Leading Change and Impact: A Conversation with Luke Orszag

Luke Orszag: Try new things and help people. I think that’s what’s going to keep any company going. When people are willing to change, willing to try new things, but then more importantly, when their coworkers are, they see them trying new things and helping out and all pushing in the same direction. That’s a huge impact.

Chris Fredericks: Welcome to Empowered Owners, the podcast that takes you inside Empowered Ventures. I’m your host, Chris Fredericks. In each episode, I’ll have a discussion with one of our employees to discover and highlight their distinct personalities, perspectives, and skills while also keeping you in the loop with exclusive news, updates on company performance, and a glimpse into the future plans of Empowered Ventures. This is an opportunity for me to learn more about our amazing employee owners and an opportunity for you to hear regularly from me and others from within Empowered Ventures. On this episode of Empowered Owners, I’m talking with Luke Orszag, President at Firstar Precision, one of EV’s operating companies. Luke grew up in northeast Ohio, then went to Miami University of Ohio as a finance major. While at Miami, he took advantage of study and travel abroad, opportunities that ultimately allowed him to visit 19 cities in Europe. As you’ll hear, Luke is a naturally curious person with a voracious appetite for learning about just about anything. Growing up, he picked up a can do attitude that fuels him to this day. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Luke Orszag. How are you feeling? Are you excited? Are you nervous? Are you just fine?

Luke Orszag: I’ve seen enough of them, I suppose. Yeah, I’m excited.

Chris Fredericks: Cool, let’s do it. I understand that you have spent a fair amount of time traveling abroad, and maybe there was like a study abroad program. Tell me more about that.

Luke Orszag: So when I was at Miami my junior year, me and my roommates from sophomore year, like, hey, it’d be really fun to do this study abroad trip. Miami had a sister campus in Luxembourg, and I don’t was it’s too good to pass up, I think. Yeah. Me and him, a few other people that we knew also took the trip. And gosh, it was just such an experience that I tell people that if they have kids that are in college and are interested in something like that, I tell them, I said, even if they’re a little bit hesitant, push them a little bit because it’s unbelievable just being around different cultures, hearing different languages. It was fantastic.

Chris Fredericks: How long were you there?

Luke Orszag: A full semester. Yeah. Wish could have been longer. Some people stayed an entire school year, but a full semester was fantastic. It’s unbelievable.

Chris Fredericks: That’s awesome. So what kinds of things did you do what memories stand out from that time so much.

Luke Orszag: One of the ones that I feel like I talk about the most often is the Oktoberfest trip. That was really cool. And it’s not even something that I guess when we were originally thinking about studying abroad, it’d be so cool. Let’s make sure we do this. It kind of happened. Oh, yeah, that’s right. There’s Oktoberfest coming up. We should do that. It’s such an experience. I didn’t realize that. It’s a fair, basically. And then they just have a bunch of beer tents set up. And we got there incredibly early the morning that it started, because we had heard that’s what you want to do. And there was this one beer tent, the Hoffbrough house tent, where we wanted to start there. And they were just taking people and just grabbing them and throwing them into the tent. And then they’d put you at a table, and then just all of a sudden, just steins a beer started showing up. And just that whole day, because you’re just around everybody. It’s such an international thing, worldwide. So you’re talking to people from all over the place. A lot of Scottish people. We ended up talking, generally, the language you can speak. You’re talking to those kind of people, but even people that English wasn’t their first language, talking to those kind of people, it was really cool.

Chris Fredericks: Interesting, actually, as you say, that I never have been. I’ve been to Germany, but I’ve never gone to Oktoberfest, but I didn’t think about the fact that it would be so diverse in terms of people from all over the world. Of course, now that you say that people probably from all over the world go there. So it’s almost like, maybe like a world’s fair level of just, like, diversity and how many people are there and stuff. Is that kind of what stood out to you is all the different cultures that are actually there?

Luke Orszag: Yeah, it seemed like there was a fair amount. It seemed like we were talking to people from just about any country we could think of seemed to be there.

Chris Fredericks: That’s amazing. So you go and study in Luxembourg, but you’re in Europe. You’re in the heart of Europe. So I imagine you traveled all over the place. Like, where else did you go?

