In mid-May, more than 100 CEO's representing many of the world's leading companies met at the Microsoft Headquarters in Redmond, Washington to discuss technological trends. As technology features in IFMA's definition of what FM is, FM-ers should be interested in what went on at the summit.

The keynote speech was delivered by Microsoft's CEO and Chief Software Architect, Bill Gates. Believing there is a tendency to overestimate how much things will change in the next 2 years and underestimate how much will change in the next 10 years; Mr. Gates thought there were a number of things that can be said with a reasonable degree of certainty.

He believed this includes: -

Most importantly, according to Mr. Gates, the software that ties all this together will become increasingly sophisticated in its ability to understand the way people work and increasingly streamlined and intuitive in the ways it is used.

The idea of "search" will give way to the notion of seamless access to knowledge as people begin to utilize tools that let them interact with computers in plain English, Chinese, Spanish, French or Russian to instantly link to the information or people they need.

In this new world of work, repetitive, uninteresting tasks will be automated and employees will focus much more of their time and creative energy on work that generates real value and growth.

Think about the potential implications for the FM and the workplace.!

Invented at Motorola, Inc. as a quality measure, Six Sigma has evolved into a business improvement system at many high-performing organizations, where it has been proven that defining and measuring performance enables fact-based decision making and fulfilment of customer needs. The Six Sigma approach defines measures and improves quality solely from the customer's point of view, based on critical requirements.

Prior to improvement administrative and service processes, such as those in CRE, range from an efficiency of 50 to 90 percent; representing a stunning number of failures and incalculable cost in dollars, time and dissatisfied customers. Best practices are an integral component of a high-performance operating model for CRE. Continuously refined processes lead to innovation, superior execution, breakthrough results and strategic wins.

Fully implemented, Six Sigma is likely to yield a 15 to 20 percent reduction in total occupancy costs, procurement costs and labour costs. No less tangible are the operational profits produced when existing CRE processes are freed from delays, waste and error to be performed as intended.

However because of the repercussive impact of its results, how you apply Six Sigma in your organization is just as critical as where it is applied. Once the correct view and intentions are in place, CRE senior leaders should themselves undertake the Six Sigma training as it requires sustained and invigorating leadership to face the resistance from your own personal biases and organizational attitudes. Resistance to Six Sigma is more likely to rest in covert rationales, mental barriers and patterned thinking.

Jones Lang LaSalle is committed to becoming the first real estate services company to fully adopt Six Sigma practices and training throughout its organization. Read their rationale for this commitment in FM Essentials.

This month your Chapter has received a letter from the Department of Building and Real Estate of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University inviting us to "provide placements for their students and work hand in hand to build the betterment of the future of Hong Kong and China by educating and training the young people". This is a laudable idea but one that the Chapter itself is unable to assist with, so we thought we would enlist the support of our members and friends on behalf of the University. The concept of work-integrated education is best set out by the University President, Professor Poon Chung-kwong, GBS, PhD, DSc, JP, at the Second Session of the Eleventh Congregation held on the 3rd Deember 2005, where he said:

"On the subject of teaching, we will adhere to our policy of two integrations, which consist in firstly, "integrating across disciplines", and, secondly, "integrating theory and practice". In terms of the 'theory and practice' integration, we will do our best to arrange placement opportunities for our students to gain invaluable work experience in various industries and businesses, which is in line with our "work integrated education" philosophy. Although such a philosophy is nothing new, as society progresses, the value of practical experience has come to receive increasing focus from educationalists. What is important is to "walk the talk" and to "apply what you have learnt". Work integrated education today centres on allowing students to experience first-hand what they have learnt at school, so that they can achieve true mastery of the skills and knowledge already learnt. It is also intended that they will take the initiative to find practical solutions to the problems they encounter in the process, and hence their creativity can be improved. This education philosophy has been practised in the West for years with excellent results. I have full confidence in putting this philosophy into practice here on our campus so that we can groom more highly creative graduates equally well versed in theory and practice."

The department identifies 4 areas where providing work placements for students during the summer break can help your organisation: -

You can obtain more details from Janice lau Student Placement Officer on (852) 2766 5885.