The history of the Simões family-owned business was similar to that of many transport companies who started by buying one truck and built a small enterprise that grew over the years. In any case, many of them had fallen by the wayside, unable to reach the necessary profitability or having exhausted their capacity for risk in a sector that suffered many ups and downs and in which management professionalization was difficult. José Luis Simões, the company’s chairman, thought that the significant change that had taken place in these years was the increased power of their clients. Notably, large retailers and multinationals always required different services that were well adjusted to their needs. It was not easy to follow them, and many colleagues got tired of the problems and preferred to sell to others or simply waste away. When the Simões brothers decided to work with the country's large clients, José Luis thought they had chosen a no return path. From there on, the logistics sector would be crucial, with everything it implied in terms of investment in facilities and information systems. Today, Simões was, in fact, a logistics company with transportation services. For this, the company needed to grow, and this became their immediate challenge. José Luis also had grounded hopes that the three Simões brothers would make the right decision regarding the passing of the company to the third generation of the family, but this would not be an easy task.
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