative impact within the oil and gas industry. The shift from humble beginnings to a collaborative community is highlighted through personal stories that reflect professional growth and the acceptance of diverse opinions surrounding The Open Group.
Learn how Open Standards and cooperative Forums like The Open Group Open Footprint® Forum and The Open Group OSDU® Forum have revolutionized data sharing and automation, and hear how working with different leaders has shaped professional values.
The conversation introduces stoicism as a powerful tool for overcoming professional setbacks, illustrating how this ancient philosophy can equip us to face challenges with resilience and grace. Join us for an enlightening discussion on collaboration, leadership, and the art of navigating an ever-evolving industry landscape.
Copyright © The Open Group 2023-2025. All rights reserved.
Welcome back to Open Commons with me Alf and me Oliver. Joining us today from the Open Group Houston Summit is Roberto Severo, country Manager for the Open Group covering Brazil, colombia and Peru. Thank you, roberto, for joining us today for this episode. We look forward to diving into your career journey so far, career advice and much more.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you for inviting me to this podcast. It's a great initiative. I appreciate a lot.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you for coming and we're glad that we're able to meet up in Houston. So I guess, to begin with, roberto, could you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got involved with the Open Group.
Speaker 2:Maybe your life before sure sure, yes, uh, I used to work in the corporate world and, okay, my formation is technical. I used to code, actually, uh, in c, c, plus, plus and things like that, like that. I was a nerd actually. I started programming or coding when I was 13, in 1981. And, okay, since it was clear that IT was my, I watched IT more than anything else and I started to work in companies with IT and at that time we had very particular languages like Clipper, high-level languages as well, low-level languages like C, c++, assembler, like this.
Speaker 2:And then I'm going to evolve in my career. I used to code and as a consulting person too. I used to go to two companies they are customers of our consulting company and code there and make consulting, but very technical, you know, very technical. And in 2001 I moved. I used to work in 2000. I used to work for a Linux distro, call it Connectiva, in Curitiba, brazil and the south side of Brazil, and it was the first time I get in touch with open software and free software as well and I was really, really engaged with the cause of free software and open software.
Speaker 2:So after Connectiva, I went to Sao Paulo, which is my hometown. Sao Paulo was born in Sao Paulo, cities of Sao Paulo. And then I go back to Sao Paulo and started working for a bank, a medium bank called Unibanco, medium bank called Unibanco, and one time a crazy manager. I had a woman, very smart woman. I reported to and architecture was brand new, very new thing not implemented by other companies. And this woman, this manager I had said I want to start an architecture area here in the bank. Would you like to join us?
Speaker 1:She said okay, why not?
Speaker 2:I don't know how to implement architecture. At that time I didn't know how to implement it, but I said, okay, let's do it. So we made a lot of mistakes, and right things, of course and then I spent 10 years in the finance area working for banks, credit cards acquirers and companies that touches finance. And now, now we enter in the group, I think I was a little bit wasted of the corporate life. You know the same protocols everywhere, the same politics everywhere. You change the stage, but you have the same show every time. You change the stage, but you have the same show every time. And then I had a chapter of Association of Enterprise Architecture in Sao Paulo and I used to go to events like this. The first one was in Boston Bridget Hu, who was the general manager of AEA, invited me to create a chapter in Brazil and I accepted and I started to work for AEA and frequently I went to events of the open group, attend conferences, quarterly conferences and working somewhere. One day I remember Stephen Stephen wasn't the president, it was Alan Brown and I say, okay, I'm going to talk to this guy and I offer myself for working for the Open Group in Brazil. And we had a dinner and Stephen was working in legal and he was there too and one month after that they invited me to join the Open Group team. And here I am. How long has that been? It was in 2012. So I have almost 13 years no, no, actually 12 years of Open Group. I never thought I could spend more than 10 years in one single company and now I can't. I can't imagine not working for the Open Group. Things change, so I'm very happy here and staying on that track.
Speaker 2:Can you describe some of the main challenges you faced leading to you? Oh, I could write a book on this, because we have a lot of barriers in Brazil. The first one is the language. Guys, we speak Portuguese, not Spanish, in Brazil, okay, and the capital is Brasilia okay, and Brazil is a very peculiar place, and things that work in the US or in England doesn't work in Brazil. So we have to adopt the. Okay, your presence must be global, but you act locally, so we have some peculiarities we have to do in Brazil. That also doesn't work in don't work in in US or in England, so we had to adapt things to work. I think other offices around the world also had to do that India or China, it's the same. But I was alone, and then I had to make it happen in Brazil and at that time we had a few industry forums only the main forum was.
Speaker 2:At the time I joined it was architecture forum and then Archimede, but that's it. That's it.
Speaker 1:Would you say adapting has helped you to stay resilient as well, throughout the whole thing.
