Steven Hollis

[Kingman]

16 hours ago, AntrimBlack said:

Nope. We have had that, and it has not worked. What we needed was a Chairman in the country, in the club, involved. That is what we now have.

The question now is - will he be a success.

Well I would say we didn't have the right management or levels of investment then.

[TRO]

When we last had a chairman with footballing experience ( allegedly) it was " too many cooks in the kitchen"

The role requires a business head whether WE like it or not.

My first reaction is cosmetic, but hey that is the cynic in me.....We must give him a chance and see....pre judging is not helpful either way.

so, what am I expecting from him, if the club is in a mess and in Tom Fox's words " something is clearly wrong within the club"

bearing in mind I am not privy to the inner workings, but from where i am.....

STRUCTURE thats what seems to me to be missing......REAL STRUCTURE.....with discipline and a cohesive interaction between all aspects of the club. Clear demarcation that staff do not drift in to things that don't concern them.

People who know their place, but a platform that encourages conscientiousness in what they do.

It needs a firm hand, but one that is not fearful of a disclosure of events, and an honest ethos.

I would personally like to see an inquiry in to HOW we have wasted so much money on dud players and a plan to stop the malaise and reverse our fortunes in this critically important area  of the club.

Best of luck to him.

[Shaw_nuff]

1 hour ago, Jareth said:

Where do you stand on Florence Nightingale?

Is she rumoured to be joining the board?

I have no opinion of her. All i know is that she did some nursing out in the Crimea, But my missus is a consultant anaesthetist and I know she thinks her so-called achievements are way, way exaggerated. 

....you did ask.

[TrentVilla]

6 minutes ago, Shaw_nuff said:

Is she rumoured to be joining the board?

I have no opinion of her. All i know is that she did some nursing out in the Crimea, But my missus is a consultant anaesthetist and I know she thinks her so-called achievements are way, way exaggerated. 

....you did ask.

Tell her not to be hard on herself, consultant anaesthetist is a good achievement

As for this appointment, we shall see but that BBC interview is far from beingzs promising start.

[PompeyVillan]

I'm confused, because we now have a chairman and an owner.

I don't understand how Lerner can have no role in managing what is now his greatest asset? Surely Randy will still keep an eye on the club and insist his agenda is followed if he sees fit. And Hollis will have to follow, because he is employed by Lerner.

Hollis hasn't really told us in a tangible way what his job is and how that is important to the club.

And to a non business type such as myself, how what he is doing is any different to Tom Fox.

I dunno, I'm sceptical. This is just Randy saying 'I can't be bothered'. Which is perhaps a bit harsh because he's been panned when he was bothered, but yeah.

[Dante_Lockhart]

I assume Randy will still be actively trying to sell the club. Then we start this whole thing again.

[mwj]

11 minutes ago, PompeyVillan said:

I'm confused, because we now have a chairman and an owner.

I don't understand how Lerner can have no role in managing what is now his greatest asset? Surely Randy will still keep an eye on the club and insist his agenda is followed if he sees fit. And Hollis will have to follow, because he is employed by Lerner.

Hollis hasn't really told us in a tangible way what his job is and how that is important to the club.

And to a non business type such as myself, how what he is doing is any different to Tom Fox.

I dunno, I'm sceptical. This is just Randy saying 'I can't be bothered'. Which is perhaps a bit harsh because he's been panned when he was bothered, but yeah.

Its pretty simple. The Chairman acts to represents the owner(s) best interests. 

eg. in the case of a publicly traded company the Chairman (and board) represents all the shareholders. In our case its Randy.

[Grasshopper]

Not difficult

RL lays out to SH what he can & cant do. With all aspects of the company.

TF is responsible for finances coming in and directing monies and stratagies to achieve a better Financial turnover.

HA & PR target, using their prefered methods, for recruiting players. (RG says Y/N)

RG responsible for direction, philosophy and the teams performances.

The only arguement one can direct at this "Model" is:

The right people doing an effective job or not.

Time will tell

If past experience is anything to go by, we're F**ked.

Edited January 15, 2016 by Grasshopper

[TRO]

49 minutes ago, PompeyVillan said:

I'm confused, because we now have a chairman and an owner.

I don't understand how Lerner can have no role in managing what is now his greatest asset? Surely Randy will still keep an eye on the club and insist his agenda is followed if he sees fit. And Hollis will have to follow, because he is employed by Lerner.

Hollis hasn't really told us in a tangible way what his job is and how that is important to the club.

And to a non business type such as myself, how what he is doing is any different to Tom Fox.