Luke Orszag: So if I can just think through the countries, Netherlands, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, the UK, Switzerland. That was a really cool trip in Switzerland. So the place we went Interlock in Switzerland, it’s like the extreme sports capital of the world, or something. I don’t know. But when we went there, there was so many cool things to do. My one regret, and I don’t know why I was so interested in doing this, but there was something called zorbing, and they basically put you in a giant inflatable ball and roll you down a mountain. I think it worked out in my benefit because they didn’t have it that day because there was a hole in the Zorb. Yeah, we did paragliding. We did something called canyoning. Just a really cool experience. Again, not something that I’m sure they have that kind of stuff here, but just in that environment, in that place, it was just unbelievable.

Chris Fredericks: It sounds like just this trip was really impactful. And obviously just meeting all kinds of different people is probably part of that. What do you think it is about travel, especially for a young person? What does it do for you and how has it impacted you even today?

Luke Orszag: I think just perspective. I think when you travel outside the country and not just like Canada or Mexico or something, because typically when you go to those kind of places, it’s very tourist oriented. And this kind of trip, for me, it immersed you much more in the culture itself. You’re having to navigate around and so you’re talking to local people, trying to figure out where to go or ask them ideas about where to go or where to eat and that sort of thing. Then you have opportunities where you’re at an Oktoberfest or something else at a restaurant and you’re talking to local people and you’re talking about just what is interesting to them. What’s interesting to you and just hearing their perspective on things. The one thing I thought was funny is it seemed to be a fairly common thing. They thought everyone in America drank Coca Cola and wore cowboy boots. That’s apparently very popular opinion abroad about Americans, but obviously not true. Right. And the more conversation you have, it’s those people. They open up their perspective about Americans and lost the same. That perspective, I think, of just what’s valued to people and what’s valued to people from different cultures. I think that really sat well with me.

Chris Fredericks: Is there anything about you and your interest in learning or anything that came out of that or drove that? Because I understand you’re a big reader, too. Were you a big reader before that experience?

Luke Orszag: Not too much, to be honest. I was in school at the time. Right. So it’s textbooks and you’re busy with schoolwork, but the reading came. Gosh, I don’t know. I’d probably been out in the workforce for a few years. And I had always wanted to read Moby Dick, and it’s such a long book, never had time to just sit and read it. And so I just stumbled across at our local library that they had an audio version. I was like, oh, that’s great. I had a 30 minutes drive at the time to work, so I just listened to it, and it just from there, any book I thought I wanted to read, some of the classics and everything, and some stuff that people recommended, and then some nonfiction stuff, some leadership things, all that kind of stuff. It just turned out to be. That commute to and from work just turned out to be a perfect time to listen. And then you find other times to listen if you’re engaged enough in the book.

Chris Fredericks: What’s another example of a book that really spoke to you in that way?

Luke Orszag: Essentialism. Do not remember the author, but it’s a great quote that kind of sums it up a lot of the nonfiction leadership type books. It’s almost like when you read the back cover, you know what it’s about. But that one had a really great quote that really stuck with me. It was less but better. And so that’s the whole point of the essentialism. It’s not necessarily that you need to fill your life with a bunch of different things. It’s really, you want to have less things, better, higher quality, that sort of thing.

Chris Fredericks: The essentialism concept sure feels applicable this day and age, with all the information we all have flowing at us. And it sounds like a really amazing book.

Luke Orszag: It’s just amazing that you look at how much time most people spend on their phones. I find myself sometimes. So I wake up in the morning. Usually I’m reading some articles while I’m eating, but then I find myself, like, finishing articles when I’m brushing my teeth. I don’t need to do that. I could just take the moment and just brush my teeth and just go about the rest of my day. But that book in particular, at least for me, puts some things in their place in terms of, you don’t need to expose yourself all the time to your phone or entertainment or anything, right. To stimulate yourself. Sometimes you can just be quiet and just think. I don’t even know if that’s one of the points of the book. It’s just one of the things that you read it, and it sits with you and how you react to it.

Chris Fredericks: Very cool. How would you say that your parents shaped who you are today?