Speaker 2:Sure, sure. I really working for the work group I have to thank to work in here and I had a great report history of great guys that helped me to some soft skills like resilience, like empathy, things that you really don't learn but you just wake up for this and I found myself with a lot of soft skills that I didn't know I had and I discovered that I like people and I discovered that I like people, I like persons, which is very difficult in the corporate life. And yes, so yes, the adaptation learned me a lot of things, resilience included.
Speaker 3:So you mentioned obviously you've been at the Open Group for 12 years. What kind of changes have you seen over the time? You talked about. When you first started things over in Brazil, it was Archimate and Architecture that were the two big forums, but things are changing now, aren't they?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, a lot, yeah, yeah, a lot, but for better. It's like evolution, you know. And when it comes to adaptation, this was very important to adapt to the industry. For example, when it started, we had a few forums and things start to change when the open group started to look at the industry and started to develop more industry centric forums. And I can say to you, the real big change was the OPATH, the Open Process Automation Forum. After OPATH, this was a turning point for Open Group Automation Forum. After OPATH, this was a turning point for Open Group. I think I was talking to Steve Nunn yesterday about that. That was a turning point. A flood of new members came to the Open Group and after that, osdu was a big change.
Speaker 2:Ten years ago you, you could not imagine one oil and gas operator talking to the other oil and gas operator in the same table. Okay, it was bloody war, but not with the open group. We say, okay, when you pass this door, everyone is friends. Okay, when you go out, you can kill yourselves in the market, of course. And now we have OFP. That is going. Actually, we talk about the same thing, which is data, and we have a very good model for automation, very good model for OSDU surface form and now very good model for OpenFootprint, and I can see we are on the right track now and let's keep evolving.
Speaker 3:Why do you think that that is the right track? Is that just relevant to what going on in brazil? Within those areas?
Speaker 2:that does yes, yes, because I think companies, uh, also learned how to work with the open group, brazil included, any company. They learned how to work with the open group, learned how to request things and start forums with the open group and the benefits they have having the open group together. And, for example, this industry thing. As you know, every forum comes from the market, comes from our members. We don't create content, we just have a good process, good artifacts, good process actually, and implement that and we make a mediation with the stakeholders, the members, members. So if you have two members, you were able to create a forum, a work group, and then maybe to transform into a forum.
Speaker 2:And, as I think we we are not, we're still learning, and it is I think it's not particular in Brazil, but globally the market is learning how to work with open standards and the benefits of working for open standards. As I said, I used to work for a open software company, linux Bistro, and I learned to think with openness and with free software and things like that. And we have a kind we as Open Group, we have this kind of DNA. You know, that's it.
Speaker 3:Would you say that's what motivates you, maybe to stay on another 12 years?
Speaker 2:things are always changing yeah, yeah, I, I can tell you about now. I don't know what's going to happen in one, two, five years, but I can tell you, oliver, now I love to work for the Open Group. I never thought I could before, in the 2000 decade. I never thought I could work for a single company for more than 10 years, and now I can't imagine how to work outside the Open Group, because I really like the way they treat our staff with respect and I work in Brazil and I give some updates online to my report. Today I have a very nice report history person like I started reporting to. Persons like I started reporting to Paul Hickey you didn't know that, did you know him?
Speaker 2:I've never met him, but I know him unfortunately he passed away and Paul Hickey was the first person in the open group I got in touch to report to and then I went to report to Alan Brown directly and then I went to Jim Hytala, a very good report person to do, and now with Mike Hickey. So I go back to the Hickey family with Mike Hickey, so I go back to the Hickey family, so first dad and now I report to his son, the Mike Hickey, and this always I'm fortunate that I have good persons I reported to.
Speaker 1:Would you also say, within your career and your journey with the Open Group, the people that you met have really made a difference in terms of not only network with, but you also collaborated with, team members, colleagues, that that helps you to you know? Stay, I guess, knowledge-wise, as fresh as possible, but also learn from different people and continue to learn that passion and excitement is still there to this day as well, for sure.
Speaker 2:Sure, ash, I really do that. I did that because and first I had to learn to forget things and I had to learn how to learn with people Because I have some. I'm a single son, so I never collaborated too much. I didn't have a brother. I collaborated too much, I didn't have a brother, and so I had to learn some aspects of collaboration in the corporate world into a company and something to improve. I had something to improve and, of course, the open group helped me a lot, because we have to accept some differences and not force yourself to set, just to set.
Speaker 1:Acknowledging everyone's opinions and their thought points per se, but also giving them not only the floor to express themselves, but also letting them express themselves in a way that they feel open to do so and then bringing your point across as well.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, that's all you said. It's true. I learned a lot of things with the open group to accept opinions, and there's one way of thinking, created in Greece many years, many centuries ago, which is called Stoicism. Who thinks that way are Stoics, and Marco Aurelio and things like that, and the great, great message they they passed to you is how to not suffer with things that you don't have control. So, basically, this is stoicism okay, if something happened and you don't have your part, your best, and it happened, you don't have to suffer. I have small and big examples. For example, when I came here to Houston, I was planning to bring something with the Brazilian flag, because we have 25 Brazilians here and it's a lot, so to identify them, I think it would be a great thing to do, and I find out that the.
