How do they do it? Roger Tustain

After leaving school in the 1980s, Roger Tustain went to work for the engineering department at Birmingham City Council. He later graduated in planning from Oxford Polytechnic then worked for Basingstoke Council for 10 years before joining multidisciplinary practice Broadway Malayan and staying there for another 10 years. Tustain set up Nexus Planning, which is part-owned Broadway Malyan, two years ago.

Q. What are your objectives in your current role and how are you measured against them?

As managing director I'm accountable to the shareholders, which include myself, directors and Broadway Malayan. My job is to grow the company according the business plan, recruit the right staff and target the right clients.

Q. What key lessons have you learned during your career that help you to fulfil those objectives?

A. Planning is very cyclical. What happened 20 years ago in the practice and politics of planning has come around again and you can learn from that.

You are only as good as the team you employ. Keeping staff satisfied, stimulated and excited is absolutely critical and one of my core objectives.

Work closely with communities at the earliest stages. This can be crucial to success: we don't take an adversarial approach to planning, we try to work in partnership with local people.