ILC ARTICLE

Industry Leader Interview – David Vella, GT Motive

31st March 2020

What’s the biggest challenge (Coronavirus related) facing your sector of the industry? 

It is really difficult to select one single challenge in a situation like the one ahead of us. Unprecedented economic impact which will likely surpass any crisis we’ve known so far generates a long list of challenges to our industry in terms of business continuity, supply chain and workforce. For us at GT Motive we tend to think that one of our biggest assets that we need to care of during this crisis is people: most of our workforce (business and IT related) are working from home at the moment, and it has been an incredible effort to keep all business critical services running successfully, but we’re just in the beginning of a long period which will generate many stressful situations, people forced to stay at home with their kids with concerns about their health and economic impacts. Therefore we are trying to make sure every single GT Motive employee working in the UK and anywhere over Europe feel taken care of in this challenging time.

How are you and your business dealing with this? 

In my particular case I have already spent a good deal of time working remotely, so I have developed some routines and tips to make working from home a healthy and productive experience. On a global level, GT Motive have been able to move into remote working most of our functions: software development, call centres, etc. and only some key people are still being required to physically move to the office.

What is the most important piece of leadership advice you can offer?

Take care of your people. They are your most valuable asset and they need to feel they have your support as a leader in this challenging situation.

What are your top tips for home-working productivity? 

There are many good tips out there on remote working: create a separate working space, define and respect a schedule, take a break and work out daily. Online meetings and virtual document sharing are common practice, however for people not used to remote working some advice or training might be a good practice to start.

What would be your overriding message to the industry right now?

Engage with your staff, customers and supply chain to look for different ways of working together to keep the business activities moving. Speak to suppliers around any flexibility with payment holidays or freezing invoices temporarily. Utilise government support for staff and businesses and remember we are all in this together and together we are stronger. Keep communicating regularly and above all, stay safe.