Name: Dave Nott ICIOB
Employer: Wates Construction
Project: National Audit Office, Buckingham Palace Rd, London
Contract: NEC
It could hardly have been worse. The client had lost confidence in the project leadership, relationships had broken down, and site morale had plummeted. The client had lost all hope of completing on budget and in time to recant its staff from temporary facilities it had to vacate on a set date.
Parachuted in to retrieve this catastrophic scenario, Dave Nott worked miracles. His breadth of knowledge and determination to identify solutions rather than raise problems rapidly won over the client. It heralded a sea-change in the approach of the team. Confident, able and committed, he earned the respect of the team and his shake-up of working practices won their buy-in and reinvigorated their enthusiasm.
Dave made demonstrable performance, in particular delivering on commitments, the bedrock of his client relationship. He selected a dozen key activities each month from the contract programme’s 3,794 listed activities and managed by milestones that stretched but did not overwhelm the team.
He engaged the supply chain by setting up a working breakfast each month with the directors/owners of all subcontractors. None wanted to be seen to fail in front of their peers, and all delivered on the progress demanded by Dave.
And when he got back on programme but realised the client was still concerned about achieving its recant in time, he took over the furniture delivery and installation, integrating it with the work of the finishing trades. His successful initiative saved the client six weeks on its overall delivery programme and left everybody with their reputation intact.
Value: £47.1m