I dunno, I'm sceptical. This is just Randy saying 'I can't be bothered'. Which is perhaps a bit harsh because he's been panned when he was bothered, but yeah.

My understanding is that RL is now just a banker for us.

just to give him (RL) a crumb of credit he has admitted he is out of his depth, so he has appointed someone who is hopefully better at the detail of running a business. That admission is more than we got from the previous owner in terms of admitting flaws....However the previous owner does still follow the team at 92....so I guess no one is bad per sa.

Hollis for me, will be expected to pull it all together to make it a whole and probably brought in to oversee a takeover should one materialise.

With the club expected to be relegated my guess is there will be plenty of change to keep him occupied and allow Fox to concentrate on Marketing and revenue building.

PS The intention looks good/feasible.....lets see if it works out in practice like it is intended in theory......so far that hasn't exactly worked out for us.

 

Edited January 15, 2016 by TRO

[Gary Thomas]

Just received this in my e-mail box.....

A message from our new Chairman

Dear Gary,

It is a privilege for me to take the Chair of Aston Villa albeit we are witnessing one of the most difficult periods in the Club’s history. It is perhaps this challenge to help turnaround our Club’s fortunes that persuaded me that I could, as Chairman, make a contribution that will help lead the Club to better times.

My background is working in and leading large complex people businesses. I started my career in Birmingham over 30 years ago and then worked in London and extensively overseas. My job has been to drive change and bring out the best in talented individuals.

So when Randy first approached me to see if I would be interested in Chairing the Club my initial reaction was that whilst this is very flattering to be considered for this role I am not a football man and I must politely decline. However, Randy was very clear the Club does not need a football man as its Chairman, it needs someone who is proven at driving change in large complex organisations. The rest is history.

I do not underestimate the scale of the challenge that lies ahead and I am also clear that the problems we face now have been in the making for the past five years. I am also clear that the long term solution to the Club’s future rests in building a stable high quality team on and off the field and I look forward to working with Tom Fox and Remi Garde to deliver this.

The Premier League business model has and is changing. The skills gap in the 20 clubs first team squads is narrowing every year. Well run so called small Clubs have no fear from so called big Clubs. This trend will continue and the Clubs that will prosper will be those that have hard work and great attitude at the core of their values. A proud heritage has no respect in a very competitive market ¬ whatever the business. Money no longer buys success, our future lies in a passion for excellence and standards that will not accept anything but the best. A winning culture is addictive and this is one habit I want to see back in this great Club.

For this culture change to be successful you have a key role to play. Frankly given the Club's performance in recent years and months the frustration and emotional outpouring seen over the last few weeks is understandable. You want to see improvement. More than this you rightly demand to see improvement.

As the new Chairman I ask you to please keep supporting the team. You are the 12th man and when confidence is low do not underestimate the critical role you will play. Together we can drive the change we all want to see in our Club’s fortunes. Whatever happens to the Club this season our job is to build a culture that we can all be very proud of and a culture that will deliver sustainable outperformance. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the forthcoming games.

Steve Hollis
Chairman

Edited January 15, 2016 by Gary Thomas

[This Could Be Rotterdam]

Something tells me the fans wanting a 'football man' has got back to him. 

Just a pointless appointment from what i can see. A man for lerner to shed more blame and responsibility on to, allowing him to distance himself from the shambles he has created. 

 

 

[AntrimBlack]

Appointing a Chairman is undoubtedly a good thing, If the right man has been appointed. 

[Richard]

18 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

he's here to cut costs.

 

 

 

In itself no bad thing? Surely we should be looking to run as efficiently as possible?

Edited January 15, 2016 by Richard

[Kingman]

Just seen the most smalltime cringeworthy interviews of all time, 

Reporter asks "what did you think when you got the call" Hollis then proceeded to pick up an imaginary telephone and raise it to his ear. 

"Hello" Would you like to be the Chairman of Aston Villa… Erm which one of my friends is this?..

 Not the confident response and body language i would expect from the Chairman of a multi million pound organisation. 

Just another pawned, pointless middle "yes" man set up to fail and direct the flack away from Lerner and the unqualified charlatan board members!

[GENTLEMAN]

6 minutes ago, Kingman said:

Just seen the most smalltime cringeworthy interviews of all time, 

Reporter asks "what did you think when you got the call" Hollis then proceeded to pick up an imaginary telephone and raise it to his ear. 

"Hello" Would you like to be the Chairman of Aston Villa… Erm which one of my friends is this?..

 Not the confident response and body language i would expect from the Chairman of a multi million pound organisation. 

