Paulo Abrantes

There are already 415 shops, located from the north to the south of the country, including the islands. There are 3500 employees and more than 500,000 customers nationwide. Last year was once again marked with the word success for the Decisões e Soluções network. And when looking ahead to the next, Paulo Abrantes does not shy away from the same goal. With two new brands, DS Auto and DS Travel, the group stands out even more in the market. The goals are ambitious, the situation facing the world is demanding. But given its track record, there is nothing that seems to stop the group from breaking record after record in terms of results.

In 2022 the group achieved its best results ever. What exactly are we talking about?
It was another year in a row, in which the Decisões e Soluções Group achieved its best results ever, with sustained growth, as much in the number of shops, as in employees and customers. We grew in all business areas in which we operate, especially in credit brokerage, insurance brokerage and real estate brokerage, with the group’s turnover increasing 38% compared to the previous year.
Today, the Decisões e Soluções Group has 415 branches, located from the north to the south of the country and islands, and currently has 3500 employees and more than 500,000 customers nationally.  The Group is made up of eight brands that stand out for their excellent services. These are Decisões e Soluções, DS Seguros, DS Intermediários de Crédito, DS Imobiliária, DS Travel, DS investimento, DS Auto and DS Travel.
2022 was a year in which we launched two new brands, DS Auto and DS Travel, the services of which bring something different to the market. DS Auto is a brand dedicated to the car segment with an innovative concept, which provides its customers with a series of services across the board, in particular in the purchase and sale of cars and in credit intermediation. This brand aims to open 100 dealerships in Portugal over the next two years, becoming a reference in our country in its segment. DS Travel is specialised in organising travel and tourism for individuals and companies, with a personalised and exclusive service, which also covers the area of credit intermediation. It aims to open 100 agencies in Portugal over the next three years and become the largest network of travel agencies in Portugal. 

The DS Group was also in the news for another reason: due to the results obtained it rewarded its best employees. What exactly did it do?
The Decisões e Soluções Group rewarded the best professionals from the Decisões e Soluções, DS Seguros, DS Iintermediários de Crédito, DS Private, DS Imobiliária, DS Auto and DS Travel networks with a trip in recognition of the excellent results achieved. The trip took place in January with the participation of 51 people.
This trip followed the celebration of the 18th anniversary of the Decisões e Soluções Group, which was held in October 2021, when a challenge was launched to all the Group’s shops: an incentive trip would be awarded to those 50 professionals who stood out the most for their results achieved between October of that year and October 2022.
During the trip, the employees of the group’s various brands had the opportunity to socialise and have fun on board the magnificent cruise ship Costa Toscana, and to visit the cities of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, Muscat, in Oman and Doha, in Qatar. 

«Competitiveness can be seen as positive when well managed and can even be a motivating factor»

Economically and financially, the DS Group seems to be sailing against the tide that is hitting the world. What tools do you use to motivate yourself and your teams?
Firstly, it is important to bear in mind that our areas of activity and the services we provide are extremely useful for the general population, especially when we are going through times of economic crisis. The specialised and free advice that we provide, for example, in terms of credit intermediation and insurance mediation, areas directly linked to the property sector, most of the time enables Portuguese families to save hundreds or even thousands of Euros a year. This positive impact, which our teams know they can have with each day in the lives of many people, is one of the factors of greatest motivation for those who are part of the DS Group.
Secondly, and no less importantly, it is up to each of the Group’s brands and their respective national and regional coordination structures and an entire operational support structure to create all the conditions for our teams to have the necessary tools to provide a service of excellence, in particular a personalised, continuous training, recognition of the results obtained, constant sharing of knowledge and a convivial atmosphere that makes the DS Group a great family. We believe that it is possible to grow together, in an environment of professional and personal fulfilment, where everyone is happy doing what they really enjoy.
This fulfilment is reflected in the consistently positive results that the DS Group has had over almost 20 years of existence.

Should this positive «competitiveness» that you foster among your employees be an example for other companies?
I think so, not least because in my opinion competitiveness is quite different from competition. Competitiveness can be seen as positive when well managed and can even be a motivating factor. What we try to encourage in DS Group employees is for them to feel driven to be continually better, because experience and knowledge increases from month to month, and from year to year.
This positive competitiveness aims to foster the evolution of each person individually. And it is a way for teams to build environments of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. A competitive person tries to find in others the inspiration to be better, and this implies that the person is obliged to develop, grow professionally and challenge themselves daily.
The fact that we reward this competitiveness should be an example to follow, as it means that we are surrounded by excellent professionals, who set goals and manage to achieve them, a performance that is recognised and valued by the Decisões e Soluções Group and its brands.  