Luke Orszag: I’d say very much in terms of work ethic and priorities. So I had four brothers and no sisters, right? There was five boys total. And my parents, for whatever reason, they thought it was very important for us to all have a catholic education, right? And private schooling is not cheap, but they made the sacrifices they need to make sure that through 8th grade, I went to a catholic school, and religion being what it is, and people can whatever. There’s still values that particular religions instill in you. And they knew that those type of values are things that they wanted to have for all of us. So I think that was a huge part of it, honestly, the hard work. I know that I do a lot of projects around my own house and just interest in home improvement and that sort of thing. I just remember my dad just always having something going on around the house, digging ditches around the house because he needed to waterproof a section of the basement or something. Just. He wasn’t afraid of just jumping into it, didn’t read any equipment, just a shovel. So I think that type of visual, for me, growing up is really what sits with me.

Chris Fredericks: Sounds like a can do attitude, almost, that you just grew up seeing. How has that led to, or how does that resonate with how you approach your work today? Because I also understand that you have a particular way you think about your work and helping people, basically, and helping things improve. Do you see a connection there?

Luke Orszag: Yeah, in general, I just like to help. There’s a show my wife and I are watching right now, New Amsterdam. The character Max Goodwin, he leads off any conversation with, how can I help? Right? And it’s just interesting because I watched that show and never really triggered for me, but I happened to be watching last week, and I was like, that’s the right approach. That’s the way I’d want interactions as people are coming up to me and asking me a question, how can I help? I don’t want to be the person that kind of defines what someone should be doing. I want to help them figure out what needs to be done, and if I can help do that in some way, I absolutely want to, but I’d rather them define it for themselves and what they think is important to do. But just that attitude of helping and figuring things out. I know that there’s anything that I’ve done in terms of accounting or business or anything like that, I’ve always just taking the approach that there’s a way to figure this out. There’s no problem that can’t be solved, and it might not be the most conventional solution, but there’s still a solution that could be found. Anything. And so I think, yeah, you’re right. Probably growing up and seeing just that, hey, just grab a shovel and dig 6ft into the dirt. If that’s what it takes to get it done, that’s the way it can get done.

Chris Fredericks: What’s an example of an unfixable or of a situation that seems impossible or unchangeable personal work, whatever that comes to mind that you just were like, no, there’s got to be a way. What comes to mind?

Luke Orszag: One thing in particular. There’s a company I worked for and they had to balance a worldwide account, right? Every country in the world goes to this one account, needs to balance a zero. Right. The technical thing. And they would always accept that there would be some level of just wrong. It bothered me. And I just set out to just to create the most fish. Because there’s only one person, right. You have people in the different companies across the world that are helping, that are hitting this account. Right. But what can we do to just make this easier for everybody? How can I help? Designing a process that’s as fully automated as possible was the goal. And it still, at least when I left, wasn’t zero. But you would leave at a month end close or something. You’d leave that month end thinking that, yeah, that’s as far as we could go before it just gets ridiculous. Yeah, that’s an example, I think business wise, where I just remember that problem just being somewhat insurmountable thinking, and there was just an acceptance of inferiority that just drove me nuts personally. I remember my cousin who passed of a very rare brain cancer earlier this year. But I remember when we were growing up, he had told me we were doing something on our personal computer, there’s something wrong with it. And he came over, he wasn’t even really a computer person, but he said something to me. He said, computer is just a computer. Just try it out, see what happens. I’ve applied that just seemingly flippant comment to everything. Just try it and see what happens. What’s the worst that could happen? And so anything personally that I approach, I usually take it with that in mind.

Chris Fredericks: I love that. Tell me about why you ended up deciding to join firststar a couple of years ago.

Luke Orszag: Two reasons. First reason is the company that I was working for at the time was owned by an overseas company and wasn’t to me, a good culture fit in terms of how I like to work and versus how they like to interact with their business sites. And one of the reasons is that the opportunity was there. I was ready for a move. I knew what type of company that I wanted to work for at that point in terms of just the approach of interaction. And then the second reason, honestly, was, I’m not just saying this was talking to you and Spencer, hearing you guys talk about how you wanted the companies to run lined up perfectly to what I was looking for. And so when I was going through that interview process, some of it is you’re not sure, right? You guys could have just been talking and not actually meaning any of what you were saying, which I’ve seen before at other companies. Right.

Luke Orszag: But just the fact that it was so perfectly aligned to what I was looking for, that kind of did it for me.

Chris Fredericks: What was it you were really looking for?