Speaker 2:Amazon in the US, those Brazilian flags were cheaper than in Brazil. So what I did? I bought it. I bought it and asked them to deliver it in the locker. They didn't come. So you don't see my Brazilian flag and I learned to. Okay, I didn't have control over this. Yeah, I don't have to suffer. This is a small thing. Okay, there are big things like we recruit members I work for business development here and we recruit members and sometimes they cancel. We recruit members and sometimes they cancel, and in the beginning when they canceled, I tended to suffer a little bit, but they have their reasons and I didn't have nothing to do and it's totally out of my control. So why am I going to suffer with that? Let's go to work and get more members, that's it. So I learned that just this way of thinking came up after working with Open Group.
Speaker 3:You may not have had the badges, but you do. You mentioned you've got a record number of Brazilian members in attendance.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right this. Yes, allow me to say, oliver, that I'm very happy here in Houston because I feel the evolution of the Brazilian office 25 attendees from different companies, a tabletop the first Brazilian tabletop in events open group events. Tomorrow we're going to have a hands-on workshop with our member Smar, on OPAS, which is the standard of OPAS, and well, I can say I'm really happy with the performance of Brazilian office today. Okay, I don't know tomorrow, but today I'm happy.
Speaker 3:Okay, so for those perhaps, either maybe those changing their careers or those looking to start their careers what kind of advice are you on for getting involved in the areas that you are involved in? What kind of Advice, advice.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm 57 years old, so I have a good experience in the corporate world and I would advise to really to really, when you pick your track in like respect, a friendly place to work, and you have a lot of things here in the Open Group. It's not only finance things. I know many countries. This is good. I know many people, I improved my networking and so be sure that you're going to a company that only pay your salary but don't give you happiness and satisfaction of wake up every morning and go to work. Yeah, build the satisfaction.
Speaker 2:Satisfaction is one the key thing, it's the key thing, for sure, for sure something similar.
Speaker 3:Other guests said, to paraphrase them all you're not doing what.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm gonna do it forever yes, that's it perfect, perfect, perfect yes the passion for what you do certainly comes across, you can tell.
Speaker 1:You know, um, your eyes literally sparkle when you talk about what you do. So that's amazing. You know, and you have that, not only that longevity, but also just that um, continuous, like continuous learning, but continuous passion, and so the continuous, uh yearning to keep on growing. You know, not only from others, but even like you know. If you don't know a lot about a particular area or you want to know more about an area, it's never too, late, it's never too early.
Speaker 3:The possibilities are endless.
Speaker 2:Age doesn't have a number, let's be honest.
Speaker 2:My first job wasn't in IT. It didn't involve computers or technology. It didn't involve computers or technology. In the very beginning, in the 80s, I used to sell records music records in a music store. Like we had Tower Records. You remember that. I don't know if you heard about it. It was based, I think, in California. It was a building. My dream was to work for Tower Records and I started selling records and I was totally open to what's coming. I learned also to know my principles and to get attached to my principles, because this is another advice for young people starting working know your principles, something. You're not give up Some things. You have to agree and maybe open your hand and say, okay, okay, let's do your way, but when it comes to principles, no, I say no. For example, if a client comes to me and says, ok, give me a discount and something like that and I'll give you something in exchange, no, this is my principle. You have to get attached to your principle, otherwise you're not going to succeed.
Speaker 3:And it's not necessarily even in your work life, assuming you probably stand by your principles.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, it serves to everything. It's an interesting point, oliver, because, as I said, like TOGAF, you can implement TOGAF in your life. But what? Your how do you think you're going to be in five years? So this is your vision, and then you start the ATM and Passing through what you have to do in your life to achieve this vision and pass through and, and you can. You can use Toga for your life and you can use a toga for your life, and what works usually works for your work, for your work usually works for your life too. It's a question of principles.
Speaker 3:And to not be hung up on the things you do. Yes, yes, that's it.
Speaker 2:That's start thinking. I read some books on this and helped me a lot and put in practice with the other group was really, really good.
Speaker 1:Similar to the saying as well don't sweat the small stuff yeah, yeah, yeah, and so you know.
Speaker 2:you know the open group is not open only in the name. So you're very flexible with our staff. The dress code, who you are. This is very important and this part of you get every month is not your salary and it's very difficult to have. You can have a six digit salary but you're not happy with something that's not searchable and I have it here. That's why I love to work for Open Group. I think the Open Group selects people for Open Group. I think the Open Group selects people very with a great criteria about not only technical questions and points and not salary, but with those important things you have to match the DNA.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you, roberto, for joining us today on Open Comments. It has been great hearing all about you, your career journey advice and your involvement in the Open Group so far. We hope our listeners, open Comments community, took a lot from this episode as much as we have, and thank you Until next time, stay safe and keep a lookout for the next Open Comments episode coming soon. Thank you again.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much and feel free to call me another time or often. It would be a pleasure.
