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President's View
ANOTHER WORLD CLASS CONFERENCE SUCCESS
Those of you who attended our annual conference at the end of October will hopefully agree with me when I say that it was perhaps one of the most successful conferences we have run. The day long event, attended by nearly 130 people, saw 6 high quality speakers deliver very informative and stimulating talks on a variety of topics from energy management, differentiating your product through customer service the through to sustainability and alternative workplace concepts.
John Vivadelli during his talk on Measuring Actual Space utilisation
On the day, we received great feedback about the convenience of the venue and the fantastic opportunities that were presented to delegates for networking. We had listened to feedback from the 2005 conference and we will look to make any further improvements for our 2007 conference once we analyze your feedback forms.
The conference organization committee of Bella Chan , Philip Fung, Shirley Lam and Ken Lee worked extremely hard to make the day run as smoothly as it did. A lot of effort goes on behind the scenes to create the agenda for the day, arrange the venue and catering, and put together the publicity and presentation material. This year we ensured that the speaker's presentation material would be readily available to all delegates by uploading it on to the conference 'give-away', a smart Integrate 2006 USB memory stick.
I would also like to acknowledge the support and contribution of the Hong Kong Institute of Facility Management, who helped co-organize the event.
Please remember that we are only able to offer such excellent value for money conferences with the help of our sponsors, whose details are provided on all conference material. In particular I would like to thank our Platinum sponsor, Hong Kong Land , who has supported the Chapter for many years.
For me, the quality of the conference served to re-enforce why we were displaying one of our 2 Awards of Excellence - in Professional Development.
And, with the Chapter's 15 th anniversary on the horizon, we are already at an advanced stage of planning for Integrate 2007. Opportunities still exist for sponsors and speakers, so if you are interested in being part of what will undoubtedly a landmark conference, check out our website for further details.
Our first class professional events continue at full steam. This month we will be welcoming back to Hong Kong Kit Tuveson from the US . Kit was one of the speakers from the Transform conference in 2005. Details of Kit's talk are presented within this newsletter. The evening talk will be hosted at the Microsoft office in Pacific Place 3, so if you arrive early for the cocktails you may also get chance to test your skills on an X-Box 360!
Finally, a smile came to my face when I read a recent article in the local newspaper about the facility problems being experienced at the new airport in Bangkok . It reminded me of a talk I gave a short while ago about the added value facility managers can provide at the design and construction stage. It would appear that there are not enough toilets and seats at gates for passengers at the newly opened Bangkok airport. I couldn't help but wonder if facility managers had been involved in the D&C process. If they were, then there is a clear need for airport facility managers around the world to share some benchmarking data!
Well after all the waiting the big show is finally over and I can report to you all on what happened.
This was my first experience of a large convention and the operative word here is LARGE. Over 6,000 people attended, roughly a third of the entire membership of IFMA! Between them, and over a period of two days, they populated 7 education session time slots with a minimum of 8 and a maximum of 12 subject choices per time slot. Each educational session was categorized under one of 8 educational tracks - Benchmarking and Best Practices; Career Planning and Professional Development; Industries and Interests; Maintaining the Built Environment; Standards and Regulations; Sustainability; Trends and Innovation; and Workforce issues.
Added to the education sessions were a variety of other activities, including significant time for networking between sessions. Activities started two days prior to the education sessions on the Saturday with golf, House of Delegates meeting and IFMA Foundation events. Sunday saw the IFMA Council's business meetings and the first time attendee's orientation event in the morning. Sunday lunch was the official welcome address and the opening keynote speech by Daniel Pink. This was followed by the traditional walk to the Expo floor and the formal opening of the Expo.
IFMA's World Workplace 2006 Welcome Reception,
held
in the grounds of the
convention centre.
Sunday early evening saw Chapter and Council receptions followed by the IFMA main welcome reception. If this wasn't enough there were plenty of additional opportunities to party well in to the night! Similar activities were organized for Monday night after the educational sessions.
