Towards Beauty and Efficiency: A Career by Design - Andrew Kao, Season 2: Careers

Once captivated by design's allure, how do those shaping our built environment tap into the compounding power of sharing knowledge, honing their skills, and seamlessly blending beauty with efficiency? Andrew Kao is a licensed architect, a former Product Manager at WeWork, and a former Vice President at both CBRE/Hana and MillerKnoll. He discusses the challenges and frustrations he faced in the architecture industry, navigating his career through a global financial crisis and pandemic, as well as the opportunities he found seeking more from the profession and sharing knowledge along the way. The conversation touches on what it's like starting a company within a larger company, the productization of spatial services, why beauty and efficiency are not mutually exclusive, and Andrew’s hopes for the profession. Find Andrew on LinkedIn. 00:00 Introduction and Background 00:56 Andrew's Journey to Architecture 06:07 Challenges in the Architecture Industry 12:14 Move to WeWork 16:29 Working on Standards at WeWork 27:51 Documenting and Sharing Knowledge 28:51 Sharing Knowledge and Trading Information 29:17 Transition from WeWork to CBRE HANA 30:14 Starting a Company Inside a Big Company 31:11 Starting Over and Being Lean 32:07 Designing to De-risk Projects 33:00 Efficiency and Documentation 34:24 Transition to Herman Miller 36:15 Managing Change and Mergers 41:22 Efficiency vs. Beauty in Design 45:40 Changes and Hopes for the Profession