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An excellent example of a legal team making a tangible, positive impact to their company’s business plans, the Portugal and African Lusophone countries legal team at Indra Sistemas undertook ‘wide-reaching initiatives’ in the company’s offices in Lisbon and Oporto to increase the understanding of legal requirements in public procurement procedures and in risk-assessment among non-legal staff. These initiatives had a ‘notorious impact’ by improving the understanding of these subjects that has been shown by staff in ‘all tenders and contracts we have negotiated since then,’ according to Luís Graça Rodrigues, regional counsel and legal affairs manager for Portugal and African Lusophone countries at the information technology and defence systems company. The importance of the legal team’s efforts in expanding the business in these countries can be seen through their advice across ‘several operations’ in domestic and emerging markets, working with business peers and local outside counsel. When obstacles arise for the business the legal team is ‘instructed to always present an alternative solution’, which is only possible thanks to the accumulation of specialist knowledge of the local legal markets that the business is expanding into, most notably Mozambique and Angola. Externalities like the 2014 oil prices decline, which affected private investment and public procurement in Angola and Mozambique, afforded the opportunity for team members to demonstrate themselves as ‘essential partners in Indra’s business’ through their work to mitigate the effects of the shock. The team is conscious of improving and substantiating the depth of their knowledge, this is done is several ways such as subscribing to legal databases and attending different seminars and workshops; disseminating this by ‘sharing conclusions locally’ amongst colleagues in a volatile but emerging market. The team is also praised for containing highly competent businesspeople, having direct contact with the CEO and senior management in the context of board of directors meetings and opportunities committee meetings that occur on a regular basis.