Luke Orszag: The biggest thing was autonomy. I wouldn’t say that. It’s not like I’m rebellious in any ways, but I generally like to come up with an idea and just run with it. I don’t want to have to run it past people and get their opinion and then the project is not even what it ended up starting with. From my original idea, I wanted the trust that a company would have in me being there, not feeling like they needed to look over my shoulder all the time or double check everything. That autonomy and trust was huge.

Chris Fredericks: So connecting some dots, you really enjoy helping things be better. You enjoy making an impact in that way. And to do that, you like to try things. You like to maybe not even try big things all the time, just try little things here and there and see what happens. Thanks for sharing that. One thing you didn’t mention, which I’m not surprised, but the employee ownership piece, it’s a big part of what empowered ventures is too. It wasn’t necessarily the thing you were making a change for. So I’m curious what your thoughts were about Eo at the time and how that’s changed.

Luke Orszag: Yeah, I wouldn’t say it was the reason for the switch. I will say it was the reason that I had reached out originally applying to the position because I thought it was unique. It’s a different value proposition than literally any other job post that I was coming across. And so that, I don’t know, got me in the door, so to speak, my thoughts going into it, thinking it could be pretty interesting. I didn’t really think much beyond that, to be honest. Now, after being at Firststar for still not even that long of a time period, the impact that it can have on people and their lives, I think is so significant. It’s unbelievable to me that more companies aren’t pursuing this in terms of when they’re exiting and looking for someone to sell the company to, how it’s not their number one thing. And if they’re looking to leave a legacy of their company, not just selling to a private equity and walking away, basically, I think it’s extremely impactful, that type of ownership model, and I kind of am sad that it’s not more popular.

Chris Fredericks: What are some things you’ve seen in Firstar these last couple of years that kind of make you say that?

Luke Orszag: I think just the fact. So let’s just start with the financial rewards. So I think that has a much more significant impact than if a company offers a typical 401 with a match and all that stuff. That’s great. But I think when people think about in terms of they’re owning a company that has such a much more of a financial reward because they own a piece of that company, they don’t own some vague idea of some shares in a 401K plan or some stock portfolio. Hey, I own Firstar, I own TVF, I own paramount. That I think has its own kind of reward to it in terms of financial side. But then there’s the buy in. To know that they directly impact that investment. That’s a great concept.

Chris Fredericks: Yeah, that’s great. Have you seen it actually show up in people’s excitement levels or engagement?

Luke Orszag: So when I started here, there’s some pretty long tenured employees that had Firstarted operating a certain way for a long time. And so that culture change, I think, takes a while, right? I think any company, no matter if it was employee ownership transitioning to or anything, it just takes a while. But I remember one specific instance. We were talking about possibly bringing on a new hire, and the conversation start, okay, what does that look like? What role would they do? That sort of thing? And I remember one person in particular that normally probably wouldn’t care. Just whatever you guys say, I’m good with just I’ll be over here actually engaging in the conversation and talking about what role they would have. But then also, interestingly enough, pointing out, hey, maybe, I don’t know, maybe this doesn’t make sense right now. Maybe we don’t need to put this person on the payroll because maybe we can just split up those duties among a few people that are here and that would be better for the company. Those kind of conversations. I don’t have all the history at Firstar, but I don’t know how often they happened. And the fact that they’re happening now is, to me, very encouraging. And I think that’s the impact.

Chris Fredericks: This has been awesome. My last question for you is, what advice do you have for your fellow employee owners?

Luke Orszag: Try new things and help people. I think that’s what’s going to keep any company going. When people are willing to change, willing to try new things, but then more importantly, when their coworkers are, they see them trying new things and helping out and all pushing in the same direction. That’s a huge impact. So that’s what I would encourage everyone to do.

Chris Fredericks: It’s fantastic. Luke, thank you so much for coming on. Empowered owners.

Luke Orszag: Yeah, appreciate it. Thank you.

Chris Fredericks: I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Luke Orszag. Thank you, Luke, for joining me. Huge thank you as well to Emily Bopp and the team at Share Your Genius for producing this episode. If you’re enjoying Empowered Owners, please be sure to subscribe and provide a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. Remember, we want to hear from you. Please give us feedback, suggest guests and topics for future episodes, and tell us how we can keep improving the show. To reach us, email [email protected]. Thanks for tuning in.