10 Questions for Andrew Holland
Andrew Holland
Senior Consultant, Vivaldi Partners Group
Where are you right now?
I’m in our SoHo office. It’s Friday afternoon.
Where is your favorite place for a breakfast meeting?
La Colombe on 4th Street and Lafayette is a good place.
What was your first job?
I worked at a DIY store, when I was 17. I did lots of strange jobs while I was at school and university. The weirdest one of them all was a brief stint at a sheet metal cutting facility. My role was to stack pieces of metal into neat piles. My first job after graduating was working in Moscow for an NGO that was trying to get the Russian government to take the HIV epidemic seriously. I worked as an editor putting together materials for donors. We were a very motley crew, but I’ve kept in touch with lots of people from that time.
How do we keep the best talent motivated?
I’m a fan of Tammy Erickson’s posts on the HBR site. I defer to her on the question of motivation. She writes that “high levels of engagement occur when work experiences reflect a clear set of values that we share.” The challenge is to translate these values into our experiences in the workplace – most companies seems to really struggle with this.
What motivates you?
Several things come to mind: knowing I’m doing valuable work, working with inspiring people, the sense that I’m progressing.
What excites you about this next decade?
We’re living at a time of accelerated change etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.. Actually, I don’t really care about that. For someone my age, that’s always been our experience. I will say that getting older is definitely a good thing – I want to age gracefully and to become wiser.
What is on your bedside table?
I don’t have a bedside table. There’s a pile of stuff lying around: two copies of Foreign Affairs, a couple of novels – Girl Meets Boy by Ali Smith and The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham – and some contact lenses. Somewhere there’s a teddy bear as well.
What is your dream job?
I would love to be the Mayor of a large city. It’s the perfect mix of solving complex problems and being able to make a difference.
Who would you most like to meet for a drink?
I’d like to meet George W. Bush. Lots of people who have spent time with him claim that he’s not the tongue-tied idiot he appeared to be. I’m intrigued by a public figure who may surprise you in person. We’d hang out at his ranch and I’d try to get him talking. I’d ask about his life, his motivations and the decisions he made during his presidency.
What is your greatest extravagance?
I moved to New York with eighteen cardigans. It was about 80F at the time. A lot of grandmothers were very upset when I left Britain. Other than that, taxis, shoes, and books that I never get around to reading.
How many grandmothers?