Andrew Prozes – Estonian Canadian-American business executive and investor on his roots, the case for empathy in business, and how Estonia can become the Silicon Valley of Europe – at globaalsedeestlased.org.
Andrew Prozes is an American-Canadian Estonian business executive, investor and advisor, who was born in Germany to Estonian parents who fled the Soviet occupation and grew up in the Niagara peninsula in Canada. His alma maters include the University of Waterloo and York University, and his success in business has been illustrated by his careers at LexisNexis, Reed Elsevier, West Group of Thomson Reuters Corporation, and Southam’s City News Papers, and New Media. He is a proud Estonian and has invested in various Estonian companies such as Veriff, Xolo and Flizy. He is also affiliated with the Democratic Party and stands for a world of smarter choices, more inclusion, and less bullying.
In this podcast, you’ll hear us focus on a variety of thought-provoking topics:
- growing up Estonian outside of Estonia
- which university major he would recommend to students today
- corporate America of the late 20th century
- recommendations for Estonian businesses on how to be more people-oriented
- how being fiscally conservative and socially liberal manifests in real life, and
- the real definition of success
Select quotes
“From the ages of zero to five, I only spoke Estonian. When I first went to school in Canada, I didn’t speak a lot of English. But from the age of five, I only spoke English. My father was very much in the camp of “Look, you are now a Canadian: be a Canadian, speak English, act like a Canadian,’ but in the background you never forgot that you were Estonian. Your friends never allowed you to forget you were Estonian.”
“I would trust an Estonian every day over, let’s say, an Italian (laughs)… What I see as a challenge when dealing with Estonian businesspeople is that they’re too rigid about what’s right and what’s wrong. You’ve gotta have empathy for people and you gotta have feelings for people’s feelings.”
“My mother is 91 years old and she still mows her own lawn. Last year she bought another lawnmower and she paints her deck on her own. Can you imagine any Canadian great-grandmother doing this? No, that’s being Estonian.”
About corporate Canada of the 1970-80s: “It was very ‘one step at a time’, very male-oriented, very regimented in the way things were done. You joined a golf club and you went drinking with the boys. Today it is a much different world: there is much more diversity, much more mindfulness of performance, and by delivering performance you get ahead much more than you did back in the old days. I certainly strongly prefer today’s performance focus and orientation, and correcting some of the biases of the past, ensuring that females and minorities get the same crack at success as white males do.”
On his leadership style: “I’m tough but I’m fair. Nobody beats me in emails and being on top of things. I don’t go into meetings unprepared. There-fore I set a model for others. I hate anybody bullying anybody, so if I see it, I deal with it quickly. I have no embarrassment about receiving awards for working and for success, so I communicate it to the organizations I work at.”
“Estonian families have not been great at interpersonal relationships. The father is drunk on a Friday night, in my case pounding at the table, so I didn’t learn a lot from that. Canadian families are much better at those things and are able to succeed and do better in that department.”
“Running a business in Estonia is hard, as I’m finding out. Running a business in Canada is harder than I probably realized. But here in the United States, despite all the problems we have here in this country and the continued prejudices it can be criticized for, there is no better life for it. If you succeed, my God, you can be your own boss and the financial rewards are enormous. If I [would be a young person today], I would quickly figure out my own business.”
Talking about Estonian businesspeople: “They are very hardworking, but they don’t get the importance of human interaction and the need for connections. The need to have a broad network. They all understand they have to get out of Estonia to focus on non-Estonian markets and the importance of developing a good product and the importance of revenue, but they don’t really comprehend the need for the human element and the need for passion to the same extent as in North America.”
“I have a fundamental discomfort and hatred for people like Donald Trump and what he represents, how he bullies everybody who has an opinion different from his. Every time that a Republican lawmaker stands up for his or her beliefs, Trump comes along and pulls out every single affair that person ever had or every single lie they’ve ever told, as if he himself never had lots of affairs or lots of lies. I, to the dislike of my wife, love discussing politics. That stems from my growing up. My father didn’t stop talking about politics. I think politics is fundamental to freedom.”
“If you are in business, having low taxes and more money to spend on private planes don’t outweigh concerns about those who are less fortunate… when you get to having enough money, start to worry about some of the other issues in life.”
“But happiness, whether it is one year or two years or ten years, is defined by health. It is very hard to be happy if you are unhealthy. Secondly, it is your partner in your life that defines your happiness. Family ties into it. Then it is only your financial status and wellbeing.”
“Estonia can be described today as the emerging Silicon Valley of Europe. I hope that lands. When I describe Estonia, I will probably say it is not an exciting country – we don’t have hills – but it is a country populated by very hard-working, very stubborn people who are sure of their ways. The technology potential is very exciting and meaningful. It is starting to actually happen where salaries are dramatically increasing for development positions because they have shown they are worth it.”
Listen to the podcast:
https://tinyurl.com/2awsvnwr
