Like every business across the country, and the majority around the world, Gattica Associates Ltd has had to adapt to the new reality brought about by Covid-19. However, while many others firms have been unable to do any business whatsoever, Gattica have still managed to achieve a great deal since lockdown was declared in March.
Gattica Associates project-manages multi-utility infrastructure services for some of the UK’s largest development and construction companies. Their clients include British Land, Kier, Lidl and McLaren.
On 23rd March, Gattica announced that all Project Managers, Assistant Project Managers, and the CAD team would be working from home. From that point onwards, they moved to assure their clients that they would remain fully contactable and would do everything possible to keep the show on the road. They followed this up with regular updates, as well as advice on home working and mental wellbeing.
It is fair to say that Gattica have been well rewarded for their efforts.
On 17th April, they were appointed by BP Castrol to oversee the redevelopment of their technology centre. Two weeks later, they announced they would be working with Meindhart on Harrow Council’s regeneration strategy to provide new homes, offices and leisure facilities.
On 29th May, Gattica received another boost when Southwark Council granted unconditional planning permission for the Canada Water Masterplan, which Gattica described as ‘good news for us and the wider project team.’
The first plots will provide:
- Three new buildings offering a total of 265 new homes, 35% affordable housing (with 70% of this at social rent and 30% as intermediate affordable)
- A new leisure centre with an eight lane, 25m swimming pool, gym and four court sports halls
- New public spaces, and pedestrian link from Lower Road to Canada Water Dock.
- New square in the Dock Offices courtyard
- Workspace for around 2,300 office, retail, and estate management jobs,
- Targeted training and employment programmes to support local people to access these opportunities.
This was followed in mid-June with an announcement of the expansion of their partnership with Lidl, whereby they will now be assisting on eight of the supermarket chain’s new stores.
And on 9th July, they announced that the Manydown Development Plans for 3,500 homes had been approved. This will ‘include a 250-acre country park with related facilities, indoor and outdoor sports centres and new infrastructure for drainage and utilities.’
It has been a turbulent few months for the British economy but it is nonetheless refreshening to hear about an organisation who has managed to achieve so much in this most difficult of times. When the Leaders Council spoke to Gattica’s director and founder, Mark Temple, back in February, it was clear how much the organisation meant to him and how much he valued his colleagues who have clearly repaid him with staggering levels of commitment in the months that followed.
Since founding Gattica in 2004, Temple has grown it into a UK-wide consultancy and has been responsible for driving forward all aspects of corporate responsibility, project governance and business development.
The firm has established close working relationships with a number of clients, including some of the leading developers, building and civil engineering businesses in the UK.
In his interview with The Leaders Council, Temple put his own spin on leadership, stating that: “A leader is somebody who has vision, somebody who has integrity, and somebody who be able to take what they see as a vision and turn it into reality.
“We are very much a consultancy that has to lead from the front, using innovation to deliver our projects, and the fact that we are involved very early on with projects means we have to be very innovative – we also have to be very much at the forefront of what our work is trying to deliver.”
Yet Temple did not away from his responsibility towards his employees. He notes that:
“Understanding their own wellbeing is a challenge. I think the stress and the strains of business in this climate is very much that people are pushed to their limits.
“We need to have a work life balance. More importantly though, we need to come into work with fresh minds – we need to work as team, and I need to ensure that everyone gets the support they need.”
This mentality certainly seems to have served Gattica well over the past four months.
