Argo Teetlaus

As Commercial Director at Softrend, my focus is on building a strong and aligned commercial organisation across sales, marketing, customer experience, and business development. I work closely with both our home and workplace business units, helping connect commercial strategy, customer understanding, and long-term growth into one clear direction. A large part of my work is supporting teams, strengthening collaboration, improving customer experience, and helping turn good ideas into practical execution across the organisation. Alongside the commercial side, I’m deeply involved in pricing, market development, positioning, and building a business that can grow sustainably in both local and export markets. What I value most is clarity — in leadership, communication, customer experience, and decision-making. Strong businesses are rarely built through isolated departments. They grow when people move in the same direction with trust, accountability, and a shared understanding of what matters. Softrend is a family-owned Estonian furniture company with nearly 30 years of craftsmanship and design heritage. Our products are manufactured in Estonia by a dedicated team combining Nordic design, comfort, sustainability, and long-lasting quality.

A large part of my work today revolves around leaders, teams, and organisations going through change, growth, or moments where things have become unclear, overloaded, or difficult to move forward. Sometimes the challenge is leadership. Sometimes it’s communication, trust, or alignment inside the team. And sometimes capable people simply need more clarity, structure, and support around difficult decisions. Through my collaboration with Arista Executive Search, I work with leadership coaching, team development, onboarding support for leaders, strategic workshops, and helping organisations navigate leadership transitions in a practical and human way. What matters to me is not creating another “development program”, but helping people and organisations move forward with more clarity, confidence, and stronger collaboration. My own background combines commercial leadership, business development, people leadership, and hands-on experience working inside organisations where expectations, responsibility, and performance are part of everyday life. Over the years, I’ve worked with leaders and organisations connected to companies such as Philips, AkzoNobel, Lindström, Fibenol, and EIS. Explore more: www.aristaexecutive.com

What started years ago as a family idea has gradually grown into a long-term venture focused on building a sustainable beverage business in Estonia. Together with my family, we’ve been developing the foundations step by step — planting an apple orchard, building supporting infrastructure, navigating regulations, and preparing for future production. The vision has always been long-term and grounded in patience, quality, and doing things properly rather than quickly. Alongside everyday business life, this venture has taught me a great deal about long-term thinking, resilience, working with uncertainty, and building something meaningful over time with limited resources and a clear sense of direction. We are currently in the pre-production phase, preparing for the next stage of development in the coming years.

I help leaders and teams make sense of complex situations — and turn clarity into action. Most of the people I work with are dealing with growth, change, pressure, or situations where things have become unclear or stuck. Sometimes decisions are delayed. Sometimes teams stop moving in the same direction. Sometimes leaders simply need space to think clearly again. My role is to help people see the situation more clearly and move things forward in a practical and human way. Depending on the challenge, the work may involve leadership coaching, team workshops, strategic facilitation, interim support, or bringing in trusted partners with the right experience when needed. For me, the goal is simple: clearer decisions, stronger collaboration, and real progress. My background combines leadership, business development, coaching, and hands-on experience working with organisations through growth and change. If that resonates with where you or your team are today, feel free to connect. https://pivotly.ee/en/argo-teetlaus-main/

This interim leadership role gave me the opportunity to step into a completely new industry during a period of change and development. My focus was not only on sales performance, but also on helping bring more structure, clarity, and stability into the team during a demanding phase of growth and transition. A large part of the work involved supporting people, improving collaboration, strengthening client relationships, and helping turn ideas and plans into practical day-to-day execution. What I value about interim leadership is the ability to quickly understand different environments, earn trust, and help people move forward together — especially in situations where pressure, uncertainty, or change are part of everyday reality. The experience also reinforced something I strongly believe in: leadership principles transfer across industries far more than technical knowledge alone. Clear communication, accountability, trust, and direction matter in every organisation.

I stepped into this interim leadership role during a period of significant change and uncertainty, with the goal of helping strengthen sales performance, customer experience, and collaboration across teams. Working closely with both local and regional leadership, the role focused on bringing more structure, clarity, and alignment into a fast-moving environment where people, processes, and customer expectations all needed to adapt quickly. A large part of the work involved supporting teams through change, improving communication and cooperation across functions, and helping maintain stability and direction during the COVID period. The experience reinforced something I’ve seen repeatedly over the years: in demanding situations, leadership is rarely about having all the answers. It’s about creating trust, helping people stay focused, and moving forward together even when conditions are uncertain. This role also gave me valuable experience in customer experience development, remote collaboration, and leading change inside a large international organisation.

In this role, I led sales development across the Baltics and Belarus, working closely with customers, local teams, and international business units in the wood finishes industry. I was responsible for leading an international team across Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania — bringing together both sales and technical specialists across different markets and customer environments. The work combined commercial responsibility, long-term customer relationships, technical understanding, and cross-border cooperation in a practical B2B environment where consistency, reliability, and long-term thinking mattered more than short-term wins. A large part of the role was about aligning people, supporting collaboration between teams and markets, and building trust with customers and partners across the region. This experience strengthened my understanding of international commercial leadership and taught me the importance of clear communication, adaptability, and steady leadership in environments where growth, change, and uncertainty often exist at the same time.

Leading the Philips TV business in Estonia was one of the most demanding and rewarding periods of my early leadership journey. Working in a highly competitive market with limited resources, our focus was on building strong customer relationships, creating visibility through smart and practical marketing, and developing a motivated team that could consistently deliver results. Together with our partners and local team, we were able to grow the business to one of the strongest Philips TV market positions globally during that period, while maintaining long-term relationships and a strong reputation in the market. A large part of the role involved balancing commercial performance, brand development, customer expectations, and team leadership in a fast-moving environment where creativity, adaptability, and trust mattered every day. The experience taught me a great deal about leadership under pressure, long-term relationship building, and how much can be achieved when people move in the same direction with ownership and belief in what they are building together. I also had the opportunity to represent the local market internationally and be part of several global business and marketing initiatives within the TP Vision organisation.

In this role, I worked closely with major retail partners and local sales teams to strengthen the presence and development of Philips TV products in the Estonian market. A large part of the work involved building long-term customer relationships, supporting commercial activities, improving visibility in retail environments, and helping coordinate cooperation between local and regional teams. The role gave me valuable early experience in account management, customer understanding, and working in a fast-moving commercial environment where trust, consistency, and ownership played an important role in long-term success. Looking back, this period shaped many of the leadership and relationship-building principles that have stayed with me throughout my career.

In this role, I was responsible for the Philips TV and audio-video business in the Estonian market during a period of strong growth and rapid product innovation. The work combined key account management, product launches, retail cooperation, pricing, training, and close collaboration with both local and regional teams across the Baltics and Eastern Europe. A large part of the role involved building long-term relationships with retail partners, supporting visibility and customer experience in stores, and helping introduce new technologies and products into the market in a practical and commercially successful way. Alongside commercial responsibilities, I also led product and partner trainings, worked closely with regional business units, and participated in international programs and innovation initiatives within the Philips organisation. The experience gave me a strong foundation in customer relationships, commercial execution, teamwork, and working in fast-moving environments where trust, consistency, and adaptability mattered every day.