From a Vision to the Solution


Ladies and gentlemen,

I am sorry that my tight schedule prevented me from joining you this morning. Unfortunately, it will also be impossible for me to stay with you this evening. And yet I am glad that the conference "From a Vision to the Solution" discusses - in many respects - the same problems that have been tackled on the last meetings of the President's Academic Council. Also today's meeting, which the Council jointly decided to hold in Pärnu, is dedicated to the search of Estonia's future in high technology.

Today, in this room, you have talked of visions. A vision - or a dream - is to a large extent immaterial. This immateriality is at the root of every vision. Naturally, today's forum is not discussing the visions confined to the consciousness of a single individual. For our meeting today, only the visions meant for wider audience have significance. When disclosed, such visions forsake their author and become public property.

Due to the Estonian mass media, my question "What is the Estonian Nokia?" has become part of our folklore. This too is a vision, and the Estonian public has responded to it eagerly. I get many letters suggesting the so-called Estonian Nokia projects. Most of the projects I receive, dear ladies and gentlemen, have one major fault - the presumption that the President, or the Government, or the Riigikogu should carry them to life.

Dear Estonians,

I wish you to understand that it is not the sole and primary mission of the state administration to carry to life the visions of the whole nation. Everyone should have sufficient faith in his or her vision to take risks for its sake, to persuade the investors, to motivate the employees. I have no doubt that this is difficult. And yet every difficulty also means an opportunity to find the solution - and to sell it on.
Every new product is a solution to someone's problem. The implementation of each new product creates new job opportunities and increases the wealth of the inventor, the producer, and the people. This is called product innovation. A road that is still fairly seldom taken in Estonia.

We have brave process innovators, and this is why in some Estonian companies one worker brings more profit than in Western Europe. Here too, we have a long way to go - and we are keeping up the pace. Unfortunately, more rational production also means lost jobs, an in the long run, also decreasing national income.

Dear ladies and gentlemen,

I have to leave now, to attend the meeting of the Academic Council, where we are going to continue the discussion of Estonia's possible high-technology future, of process and product innovation. There is something I want to say for goodbye.

If Estonia wishes to stand firm and proud in the future, we need both visions and working solutions to bring the visions to life. Face the difficulties boldly, they are nothing but the future potential that still has to be realised.

I wish you strength and success for realising this potential.

Thank you.

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