Flexibility, staff retention helping GLA prosper  
 
PBN PHOTO/MATTHEW HEALEY
FAMILY FRIENDLY: Chairman Wil Gates, left, and company President Don Leighton, foreground right, are proud of GLA’s ability to retain workers, often for many years. Among the company’s projects was designing the grounds of Lincoln’s Twin River, below.


By John Larrabee
Contributing Writer

Ask the partners at Gates, Leighton & Associates Inc. (GLA), to explain how their company has prospered through the current economic slowdown, and they will point to lessons from an earlier slump.

“One thing we learned back in 1991 is that you don’t put all your energies into one aspect of the business,” said Don Leighton, president of the landscape architectural company. “At the time we were doing a lot of work for municipalities, so much that we became overly selective about residential work. Then the funding dried up and municipalities cut back. We learned very quickly that you have to keep looking in multiple directions. You have to be constantly flexible.”

“Today we don’t have a lot of debt, and we don’t own a building,” added Wil Gates, the company chairman. “We’re very nimble. We’re able to move from market to market, and that’s kept us going through the current situation.”

The proof of that wisdom is in the numbers. GLA, based in East Providence, can boast revenue growth for the past three years – 19 percent in 2006, 25 percent in 2007 and 25 percent in 2008. Total revenue for 2008 thus far is $2.5 million. That kind of success helped GLA secure the award for Business Excellence for Companies with Fewer Than 100 Employees in Providence Business News’ 2008 Business Excellence Awards competition.

The company, founded in 1985, has grown so much, it says, that it is now the largest landscape-design firm in Rhode Island. What’s more, GLA is expanding into new locations. There is an office in Boothbay, Maine, to handle work in northern New England, and another in Cairo, Egypt, for projects in the Middle East.

“We’re a service industry,” Leighton said. “We’re not purchasing fuels or materials, so our operating costs are low. We can keep them under control. [And] we can go anywhere we find business.”

“When you hear people discussing the future of Rhode Island and New England, everyone is talking about the knowledge economy,” Gates added. “We’re that kind of company.”

Both men are quick to give credit to their staff, which now numbers 24. “You have to remember that you don’t know everything,” Leighton said. “You have to surround yourself with good people, talented people. We’ve been blessed to have people like that in our company.”

In part to help find employees, the company has an internship program that through the years has involved students from the Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Rhode Island, Cornell University and other schools. Four current employees are former interns.

The company also has taken steps to enhance communication and promote advancement among staff. Employees work in small teams – called pods – in which newcomers can learn from veterans. For the past several years GLA has scheduled several days of staff meetings in the slow period between Christmas and New Year during which all employees are encouraged to brainstorm. And no one works in a cubicle; the office is wide open, so that new people can overhear conversations by the principals and learn by immersion.

“We’re very proud of retaining good people,” Leighton said. “We have one employee who’s been with us 23 years.”

“And we’re very family oriented,” Gates added. “Our company is now at the right size that we can have summer gatherings at Don’s place, with children and partners invited. Over the years we’ve witnessed the births of 20 children among people who work here.”

The two partners are also known for their community involvement. Through the years Gates has served on the East Providence City Council and the Providence Capital Center Commission, and worked with Save The Bay, Clean Rhode Island and other environmental groups. Leighton has served on the Barrington Conservation Commission and the town’s county roads improvement committee. The company has volunteered its services for monuments and memorials in both Rhode Island and Egypt.

The partners point to the focus on communication as a big reason for the company’s success. While working on municipal projects, for example, they schedule community meetings during which locals are encouraged to air their views.

“We tend to think we know it all, but it’s the clients who really know what they’d like to have,” Gates says. “People in a community are very aware of their surroundings and what they want for community character. They might not be able to communicate that very easily, but we bring that out in our meetings. A good analogy is the solid rock, with a sculpture trapped inside. You just have to chip away to bring it out.” •
 



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