In the newest episode of our Quest for the Business Hero interview series, we asked Andrea Szabò how she would describe a Business Hero and if has ever met one.
Andrea Szabò is the director of Fundraising and marketing of Bàtor Tábor Foundation . She represents the three core values of the Atlas World community, ethics, sustainability and creativity in her work life as well as her personal life.
In the interview, she shared some details about her business journey and the concepts of “business” and “heroism“. She opened up about the challenges she had to go through and highlighted the mentors and role models she met throughout her career.
In this series, we already had the pleasure to interview Giacomo Pedranzini, founder of Kometa 99 and HonestFood, winner of the Atlas Award 2023 prize, Gabor Nemes, co-founder and CEO of Good People Everywhere, Michele Orzan, President of EuCham, Gabor Marton, a peak-performance coach who works in Finance and Business, Alessandro Farina, Founder of ITL Group, Omar Balducci Manager of Lucart Kft, and Luigino Bottega, coach and author of “IO – how to win the game of life”.
1. Please, Introduce yourself (who you are, what you are doing, what is your profession…)
hello, I’m Andrea Szabó. I’m a senior marketing professional. Have been working in marketing and PR areas for the last 32 years, actually. And currently I am the development and fundraising director of Bátor Tábor, which is a Hungarian charity where we are dealing with seriously ill children and trying to recreate and give them back their mental health through a scientifically proven method.
2. Let’s start with an easy game of word association. What comes to your mind when i say “business” ?
So, when you say business, my first association is people, because it’s indeed a relationship, hopefully a long-term relationship, between human individuals. Therefore, the second thing which comes to my mind would be trust, because all of us want it to be a long-term relationship and that can not only be based on, you know, legal stipulations and agreements, but somehow there is always this kind of soft element of trust. And the third one is probably win-win, or I take it furthermore actually, instead of the double win, now recently I would say triple win, because it’s not only between those parties who are actually conducting the business, but the way of doing business today, as we all know, is that, you know, everybody should win from that, so when actually we are breaking a deal, we should all think about how it reflects on the environment, on any third parties that might be impacted. And I do believe we can deliver a triple win business all across our areas.
3. Now, what comes to your mind when I say “Hero” ?
Oh, hero, well, probably I will go far beyond these stereotypical and old definitions and associations of heroes. So I think heroes around us today who give energy and positive energy into our lives and, you know, everything that we do around, so they actually influence other people and motivate other people. So positive energy is, you know, kind of definitely one thing, and the capability to impact much more than, you know, just our own personal matters.The second thing about heroes would be probably balance, because I think in a sense today everybody is a, you know, old type of struggling hero with lots of shocks and stress and challenging around us, so we all should fight, but those people who really manage to overcome the imbalances, the stress, the negative impact of these challenges, so who can really keep the balance for themselves, the peace of mind, are the real heroes today. So when I say that, you know, instead of the fighting, sacrificing, and struggling stereotypical or historical type of heroes, today I would call heroes of individuals with positive energy and ability to balance of the challenges of the environment.
4. Now, let’s combine them together… what do you think is a business hero?
Business heroes hopefully should be kind of all of us who work in the business environment, but I believe really business heroes are those ones who could think about concepts which are all good for any parties who are involved in the business plus the environment, and they do it in the way that they kind of constantly reflect and give back positive energies to their environment.I really believe, you know, that’s going to build a much better world if we do business this way and we have leaders like this.
5. Every business person goes through a journey: when did you hear your call and how did your journey start ?
Okay, well actually, kind of a bit of a fact, I graduated in Hungary as an economist, but really when the new market economy was opened at the beginning of the 1990s, so obviously I started to work with multinational companies in business area, marketing area, but the first couple of years of my career was, you know, clearly about a lot of dignity, learning, learning and learning, which, you know, there was a great opportunity for. And I think really the recognition of me having a long-term objective, a mission and the ability to create things came after my first promotion when at the age of 29 I was promoted as the marketing director of a leading international bank in Hungary, that was Citibank. And that was really my first assignment as a leader, a first challenge as a strategic leader with lots of, lots of learnings through lots of mistakes and failures that I committed, but that was really the time after overcoming the first leadership challenges when I really recognized that I have much more job to do in this environment, you know, than just providing the best solutions and developing the best solutions. It’s indeed about influencing people and motivating people, which is a much more difficult job.
