Do you know the history of Novonor News?

The Novonor News newsletter and portal that you know and access today is now 29 years old. That’s right! As it has evolved and kept pace with the natural changes and advances over time, its history has been marked by different phases, but always with the same essence: to inform, integrate and strengthen the sense of belonging of everyone in the Group.

It all started with a printed newsletter in 1995. In 2018, the portal was launched and, in 2021, after a short break with updates due to the rebranding, it was resumed with a fortnightly periodicity and dissemination in all our environments.

We recalled an interview that brings a little of this history and reinforces the importance of this channel for all of us. The conversation with Marcio Polidoro was published in 2017, when he was working in the Engineering & Construction Business. A former 34-year member of the Group, Márcio is currently a consultant and partner in many of our achievements. Check it out!

*** Originally published in February 2017.

Between 2009 and 2013, when he was coordinating Odebrecht Notícias as head of Communications at Odebrecht 5.A., Marcio Polidoro led and accompanied some of the main stages in the newsletter’s evolution. Now a member of the Engineering & Construction Businesses, Marcio talks a little about ON and its strategic importance for the current moment of the Odebrecht Organization.

WHEN YOU WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR COMMUNICATION AT ODEBRECHT S.A., YOU LED SOME PROCESSES TO TRANSFORM THIS COMMUNICATION CHANNEL. WHAT WERE THESE CHANGES AND WHAT LED TO THE NEED TO RENEW ON OVER THE YEARS?

ON began as a communication melo for Engineering and Construction. But it proved to be so well suited to our needs that it was sent to members of the entire Odebrecht Group. The changes were basically introduced as improvements made possible by new technological resources and the necessary graphic and informational updating. When we discontinued the Odebrecht Informa magazine in 2015, the ON became unique in its nature. That was its big moment and I believe it has been fulfilling its purpose.

IS THERE AN ISSUE OR STORY THAT STANDS OUT IN YOUR MEMORY FROM THESE 400 EDITIONS? WHY?

I can’t forget an issue that was, if I’m not mistaken, 96 pages long. When I got to the end of it, I felt proud to work for an organization that provided a “harvest” of that size in a single fortnight, with facts that were so significant for our clients, for the communities we serve, for our members and for our shareholders. I had never seen anything like it in business publications.

NOWADAYS, COMPANIES’ INTERNAL COMMUNICATION IS COMPETING WITH OTHER MEANS OF COMMUNICATION, SUCH AS NEWS SITES AND SOCIAL NETWORKS. HOW TO BE ATTRACTIVE IN AN INCREASINGLY CONNECTED, INSTANTANEOUS AND DYNAMIC WORLD?

This is an increasingly complex challenge, because we receive a lot of visual, informational and sensory stimuli from the moment we wake up until we go to sleep. People’s brains are becoming selective and delete everything that seems irrelevant. That’s the point. It’s up to communicators to occupy the small spaces that remain, using creativity and knowledge to give relevance to what they want to communicate. Without this, the information produced will fall apart in the air, leaving no trace.

WHEN A MEMBER SEES THEMSELVES OR THEIR PROJECT BEING FEATURED ON THE ODEBRECHT WEBSITE, THEY NATURALLY SEE THEIR WORK DOCUMENTED AND SHARED WITH THE ENTIRE ODEBRECHT ORGANIZATION. HOW IMPORTANT CAN THIS SENSE OF BELONGING AND LEGACY BE FOR THE CURRENT MOMENT IN TIME?

We know that nothing replaces leader-led dialogue, but a medium like ON, due to its characteristics, has its main importance in what it provides in terms of integration and a spirit of belonging – by helping people to answer a fundamental question: what organization am I part of? The news it brings, the people it shows, the learnings and experiences it multiplies encourage each of us to go beyond the limits of what we do, where we do it, to understand that we are part of a whole that spreads across so many places in the world. The ON awakens feelings of pride and the desire to go further. As we are living through a particularly complex time, this is an indispensable fuel for our survival.