Just another pawned, pointless middle "yes" man set up to fail and direct the flack away from Lerner and the unqualified charlatan board members!

Where did you see this? 

[VillaCas]

Just seen him on Midlands News - What a singularly uninspiring man. 

He doesn't need to be an expert but he clearly has no interest or understanding of football at all. He held a senior but not stellar position with KPMG and has been bought in to minimise Randy's losses, fullstop.

He looks out of his depth.  He thought the job offer was a mate winding him up!

He is already spouting the "success is about hard work and attitude, not money" line. Like Mr Hollis, I work in Continuous Improvement and if I had a pound for every company that said they were going to differentiate themselves by "hard work and attitude" I'd be a rich man. It's a lovely intention but is easily said and almost impossible to implement.  Steve is under the impression that he is going to outperfrom every other board out there (without matching their levels of investment also) - no chance

He said "we spent £50m last summer and that didn't buy success" as if clearly buying players is not the answer - he seemed to almost beleive (or more likely be unaware) that effectively we stood still(?)  player-wise during the summer

Like a previous poster commented, Mr Hollis seems very unclear of the role of a chairman and was talking of his role as if he is the CEO.  It doesnt look too much of a problem in that respect as I expect Fox to run rings round the bloke

Yet another appointment of someone out of their depth and above their pay grade

Nothing positive in this appointment in any way. A further nail in our coffin.

Edited January 15, 2016 by VillaCas

[mwj]

Just seen him on Midlands News - What a singularly uninspiring man. 

He doesn't need to be an expert but he clearly has no interest or understanding of football at all. He held a senior but not stellar position with KPMG and has been bought in to minimise Randy's losses, fullstop.

He looks out of his depth.  He thought the job offer was a mate winding him up!

He is already spouting the "success is about hard work and attitude, not money" line. Like Mr Hollis, I work in Continuous Improvement and if I had a pound for every company that said they were going to differentiate themselves by "hard work and attitude" I'd be a rich man. It's a lovely intention but is easily said and almost impossible to implement.  Steve is under the impression that he is going to outperfrom every other board out there (without matching their levels of investment also) - no chance

He said "we spent £50m last summer and that didn't buy success" as if clearly buying players is not the answer - he seemed to almost beleive (or more likely be unaware) that effectively we stood still(?)  player-wise during the summer

Like a previous poster commented, Mr Hollis seems very unclear of the role of a chairman and was talking of his role as if he is the CEO.  It doesnt look too much of a problem in that respect as I expect Fox to run rings round the bloke

Yet another appointment of someone out of their depth and above their pay grade

Nothing positive in this appointment in any way. A further nail in our coffin.

He does not work in continuous improvement or process mgmt or any of that. He sits on the board of a wealth management firm (Sorbus). His expertise (I assume from working at KPMG) will be tax and investment advisory for high net worth individuals

[VillaCas]

9 minutes ago, GENTLEMAN said:

Where did you see this? 

Midlands Today

[VillaCas]

2 minutes ago, mwj said:

He does not work in continuous improvement or process mgmt or any of that. He sits on the board of a wealth management firm (Sorbus). His expertise (I assume from working at KPMG) will be tax and investment advisory for high net worth individuals

He was at KPMG for about 20 years I think. KPMG is Tax, Audit and Advisory Services.  Advisory Services is primarily Business Improvement and he would have been highly involved with that as Senior Partner for the Midlands (a senior but not ultra senior position).  He might be the worlds greatest wealth manager or premier Continuous Improver but anyone who has just seen his interview on Midlands Today will know that the guy is absolutely and totally out of his depth

[blandy]

1 hour ago, Richard said:

In itself no bad thing? Surely we should be looking to run as efficiently as possible?

This is me being really pedantic, but no. Definitely no.

You might think I'm splitting hairs, but we need to be run as effectively as possible. A car running at its most efficient will not win a race. A car running at it's most effective might - the engine needs to be tunes to get the most Horsepower possible, not the best economy. We're in a competitive environment.

If you're looking at efficiency, then you're looking (to continue the analogy) at MPG and how the owner can spend as little as possible on fuel, basically.

If your looking at effectiveness, you're looking at how the car can get from A to B better than the other cars.

Of course we can all pick apart Hollis's words and each others words, but I'm with the folk who hear stuff about "continuous improvement", "Efficiency" and so on and just die a little bit more inside.

My experience of such "management concepts" is that they're an inadequate substitute for employing people who know what they're doing in the field they operate. If you employ people who know what they're doing, then these types of "initiatives" are complete waste's of time, and if you don't employ people who know what they're doing, then there's a better course of action than a buzzword.