Working at Linkcity: Q&A with Simon Rosenberg

One of the best things about Linkcity is our people. To celebrate this, we have launched a series of Q&As to showcase our diverse, talented team and the variety of roles available here. Last time we spoke to Aleks Dashi. This time, we hear from Simon Rosenberg, Operations Director at Linkcity UK.

Tell us a bit about you and your role?
After originally training and qualifying as a building surveyor, I worked a stint as a package manager for a construction management firm. I then went into project management which is what I have done ever since. I’ve worked for both client organisations and consultancies. Now at Linkcity, I lead a team of fantastic operations managers. Our job is to represent Linkcity as the developer on our projects and see that we meet the commitments we have made to our investor clients. A key part of this is working hard to make sure we have positive working relationships with all members of the project team.

What do you do in your day to day?
My primary role is to make sure that my team have everything they need to do their job and in turn, to see that we are providing our stakeholders with everything they need to make the project a success.
Because I work across a number of projects, I’m able to bring a different perspective to the day to day tasks that the team are doing. One of my key roles is helping them through difficult problems and suggesting alternative ways of dealing with them. Another benefit of working across several projects is the ability to offer lessons learnt on one site in order to find a solution on another site.

What’s the biggest challenge in your role?
It’s when things don’t go according to plan that the challenges occur. We then have to work out the best way to solve the problem and then importantly communicate it to all stakeholders.
As a team, we are currently doing a lot of work on lessons learnt from completed projects and also soft landings for the end-users. We want to learn from the past to make things better going forwards.

What has been the proudest moment of your career at Linkcity?
In June 2020 we managed to complete all the legal agreements required for Phase 3 of our scheme at Hallsville Quarter so that work could start on site. This was the largest scheme Linkcity has ever done, was the culmination of several years’ work which all had to be concluded during lockdown. It proved how adaptable we have been as a business, and an industry, that by the flick of a switch we were able to do it working virtually.

What is a common misconception about your role?
That being a developer is easy! That all we do is tell everyone else what to do. That all you need to do is attend a few meetings and everyone else does the work.
…Sure, there is a big project team doing a lot of work, but our job is to make sure that the product delivered is what the investors have asked us to deliver. We play a key part in maintaining productive working relationships between everyone involved, as well as the technical administration of the investor contracts, payments, reporting etc.

What have you learnt over the last 18 months?
The last 18 months has reinforced what I already knew. Expect the unexpected. What we do know for certain is that a project will almost never be delivered exactly as anticipated and that as a project team we need to be adaptable.

What do you like most about working at Linkcity?
The PEOPLE. We have a brilliant product but it’s the PEOPLE that make it happen. Everyone at Linkcity has a positive attitude and with that, anything is possible no matter the obstacle.

Where do you see Linkcity this time next year?
We have ambitious plans to increase our turnover and to expand into new markets/asset classes, so watch this space. Working with Bouygues UK, we will be making much greater use of Modern Methods of Construction and I am really looking forward to seeing the benefits of that.