Facility management is not under-represented by the professional associations in Hong Kong. But one, the local chapter of the International Facility Management Association, is taking steps to boost the profession's long-term fortunes by working more closely with its competitor organizations

The Hong Kong chapter of the International Facility Management Association (IFMA) has an enviable record as far as professional facility management associations in Asia are concerned.

Established by a group of professionals back in 1992, it has seen its membership increase steadily over the past 13 years as facility management (FM) has taken big strides towards professional status within the corporate environment in the region. Indeed, the Hong Kong chapter was IFMA's first outside North America and is now the organization's largest chapter in Asia .

Philip Lo, chief executive officer of Hong Kong-based FM consultancy Lexos, was the first Hong Kong chapter president. An architect by profession, educated and trained in Canada , he became fascinated through working with clients in workplace design, lighting, furniture and ergonomics. "Only then did I realize that there was something called facilities management, which encompassed all of those things," says Lo.

But from a personal perspective, he was more interested in the technology side of computers and how to use them for better FM. So he started an FM business in Canada in 1988. From Hong Kong originally, he recognized the potential for FM in the territory so moved back in 1992 to start up a similar type of FM business.

"At that time I already knew of IFMA - in North America I had been to one of their conferences. I communicated with them and they were interested in the possibility of setting up chapters overseas. At that time there were no IFMA chapters elsewhere in the world," he says.

In late 1992, Lo met with IFMA CEO Dennis Longworth and its communications head Donald Young in Hong Kong . He invited close to 20 people - academics, interior designers, people from government and the Provisional Airport Authority - to gather together to meet the IFMA representatives. After their presentation about IFMA, they invited people present to join as members. Some 10 people raised their hands and that was enough to form a quorum.

"So we formed the Hong Kong chapter and I'm proud to say that it was the first chapter of IFMA outside of North America ," says Lo.

Regular monthly lunches were followed by the organization's first conference in 1993 at which guest speakers were flown in from the UK and US. The Hong Kong chapter's membership continued to grow, albeit slowly, with new members coming mainly from universities, affiliated professions and institutions.

"The real recognition for FM in Hong Kong came after 1997 and it was due to the economic downturn," says Lo. "Only then did people appreciate or think about the longer term aspects of buildings. How could they maintain a building properly? And in a more competitive market, how could they give their clients better value? Taking the FM approach could give them more of a competitive edge compared to the traditional property management approach."

Membership growth slowed during the Asian economic crisis but then bounced back in the early years of the new millennium. SARS was a slight hiccup but resulted in the recent renewed interest in the health, cleanliness and levels of service in commercial and residential buildings.

Lo says that growth within the organization now is due to its leadership and that he also senses greater interest in FM since the economy began picking up this year. "There has been a more assertive approach not just to increasing the membership but also to getting the IFMA name out there with relevant media like Building Services Professional ," he says.

Brian Crockford, the 2005-6 president of the Hong Kong chapter and vice president and regional facilities manager, workplace services, REBS Asia Pacific for JPMorgan Chase Bank, says that the active professional base not just within Hong Kong IFMA but also in other related professional institutions shows that there is interest and enthusiasm for FM, a desire to know more and be part of a professional FM organization. He says that in the past couple of years there has been a recognition on IFMA's part that for FM as a discipline to grow further, the various locally based organizations need to work together.

Opportunities for IFMA's membership to increase are about working together with the other institutions and unifying the FM voice. It doesn't make sense to have three organisations - including the Hong Kong Institute of Facility Management and the FM faculty of the Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors competing. Each organization holds events, conferences, seminars. Budgets - and time - are limited so facility managers will go perhaps to one event each month. To move forward, perhaps Crockford is right and there must be closer relationships between the organizations.

Perhaps this spirit of cooperation and collaboration is a trend. In the US , for example, a proposal to consolidate the programs and activities of three independent, nonprofit indoor air quality organizations received unanimous support at a recent joint conference. The three organizations concerned each maintain their unique identities and continue to exist as separate non-profit corporations. But their programs and activities will be streamlined to avoid duplication of effort and to eliminate perceived conflict of interest in their activities.

If IFMA in Hong Kong is to increase its membership in a similar way to include a bigger, more qualified group of professionals, working together is one way of achieving this. On its own, of course, it is the only professional FM organization in Hong Kong to provide access to the CFM designation. Some 30 of its current membership is CFM certified. But there has to be more than this simple distinction if IFMA locally is to spearhead improving the status of the profession and help make the CFM a globally recognized designation.

In fact, the CFM certification in Hong Kong is now done via equivalency in contrast to the US where it is awarded through an exam-based system. In Hong Kong , applicants have to complete a large and onerous set of documents which are then reviewed by three local assessors - of which former chapter president Philip Lo is one - to determine whether an applicant has the equivalency to qualify for the CFM.

In terms of facilitating the growth of FM in Hong Kong , the local IFMA chapter is working through a series of initiatives that came out of a strategic planning and operational planning session earlier in 2005. Its vision - to serve as the resource and representative for facility management in Hong Kong and the region - is not dissimilar to those of other FM organizations - but in terms of what it is doing to fulfil that vision, its president says it is all about working more closely with previously competitive organizations, to co-organize, for example, an annual conference.

"Broadening the appeal is the hard thing now, especially in term of the events, lectures and seminars we hold," says Crockford. "They will always appeal to a certain section of our membership. Breakfast seminars, for example, are attended by about 20 people - a small proportion of the FM community - but they are very targeted. We could run events every week, and this is where the synergies will come with closer collaboration between the institutions because we'll have more resources to help us organize things."

The strategic plan that IFMA Hong Kong now has in place also identified the need to get FM professionals into key positions within the corporate environment. To try and push this desire further, the chapter is providing more diverse events to try and provoke discussion - and greater understanding - of the role that such professionals can play. So instead of providing a more traditional discussion on air conditioning issues, seminars are tackling what might be regarded as 'left of field' topics: a keynote speaker at the 2005 annual conference in Hong Kong , for example, addressed the seven failings of really useless leaders.

"These affect facility managers but have never been presented to them before," says Crockford. "My idea for doing this stems from working within a corporate organization where there's a bigger training budget and an emphasis on training of management and people skills.

"Facility managers are often not given the right skills to do the job. Perhaps they lack people management skills and business leadership skills and yet they are in these positions. We want to address this gap."

Hong Kong , of course, will always provide a challenge because facility management here has evolved out of property management. China too is following the same path. The fact is, however, property management is a significant part of what makes Hong Kong tick. The workplace side of FM, while important, remains very much a concept of North American companies. "There are lots of people in Hong Kong managing workplaces but they are mostly working for multinational companies, which is a small segment of the Hong Kong economy," comments Lo.

"When I first came to Hong Kong and tried to promote the idea of FM, most people thought of it as pipes and sewers - it's a matter of interpretation. If we are to really see a wider growth in the industry, many of the property management people have to appreciate the value that FM can bring to them to raise their level of services and improve their products," he says.

And yet, if FM in this part of the world gains greater acceptance through the property management backdoor, then strong growth in terms of numbers and professionalism is sure to follow.

"I'd like to think that in 10 years time there will be a very healthy FM market, a good understanding of the industry, the CFM designation will be recognised and we'll see a lot of local CFMs," says Crockford. "I also think that there's a great opportunity for Hong Kong 's FM profession, for our members, to sell their skills to the mainland. If IFMA can work with local resources it can sell that international designation and it would be picked up on in China .

Whether there will be one FM organization for Hong Kong and China or more, if the profession is to develop in the right way we need a single voice. I see us, the Hong Kong China FM profession, as part of a global FM community. Collaboration is the way forward."