Ceará native Eduardo Nascimento was in Italy and had only three minutes to convince Enel Group employees and executives that his idea should be adopted by the company in Brazil and other countries. His challenge was to present a security and monitoring project for working teams in just three slides in English, a language that he understands but does not master. Tough? Not for him.

Eduardo took a deep breath, put on his leather hat – in the same style that artists Dominguinhos and Luiz Gonzaga used to wear – and managed to charm the jury of I&NNOVATION DAY, a global event organised by Enel’s Infrastructure and Networks division. What the gathering’s participants did not realise is that, in order to get there, Eduardo had already overcome much bigger challenges.

His parents hadn’t quite finished primary school. José Maria was a freelance salesman and Dona Josefa, a housewife. Although he went through a few difficulties, one thing was never lacking: the incentive to get educated. “I studied in state schools and often I didn’t have money to buy new books, but I always enjoyed learning, especially maths, physics and chemistry.”

His first job was as an electrician’s assistant. From the ages of 17 to 22, Eduardo wandered the Ceará countryside, helping to bring electricity to villages that didn’t have access to energy. In the beginning I only dug holes in walls to get the cables through. But little by little, I learned how to do electrical installations in houses and buildings, always watching and observing the work of other masters.”

Between then and now, a lot has changed. Eduardo sat through university entry exams, graduated in Mechanical Engineering and got a job as an electrician in the Ceará distributor that would later be acquired by Enel Group. Today, 21 after joining the company, Eduardo has specialisations in Maintenance Engineering and Workplace Safety, an MBA in Business Management with emphasis in the energy sector and, indefatigable, he is attending an Economics undergraduate course. In addition to coordinating the maintenance, technical and commercial operations departments in 24 municipalities and managing around 300 employees directly and indirectly, Eduardo was the big winner of I&NNOVATION DAY, which took place in February. The reasons? His creative abilities, his conciseness and planning skills and, above all, his passion for innovation:

“I never settled. I am very proud of having coordinated more than 30 innovative projects here in Ceará just in the last five years. My team and I left the Brazilian countryside to conquer the Enel world. This proves that innovation knows no boundaries and we must encourage our team to find new ways of overcoming everyday challenges.”

– Eduardo Nascimento, Enel Distribuição Ceará Centre-South Regional Manager.

“To innovate is to constantly develop”

The challenge proposed by the Infrastructure and Networks division during I&NNOVATION DAY consisted of developing an alternative that allowed real-time monitoring of teams to prevent accidents during field work. Eduardo was awarded with a project able to offer greater safety to workers who perform services on the energy distribution network:

“We proposed the use of augmented reality glasses with an attached camera that show instructions for operational and safety procedures, as well as allowing us to monitor, in real time, the task of recognising work structures. I had this idea after taking part in the National Innovation Award, when I understood better the digital transformation the world is undergoing.”

– Eduardo Nascimento

In addition to exposing the solution, Eduardo and his team presented the full viability calculations and the costs for implementation with 3,000 users. The goal now is to improve the project so it can be replicated across other Enel Group companies around the world.

When innovation isn’t necessarily linked with technology

As well as the augmented reality glasses, Eduardo has also participated in or was mentor of several simpler projects not based on technology, but on creativity and a closer relationship with the community.

In 2008, especially during the holiday period, the Maracanaú Service Centre faced many supply interruptions because of the large number of children and young people flying kites that became stuck on electrical cabling. Out of his own pocket, Eduardo had the idea to buy R$200 in toys (marbles, rubber balls and others) to exchange for the kites. The project was so successful that it generated major local media coverage:

“It was a hit! I never gave so many interviews. It was a simple, low-cost project that brought together the company and society and reduced disconnections by up to 80%.”

– Eduardo Nascimento

Eduardo continues, "here in Ceará, we don’t get easily rattled! A true innovator never gives up after the first failure. It is always important to look for new partners, an accelerator, a start-up that can advise you. To me, innovation is thinking about life in a different way, looking to improve processes. It is not settling for what’s there and to always have a distinctive gaze over what’s around us".

May the old, faithful leather hat stay firm on Eduardo’s head and of all the people from the Northeast who represent the energy of one of the most innovative and creative regions in Brazil.