6. Which obstacles did you encounter during your journey?
Actually, the very first leadership obstacle was just, you know, indeed to overcome my own professional performance pressure in order to be able to pay more attention to people around me. There were very, very hard calls. I, you know, got to leadership positions very early in my career and I really wanted to perform very well, to deliver the results, but there was a time when I had to stop and recognize that it’s not going to be done by me, but it’s going to be done by a team around me. Probably, you know, every leader goes through this one, but I so strongly remember those very first instances when I got, so to say, not so nice leadership feedback, and I really had to step back and, you know, think about kind of redesigning my whole approach to the work. And this is something where I’m really constantly developing, especially recently when, you know, two years ago I moved out from the classical for-profit corporate environment and joined a civil organization, an NGO, where, you know, obviously have just in the DNA of the whole organization much more empathy and focus on people, so there is still every day a tremendous learning around that, how can we, you know, much better treat people in the business.
7. Did you find a mentor or inspiring leader to help go forward ?
Yeah, actually I had two very important people influencing my professional career. One of them was a senior woman in the organization I started to work for as a, you know, kind of first leadership assignment, and she kind of, you know, very much taught me a lot about the opportunities and the advantages women might have in organizations, of course, in a professional way, but, like, it was pretty much still a men’s world, banking international, international banking, banking in Hungary, so, like, very few women working in the organization, trying to struggle with our own challenges. Sometimes, or most of the times, actually, it was just our own perceptions about the challenges, but later on I discovered that, you know, kind of if I sort out my self-confidence on certain issues, those challenges might not even be there, and then kind of really about how can we turn it to our advantage, and I’m just so happy to see it for the, you know, last couple of decades, how much the environment changed, the business environment changed in terms of just, you know, appreciating the natural values, inherent values of, you know, kind of any genders can bring to different aspects of the business, and this whole notion of diversity, which was a very early stage at that time, has developed so much, so I think it’s just so good to experience that now diversity is on the agenda everywhere, and, yeah, we still have challenges in some senses, but at least in gender terms, I believe now we are at least, you know, professional companies, we are doing okay, and we are very, very conscious, so happy to see that. And the other mentor was really somebody who kind of, you know, taught me about change, because also if you tend to become much more mature in your profession, you kind of tend to neglect that things can all the time be done better, and you can from day to day incorporate new ideas and new visions and actually creativity into your work, so for this you just have to be kind of very, very consciously, in practical matters, separate time, surround yourself with people who can bring in different aspects, kind of really stimulate creative sessions, have something you do differently every day, so this kind of really helped me a lot as well to be able to enjoy what I’m doing and renew myself through long, long years, so I strongly believe that, you know, creativity and innovation doesn’t only help businesses, but also helps individuals to, you know, just to stay longer terms very successful and content in their jobs.
8. What important lesson did you learn and what is your contribution towards society ?
Okay, the lesson what I have really learned, and that’s pretty much related to, you know, my current mission and role in this society which is on the side of a really helping organization where we want to do good, that, you know, business and doing good is not two separate things, I strongly believe that, you know, when this whole notion of CSR and sustainability came up already luckily decades ago, but kind of, you know, as a mantra for organizations, you know, still a lot of brands and organizations and businesses did not recognize the relevance in their everyday activities. This is not a kind of tax we have to pay as business leaders and owners to the environment, but this is something if we don’t integrate into the way how we operate, it’s not going to make us successful. And what I learned now in my current role, where indeed I am in daily contact with those brilliant business people, company owners or individuals who are actually supporting either with their knowledge, their network or financial assets our activity as a charity, that somehow it is already measurable for them and it is already proven that, you know, leading their lives, doing their business and doing their everyday jobs by kind of thinking about how can this positively impact their customers, the environment, it just comes as drinking water. And this is so nice to see and the more and more evidence is used. Everybody does it in their own ways, but one thing is common for them that this is not a side activity, this is their way of thinking and doing business, which is brilliant to see.
9. Atlas World is looking for a business heroes with an Ethical, sustainable and creative approach: can you think of someone that embodies these qualities ?
Okay, I can tell you, I think the most warm-hearted and most professional philanthropist I’ve ever met, actually he used to be for more than a decade the head of the board of Bátor tábor, the charity organization I’m working for. His name is Péter Küllői, who is a renowned European banker, but I think really a very, very visionary supporter of the society, a great philanthropist, a kind of example, I believe, for all professionals from the business area. He has been helping Bátor tábor for long, long years to develop where it is, kind of giving his full professional focus, putting his network behind, a lot of energies, a lot of time, and obviously financial support as well. But that charity couldn’t be where it is without him.
10. Do you consider yourself a business Hero ?
I don’t know, I’m always a shy person. Sorry, let’s stop here. Actually, no, I would like to be somebody who stimulates heroes, who encourages heroes, who praises heroes. You know, finally I am a marketing person, I am a supporter, I am a supporter person, so the best feeling for me, if I really see that I can stimulate something good and beneficial, kind of spreading across the business scene and the society.
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