If he weren’t a leading developer of contemporary apartments, Mark Todd says he would like to be an artist. He reckons creativity and art are central to his work at Ockham Residential.

Todd, who co-founded Ockham in 2009, has carved out a niche in the property world with the stylish, even landmark, apartment buildings prominent around inner Auckland and beyond. Todd is currently head of acquisition and conception.

Ockham Residential has architecture, project management, construction and sales under one roof, 21 completed projects, one currently under development and several at the building-consent stage.

It has a single-minded vision: “To make beautiful buildings that people love to live in, homes that honour this dynamic Pacific city, stand the test of time, inspire others – and bring an awesome Auckland lifestyle to as many people and communities as we can.”

And, yes, its name is a play on the concept of Occam’s Razor – the idea that the simplest path or answer is often the correct one. Ockham Residential says the name is intended to convey a sense of clarity and simplicity in the company's design philosophy and business practices.

Role model

The past five years have been challenging for the property development industry, with higher interest rates and building costs, and Todd has guided his business.

He is shortlisted in the private company category of the inaugural BusinessDesk CEO Index.

Our panel of independent judges said of him: “Mark Todd is a role model for how being grounded in values and hard work can deliver outsized success. He’s done some terrific work and scaled a company. There’s a bigger purpose around what he is up to.”

BusinessDesk asked Todd for his experience in dealing with the five criteria in the CEO Index: vision, impact, innovation, resilience and influence.

Vision: Todd says the whole reason for Ockham, when he and Benjamin Preston founded the company, was to make a difference. They wrote down three core principles.

“The first was that we wanted our buildings to be distinctly residential, because in the early 2000s, there were a lot of underwhelming apartment buildings.

“The second one was that we wanted our architecture to be inclusive – we wanted our buildings to be well liked by both their residents and the communities in which they sit. 

“The third design principle, an ethical choice, is that when we’re constructing apartment buildings, we restrict our materials to ones that age gracefully and minimise ongoing maintenance costs.” Todd likes to use brick and pre-cast concrete.

Having these three core principles written down has meant that communicating the founders' vision for Ockham to staff and stakeholders has been relatively straightforward.

“It’s been very helpful for when you get lost or you’ve got choices to make; you just go back to those principles,” Todd says.

Impact: Todd measures his impact by asking whether Ockham is effecting change in the property industry. “Are we being copied? Can you see echoes of our approach to property development in other projects?

“Our core ethos was to build better apartment buildings, set the standard in the industry and hopefully be copied, which I think we’ve done.”

Innovation: When asked to describe innovation leadership, the Ockham co-founder says he believes people have to see it.

“You lead by showing your staff, showing other industry players and showing other organisations how to design thoughtful projects people will love.”

Todd says he is always asking: “Why not? Why can’t you do it this way?”

Most things haven’t been done before because people aren’t brave enough to try something new, he says. “Imagination is leadership.”

Resilience: Establishing Ockham's own construction company eight years ago was challenging.

“It was a really rough ride and our first version of it didn’t go very well,” Todd says.

He reframed it as a learning experience and got on with fixing it.

“I reorganised the company and rebuilt it from scratch and it was probably a good thing I did, because it grew quickly after that. We managed to build $440 million of property at the height of the market, during the pandemic and price escalation, so it was worth the effort.”

Influence: For Todd, encouraging people in his company to be more creative is his ultimate role.

He strives to drive creativity across design and delivery structures and has a number of in-house functions in the business.

“Whether it’s in sales, which we have done by always giving out more information rather than less, and construction, by starting our own construction arm to do things differently, or doing architecture in-house, this has enabled us to be really nimble and rework things to make them better, without worrying about the cost of change,” Todd says.

A good book: The Secret History by Donna Tartt. “It’s a great book," Todd says. "It’s a good character study of human nature, looking at how some people who are quite educated and advanced have a high opinion of themselves and think they’ve got some sort of moral right to take certain actions and dress it up as being good. But really, it’s just trying to make things convenient.”

Sliding doors: If he weren’t the head of a business, Todd would be an artist like Dalí or Klimt.

“In recent years, I have come to place a very high value on art – creativity in the broadest sense. It’s very obvious that creativity is crucial in art, but it’s equally important in raising your family, in business, or working out how to live a ‘good life’.”

● Mark Todd is a finalist in the private company category of the inaugural BusinessDesk CEO Index. The category winner and overall winner will be announced on Nov 18.

● Read more of the BusinessDesk CEO Index here.