Rio de Janeiro, the Wonderful City, gets smarter, but for whom?

Abstract

This teaching case illustrates a dilemma for Gabriel, a young man working as head of Rio de Janeiro’s urban planning secretary in early 2022. Gabriel built a successful career at Brazil’s most prominent technology company in the private sector. Still, a new challenge that was too big to refuse changed everything – now, starting in the public sector, Gabriel is responsible for a massive project that had the potential to change Rio de Janeiro’s downtown and make Rio a leading smart city. The project attracted significant attention from construction companies interested in the benefits they would gain with the contract. Moreover, Gabriel needed the project to be approved by the city council. He was confident about the project and that it was the change Rio’s downtown needed. But change for whom? A meeting with Teresa, a councilwoman critical of the project, unveiled the reality of the city center and its population to Gabriel. Teresa was an architect and urbanist, an activist for urban struggles, who had worked previously in urbanization and popular housing projects. Teresa shed light on the overlooked reality of the city: before being “smart,” Rio’s downtown needed social housing, culture, and security, in other words, basic needs. Now, Gabriel questioned which “change” Rio needed. Could Gabriel understand Rio’s needs with his private sector mindset? Or does he have to adopt a new mindset, the mindset of a public manager? Would the stakeholders still fund the project if he embraced Teresa’s perspective? What should Gabriel do?