On Genetic Predispositions and Common Sense

A Conversation with Andrew Reid

You only have so much time.

He’s the founder and president of technology solutions of a successful company, here to talk about why it’s a great place to work. But he starts simply by declaring you only have so much time and from that moment he shows rather than tells: Andrew Reid is not the typical company founder. Vision Critical is not the typical paycheque.

In research circles, Reid is the son of a firecracker and the inheritor of a legacy—one that has him exquisitely tuned to the interplay between limited time and unlimited ambition.

“Angus has incredible energy,” he says. “As a teacher, he had started doing research for a private company on the side. While getting a second opinion, the head of Canada’s largest research company told him to quit asking so many questions and ‘leave this to the big guys’. He got fired up. He wanted to prove them wrong. This was the tone of my upbringing, in life and in work.”

The early days of Angus Reid, as Andrew relates, were equal parts hard work and rock and roll. Every Friday night the staff would descend upon the family house until 3 AM, leaving a swath of libation in their wake.

Aside from having an abundance of whipsmarts and talent, Andrew describes the people who populated his father’s company as sharing a ‘me-against-the-world’ attitude that made anything seem possible. His own corporate teeth were cut with those family values plus learned theories of productivity and leadership—and when the time came for Reid to step forward with his own vision, he arrived with loud music and winking at corporate convention.

Enthusiasm ripples through Vision Critical not because it’s mandated, but because it’s infectious. That enthusiasm finds its roots with Reid.

“I don’t want to spend a third of my life having all the vitality sucked out of me in boardrooms. I don’t think anybody does. Just because your work is intense and high-stakes doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it, and enjoy the people around you.”

In addition to a premium on laughter and the vigor of the Angus Reid culture, Reid’s approach to collaboration was heavily influenced by agency culture.

“I’ve worked for some very cool boutique agencies that went about everything creatively, from problem-solving to brainstorming,” he says. “Agencies tend to cultivate 180-degree flips of view. They might paste cue cards up all over a meeting room to see patterns that might otherwise be missed. Everything’s considered. Outlandishness is valued. I like that.”

Having placed 6th on the Fast 50 in 2009, a look at Vision Critical life is incomplete without a nod to the occasional motion sickness of constant acceleration.

“We’re an ambitious group,” says Reid. “Outlandishness means we shoot high, but the last thing we want is a work environment that’s chronically stressed. One of the most important things I can do—and encourage all our managers to do—is thread the needle around touchy issues and find the good in any situation.”

“People work best when they relate well to one another,” he continues. “It’s a profound thing to walk into a room that’s buzzing with stress or disagreement and leave with everyone nodding their head. Much more effective and more enjoyable than public berating, I’d say. That’s just not our style.”

What is Reid’s style is a sharp eye that’s trained on personality, quirks and –isms of all kinds. In discovering new talent, it’s this seeking out of like-minded souls that he believes will assemble an eclectic, more genuine mix of people.

“People show up in a suit in the interview and you can see it on their face—they think dammit, I didn’t need this suit. I like that.”

WORDPLAY: Andrew Reid

Interview by Kate Inglis