Tuesday started with the closing keynote speech by Marcus Buckingham. Both opening and closing keynote speeches were excellent and thought provoking. I cover both in more detail later in this article.
Personally I made 5 of the education sessions, skipping the last two to attend a FM International meeting and to prepare for the gala dinner. The quality of the presentations that I attended was variable, ranging from excellent and informative to short and poorly presented but still giving a degree of information.
I also joined an IFMA education committee meeting and will be getting involved with this group, allowing me to maintain contact with some of the people I met at the convention.
Tony Garland and Jon Seller at the gala dinner with
the
two awards given
the
Hong Kong Chapter
The gala dinner was relatively predictable, but well attended and an enjoyable event. It was a personal honour to receive the award for Newsletter Publishing on behalf of the Chapter and both Jon Seller, who also received the award for Professional Development, and I dressed up for the occasion, as you can see from the picture above.
For light relief during the dinner a guest star, whose name I missed along the way, gave a performance as a struggling Russian (I think) musician with an intriguing line in home-made musical instruments and a penchant for climbing into blown up balloons!
I came away from the convention with considerable respect for the staff of IFMA, who manages this event each year. The whole event was impeccably and professionally managed from start to finish. I was also significantly impressed with the commitment to FM shown by all IFMA headquarters staff, both full time employees and volunteers.
Getting back to the keynote speeches, as these were one of the highlights of the conference, Daniel Pink spoke on the changes we are all going to face in the future. The forces driving these changes he identified as - Abundance, Asia and Automation (he had clearly worked hard to get the alliteration).
His argument resolved around the ideas that, like so many business products theses days, even the work that we do as professionals is becoming a commodity, capable of being automated or offshore. He used the analogy of left brain and right brain thinking to identify the areas of working which can follow these routes and those that, as yet, cannot. Basically, left brain thinking, which is logical, can be replicated and either sent offshore or automated in computers. Therefore we all need to cultivate ability for right brain, creative thinking in order to retain our value to our employers.
He identified aptitudes that we all need to develop in order to retain our value: -
Not just function but also Design
Not just argument but also Story
Not just focus but also Symphony
Not just logic but also Empathy
Not just seriousness but also Play
Not just accumulation but also Meaning
We are all aware of the huge change that has occurred within our own lifetime and we can only imagine the changes that are still to come. Daniel Pink tries to analyze these changes and how we can make sense of them. His book "A Whole New Mind" is well worth a read.
Marcus Buckingham on the other hand, in his closing keynote speech concentrated on more down to earth matters - how we, as managers, motivate people to become great at what they do? His research has identified that there is a wide range in the performance of different companies and he contends that what makes a top performing company is great managers, who can motivate their people into giving their best performance - the job of a good manager is to act as a catalyst to turn one person's talent into performance.
He talked about the professional development reviews that spend little time on praising people for their successes and most of the review on looking at their weaknesses. The theory being that fixing the weaknesses will make a better person for the company. He identified three myths and then proceeded to debunk each.
Myth
Reality
As you grow your personality changes
As you grow you become more of who you are
You will grow the most in your areas of weakness
You will grow the most in your areas of strengths
A good team member does what it takes to help the team
You will offer up your best to the team when you play to your strengths
He offered biological evidence, based on recent research using brain imagery, which proves that brain synapses grow best where the infrastructure already exists. People think best in the areas they enjoy, this is their strength. Don't divert them in to areas of little enjoyment where they will not give good performance. Stop trying to make homogenous, "well-rounded" team members. Instead find out what they enjoy doing and give them more of it!
Marcus identified one of the most over used clichés of corporate value statements "Our people are our greatest asset" and suggested this should instead read "Our people's strengths are out greatest asset".
His talk was not without its ironic side. In the 6 years he has been preaching his "gospel" of allowing people to work to their strengths, research questionnaires have identified that the number of manager who think that their number one focus should be on fixing people's weaknesses has been increasing!
