Northern Nevada Business Weekly: Tell us about your company.
Bob Alessandrelli: My company is not RLA "& Associates," being as it's just me. I have years of corporate experience and when I decided to go out on my own I didn't want any employees to supervise. It's worked very well for more than a decade. I do both project work (have done work for Blockbuster, National and NDOT this year) but have long-term clients like the Western Apprenticeship Coordinators Association (union building trades) and the Reno Film Festival. My work usually involves all forms of marketing or management consulting or a combination of both.
NNBW: What role do you play in the company?
Alessandrelli: Being a one-man band means I do it all: The strategy, the creative, the legwork and buying the ink cartridges.
NNBW: How did you get into this profession?
Alessandrelli: I did marketing types of student activities in high school and college, and after deciding that was the career I wanted to pursue, my college academics paved the way for me to enter the workforce in this field.
NNBW: What is something no one knows about your job?
Alessandrelli: It depends on where they know me from. Some people are surprised to know me from one project or client and see me somewhere else doing something else for another client. I keep them guessing that way! Seriously, I don't think that a lot of people know that I have my own consulting company.
NNBW: If you could have had any other profession what would it have been? Why wasn't it your first choice?
Alessandrelli: When I was in college I wanted to go into law, teaching or public relations. Public relations turned into marketing and that was the field for me. For more than a decade, I've been teaching as I'm an adjunct professor at UNR, so I guess I got to the teaching but no law.
NNBW: What do you like to do when you're not working?
Alessandrelli: Mary and I walk daily, enjoy movies, dining out and lots of travel. I'm usually planning a trip to somewhere, be it a long weekend away or overseas. I also like to read and maintain our home.
NNBW: Have any advice for someone who wants to enter your profession?
Alessandrelli: Learn the basics they haven't changed do good, honest, ethical work that helps further your client or organization's goals.
NNBW: If you could have one superpower, what would it be and why would you want it?
Alessandrelli: Time travel has always fascinated me.
NNBW: What person, living or dead, would you most like to have dinner with, and why?
Alessandrelli: I'm a history buff, especially American history, so there are number of people that would fill that bill. George Washington comes to mind.
NNBW: What's the best advice anyone ever gave you?
Alessandrelli: I'm not sure it was given to me but I think the line "Do what you like and the rest will come" is a pretty good way of thinking. I'd add do what you like well.
NNBW: What do you like most about your job? What do you like least?
Alessandrelli: The variety is what I like the most with different clients and different projects. Budgets, billing and finances are a necessity but not the most fun.
NNBW: What five words would most people use to describe you?
Alessandrelli: I'd hope they would be along the lines of very responsible, creative, knowledgeable and fun. That's four ... I'll leave the last one to anyone who knows me to fill that one in for themselves.
The basics:
Name: Bob Alessandrelli, principal, RLA Solutions (Reno marketing/management consulting company)
How long have you been in this job? 12 years
How long in the profession? I'm going to age myself here but almost 40 years
Education: Master's from UCLA, bachelor's from UC Davis
Best book you've read? Probably the one I'm reading at the time. There are too many "best ones" to mention but I did just re-read "Gone With the Wind" and found it to hold up well.
What's on your iPod? I enjoy Streisand and Sinatra but have soundtracks, rock 'n roll and classical music as well.
The best movie ever? Like the book question, there's not just one but I think "Two for the Road" (with Audrey Hepburn, one of my big favorites, and Albert Finney) was wonderfully done with intercut scenes thru the years. It was very cleverly executed.
Spouse, kids or pets? The lovely and talented Mary, who teaches elementary school, and I have two grown children, Jenny, a graphic designer in San Francisco, and Jeff who is getting his PhD in Lincoln, Neb. We share co-ownership (ha!) of our daughter's dog that lives with us some of the time and with our daughter other times.