You are known for setting goals and achieving them. What are the necessary ingredients to be a successful businessman?
I think that first of all you have to like what you do and, nearly 20 years ago, when I created Decisões e Soluções, I was thinking about how I could help people, both those who needed advice and those who wanted a career opportunity. Then, it is necessary to have initiative and some capacity for anticipation, anyone unable to create business opportunities will find it hard to survive, you have to have an entrepreneurial vision. Which leads me to the need to be very persistent, take risks and not be afraid of failure, but at the same time have the ability to learn from mistakes.
It is very important to know how to be surrounded by the right people, people to whom I can delegate and in whom I can trust, who treat the various brands of the Group as their own, and whom I can do nothing but thank. Without people there are no companies, no brands, no businesses. We have to learn to recognise talent and success, to congratulate each achievement. Personally, I like to have everything very organised, I am persistent and disciplined. Those who know me know that my entrepreneurial spirit does not allow me to stand still, which leads me to always be creating, and that is what I have been doing for two decades and what I intend to continue doing.

What are the next goals that you intend to achieve with the DS Group?
Every year the DS Group aims to grow. This growth is always based on three pillars: shops, employees and customers. In 2022, Grupo Decisões e Soluções grew 40% in the area of Credit Intermediation, 37% in the area of Insurance Mediation and 20% in the Real Estate Area, which made us all very satisfied and proud of the results achieved.
As far as the goals of the Decisões e Soluções Group for 2023 are concerned, they are to grow in all the Group’s business areas, in the number of shops, rising from the current 415 shops to 600, and in the number of employees, rising from the current 3500 to 5000. We expect a year of great challenges, in which our specialised service, in the various areas of activity, will certainly make a very important contribution to Portuguese families. 

How does DS Group contribute to good policies in the sectors in which it operates?
The DS Group was founded with a very clear mission: on the one hand, to provide an advisory service to help Portuguese families reduce their monthly expenses and benefit from better living conditions and, on the other hand, to boost a business project that generates many jobs. This mission has, at its origin, the belief that the intervention of the business sector in the development of a sustainable society is fundamental.
For the DS Group, it is only by closely connecting the ability to provide a relevant service to the community, promoting the well-being of our customers, with investment in the promotion of our employees’ career opportunities, that it is possible to actively contribute to this goal. I believe that our mission clearly explains our corporate policies and the way we view our business model. The fact that every year we continue to add new entrepreneurs to our group allows us to assume that we have done a good job.  

«I am proud of this path that I have followed together with the entire structure of the DS Group»

With so much competition, is it really necessary to innovate to remain at the forefront and be one of the greats of the sector?
If we want to keep up with market developments and continue to be leaders in the areas in which we operate, we must continue to bring innovation into the Decisões e Soluções Group and our brands. Furthermore, innovation allows us to optimise resources and helps us to grow in terms of business, as it brings us advantages and sets us apart with relation to our competitors. It is important to point out, however, that not all innovation has to be technological. In our case, innovation is very much about the way we approach our various business areas, how we deal with our employees, how we present ourselves to the market and the services we provide to our customers on a daily basis.
In the Decisões e Soluções Group, and in our brands, we innovate internally, giving our teams the opportunity to share new ideas and suggestions, giving them training and due recognition for their results and keeping them motivated to innovate daily in their business. And we innovate externally, when we create brands with different services, when we invite people to join the group and be entrepreneurial, when we listen to our clients’ needs and always try to find them the best solutions to the problems they present us with. 

This year Decisões e Soluções celebrates its 20th anniversary. What assessment would you make?
The Decisões e Soluções Group began in 2003 with a dream of mine, the dream of creating a project with the mission of helping the population to have a slightly better life and employing many employees, providing them with all the conditions to be successful. This year is indeed a milestone, as Decisões e Soluções celebrates 20 years. It has been two decades helping the Portuguese population, both by providing an advisory service and by creating jobs, thus contributing to the success of the national and local economy.  I am proud of this path that I have followed together with the entire structure of the DS Group, its employees and partners, who daily give their best to provide an excellent service to our customers. 

The DS Group has just associated itself with the Sara Carreira Association as one of its major sponsors. Is social responsibility one of your main concerns?
Social responsibility has always been one of the pillars of the DS Group, because helping the community in which we operate is part of the group’s creation. In addition to the service it provides to the market, since its foundation in 2003, the DS Group has supported various associations and important causes for greater social inclusion, including the Gil Foundation, Corações com Coroa and more recently the Sara Carreira Association.
When we found out about the Sara Carreira Association, we immediately realised that we shared the same mission, we both want to help many children and young people to get further, regardless of the resources that each of them has. We believe that with support and training we will be able to help many young people to have a slightly better future.