Again this was a great and thought provoking speech. Marcus Buckingham is a prolific writer in various arenas and a search on Amazon.com will identify a number of his works worth reading.
So at the end of this event do I think it was worth the effort and will I go next year? Overwhelming - yes it was worth the effort and I am eternally grateful for the opportunity afforded by the Chapter. It is a huge expense for someone to go to without assistance with funding but I will try to get there next year if at all possible. FMers really are a loyal bunch - one person at the convention was identified as attending for the 21 st consecutive year!
Some opportunities are too good to miss and when I heard that Sheila Sheridan was going to spend an hour or so talking to Hong KongLand FM staff I asked Peter Young if I could join the gathering.
Sheila has recently retired from her position as Director of Facilities and Services at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University . She is also the past (but one) Chair of IFMA. She was at that time in Hong Kong as a visiting lecturer to the Hong Kong PolyU, lecturing on sustainability. I have met her on a couple of occasions through IFMA and was interested to hear more of what she would have to say about FM.
Her talk did not disappoint as she covered much ground on her life in FM and what she had learnt during many years in the business. She was at the leading edge of FM as it has developed and been particularly active in sustainability. So much so that this year IFMA, for the first time and breaking with normal practice, named an award after her - The Sheila Sheridan Award for Sustainability.
The discussion ranged over many areas but some gems of wisdom are given below:
Always try to solve the problem at the lowest level and only escalate when necessary - but always escalate in time to allow management to resolve the issue before it gets out of hand
Use your vendors for value added services within their normal duties i.e. cleaners operating during the day act as additional security and can do other services such as delivering a newsletter to every staff member's desk. Bring them into the "family" so that your customers don't realize they are outsourced staff.
Do "thank you" events for your Vendors, they are not your enemy.
Give your tenants workshops on how to use the building to their best advantage.
Communicate what you are doing at every opportunity. Also show them what you mean by mock-ups.
On IEQ - good indoor air quality is a right for occupants, not an afterthought. Reduction in health costs can be a cost saving on the bottom line for you and your tenants.
On sustainability - think about doing it anyway, even if you don't go for certification. May be certify one building and use the experience on all your other buildings.
One that I particularly liked was - don't say "No" to your customer. Turn it round, give them all the information and let them make the decision. If you have educated them correctly they will make the correct decision, for them and for you - and be much happier than if you tell them that their idea won't work.
If, like me, you are on IFMA's Listserver you will have recently received an e-mail about european FM insight . This is a new publication from the European Facility Management Network (EuroFM) that takes good FM content from 20 publications in 13 countries and re-publishes it in a single document.
Having reviewed the content this weekend I found much of interest to read and can commend it to you. In particular I found the following articles thought provoking or topical: -
Green action or greenwash - a forum discussion on what it means to be green
2006 FM Trend Monitor - the results of a survey of FM trends with around 100 participants (not clear if this is related to Europe or only Germany , but the information is still of interest)
A need to measure quality - an article on measuring the quality of cleaning services which refers to a Nordic Insta 800 standard.
Thank you for not smoking - an article from IFMA's FM Journal on the health and safety issues related to smoking and how legislation is affecting the business of FMs. Very topical in view of the forthcoming legislation on smoking in Hong Kong.
We continue our series of interviews with people within the FM industry by interviewing Jane Martin , Client Development Director for Jones Lang LaSalle, based in Hong Kong
The people covered by this section of the newsletter will vary, from senior and well-known members of the industry to graduates just starting in the industry. The intention is to provide information on a cross-section of the industry covering how they first became involved in the industry, what they do, how they relax etc. The interviews are conducted and reported by Santa Raymond for the Hong Kong Chapter of IFMA.
Q.
What do you consider describes the job you do?
A.
My role is multifaceted. Currently I have general oversight of the Facilities Management team in the PRD, carry out Business Development across FM and other Real Estate disciplines in Asia , and act as client manager for a number of our key multi national accounts. As of December, I'm moving to the transactions side of our business for Corporates. There's a lot of synergy between the FM and transactions, not least as the end users and FM team have to live with the space that the transactions guys find. It's nothing if not dynamic!
On the FM side, the Head of Integrated Facilities Management in Hong Kong, Natina Wong, and I look after a number of key local and Hong Kong based regional accounts - mainly multi-nationals. My involvement includes strategic planning for FM activities with clients, running quarterly reviews to ensure the work we do is up to scratch and looking for ways to improve things - it's not a question of letting things just tick along. We check what the FM impact is, how it's supporting the business and end-user satisfaction. Given the nature of FM, people tend to get bogged down with the operations, and we help the team be more strategic.
FM is becoming big business in Asia . Part of my role is dealing with internal financial management. This includes contract structures, management reviews, staff salaries and the whole business of risk in the industry. It's a bit of a cliché, but we do aim for true partnership situations with our major clients. For example with Sun, Bank of America and Cathay Pacific, we put in people, processes and technology support. We try to avoid a 'body-shopping' approach - where companies simply ask us to supply a headcount here and there, or fill a vacant position. After all, we are real estate advisors, not a recruitment agency.
Our delivery concern is end-user satisfaction. This is achieved in a variety of ways from reducing - or more often containing - costs, keeping critical environment downtime to the minimum, and ensuring a safe and productive working environment. We aim to manage our teams via positive performance indicators to drive improvement (like, happy clients, uptime maintained), and we try to get away from the 'catching-out' culture that can come with performance measurement. We also encourage our onsite FMs teams to shout about their achievements. All too often, FM teams are invisible, especially if things are running well, so they need to speak up!
Q.
What is your background?
A.
Having trained as an economist at the London School of Economics, I did various jobs in the UK , including working for a Government Agency on Urban Development. This economic regeneration and planning related to business strategy got me the property related bit, and the link between business and real estate.
Later, I worked for a consultancy company that was taken over by DTZ, and they transferred me to Hong Kong . I then moved to Jones Lang LaSalle, where I have been for five years.
Q.
Why did you apply for your current job?
A.
It's a small industry, and I heard about this job on the grapevine, and it sounded just right! I came over here and worked in the Strategic Consulting team, then ran the Asia part of our global real estate contract with Bank of America, across transactions, projects and FM, based onsite. Then I moved into my current role.
Q.
What are your current key projects?
A.
In FM, the growing China market is bringing opportunities and challenges. Jones Lang LaSalle's Industrial FM business is expanding. In Hong Kong we see our more 'traditional' sectors - such as banking - taking a renewed interest in using specialist providers for Facilities Management. This is partly driven by an increasing focus on risk management.
I am also pretty active in integrating FM into other parts of real estate activity. For a long time it was the 'tack-on' at the end. You find the space, fit out the space and then someone needs to manage it. The more these three areas are integrated the more value any provider can add - getting in at the beginning, and saving money.
Q.
What is the future of FM?
A.
As I mentioned earlier, to be successful, FM needs to shout about itself more, and get more integrated with real estate. There needs to be more multi-skilled guys with both technical capabilities and client skills. These people are hard to find! FMs are expected to manage more and more risk - technical and financial. We can learn a lot from US, the UK , and Australia - which is showing how FM can be a basic part of business management, so that generally the process is more accepted.
Q.
What do you do to relax?
A.
You asked about my key projects? Well one has to be my 1 year old, Lucy, who has just started walking and is a little feisty! Otherwise, to relax, I sail (when I get the time) just hang out, read what my husband calls 'nerd books' about globalisation and stuff. I'm still aiming to get back into my lifelong passion of horses.
Q.
If you didn't work with facilities what would you like to do?
A.
What a question. It changes all the time! On the work side, regeneration and urban development. If I had the luxury of doing something just for pleasure, I'd just ride horses, and compete on horseback. Can't beat that for partnering!
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