Seasons greetings colleagues and friends.
The current year is gradually coming to an end with its good and
bad in the Facilities Management Industry. It was also filled with lots of
activities which were meant to raise the demand for facilities management locally
while riding on the support from the international organizations such as BIFM and
IFMA. For example, local FM Company’s in Nigeria organized programmes in the
Federal capital territory, Abuja and Lagos which is the commercial nerve of the
nation. Some even invited international renowned speakers to grace their occasions
in order to spice their events and give it the class it deserves as well as
send a message to their prospective clients nationwide.
In the month of June, 2015, which commemorates the world FM
day, the Global map was filled with activities here and there. Two significant
events took place in Nigeria with FM Company’s continuously making noise in
terms of trying to reach out to their customers and the international
community. Some other FM organizations decided to make the celebration a quiet
one with their team in-house. In India, NEXT Facilities Management Company
organized a facilities management meeting to celebrate the global event which
attracted key professionals around the world and was streamed live for the rest
of the world to join. In addition to this, Australia, United States of America,
UK and other European countries which also include SAFMA of South Africa
dedicated the day to educate and learn new tends in FM. Other international events
such as facilities fusion, Think FM by BIFM, MEFMA conference, world work
place organized by IFMA and other related programs took place within the year to discuss issues underlining the progression of the
profession and the solutions to combat imminent challenges within the built
environment.
In Nigeria for instance, the BIFM established its presence with
its first committee members and first launch in Africa; where else would it
have been rather than the most populous nation in Africa and the most populous
black nation in the world. A nation filled with lot of potentials to affect the
global economy positively. Several committee and members meeting took place to
propagate BIFM agenda and its focus to develop a robust knowledge of FM through
research and development. This is just one of many benefits it offers its
members. The major event organized by BIFM Nigeria region took place in
September 2015 with a breakfast meeting with the C-suite in order to raise more
awareness of the profession through the leadership of their respective organizations.
The need to have a business confidence monitor for Nigeria was discussed after
same research was achieved in UK and UAE. This will provide a realistic data
and help investors and FM leaders to make informed decisions.
The FM profession is really struggling to be recognized in
Nigeria and it’s really affecting the growth of the business because there is a
very low percentage of an outsourced FM service in the country. Some
enthusiastic FM leaders have taken a bold step through the current IFMA
presidents [Lagos & Abuja] to send a bill to the senate for consideration.
Looking forward, 2016 is just by the corner with FM
practitioners filled with a lot of expectations. I am sure so many FM companies
must have had their strategic meetings to study the Nigerian and global FM
market for new opportunities to penetrate the market and increase their market
share. Significant investments must have been made in terms of new FM
tools/assets to purchase in order to build capacity and differentiation to bring
in more business. Leaders of these organizations should understand that FM is
meant to add value and should not be done as business as usual manner. Low
operational cost and increase in value to customers is just one of the many
advantages of engaging a competent FM in the first place.
The coming year from my prospective is based on the current global
economic state with the increasing free fall of oil prices will affect the FM
industry greatly with other micro and macro-economic factors. Economist around
the world forecast as low as $20 per barrel of oil within the first quarter of
the New Year. In addition to this, increase
in security threat by terrorist both locally and internationally will affect
the business of FM and thus increase the demand of FM professionals around the
world through the development of a concise business continuity plans, project risk
appraisals and security management of high end assets, critical system as well as
protection of key personnel in any organization.
There will be more power challenges in the country and I do
not really think the plans of government to make power more available will be
realized in 2016, may be in 2017. Hence, FM’s have the opportunity to deploy
cost savings strategies through the aggregation of the activities in their
processes to identify and eliminate non-value adding processes for their
clients. This will inevitably reduce the impact of our activities both in the
industrial sectors and residential/commercial sectors on the environment. The
only challenge here is that the real FM players are very few; others are just
there to make the numbers. I will like to say here that consumers should seek
knowledge and employ highly trained and experienced FM consultants to help
develop a robust systems and standards for a seamless process for them to
achieve their bottom lines.
In view of the above and regards to the banking industry, the
CBN policy on no COT will open more doors for Banks to outsource more of their
services to professionals and thus facilities management firms will benefit
more from this. I see more Banks merging before the end of the year to reduce
operational cost and synergize to meet statutory demands. Currently, some Banks have engaged consultants
to help harmonize a good procurement process to help identify world class FM’s which
will manage all their assets and in turn build more capacity in their own core
area of business. Following this thoughts, more banks will close their branches
due to inflow of technologies for consumers operations because it will be more
expensive to maintain those branches in terms of operational cost especially
the provision of power and security. I think there will come a time where
professional and not just the financial institutions will have to share
resources in order to stay competitive in business.
Small scale businesses will be on the increase with unique offerings
that will meet consumers demand. The established FM’s companies will be too expensive
for client to buy in because of their high overhead cost mainly because they
have not integrated FM technology to help improve their processes and influence
the speed and quality services deployed. I see more big FM companies losing
more of their portfolios to these new companies because they will be more
solution focused rather than just doing the FM business in the usual manner.
More international FM companies will be attracted to come to
Nigeria to do business
if our institutions are strengthened for them to be able to repatriate
their profits. This will increase a lot of foreign direct investments which
will gradually build our GDP and reduce the level of unemployment in the
country. It will be a case of talent retention and management competition and
poaching of good hands here and there. This is already happening and the old
ways of using salaries to attract talent will not really work because knowledge
has increased and even the young Facilities Managers understands sustainability
in relation to their future wherever they work. The few places I have worked, I
have seen top management make same mistake over and over again in terms of
treating their employees as if they are doing them a favour rather than seeing them
as key elements in their business and forming a symbolic relationship with
them.
To my colleagues around the world, this is the time to plan,
prepare and remain focused to develop capabilities that are rare and imitable.
Next year will have so many opportunities for those that have unique solutions
that comes with the ever changing needs of the customers and only the prepare will
see it and translate it to individual expectations. Enough of just studying for
certificates and not actually studying to grow in the right knowledge of a
professional facilities manager with keen understanding of the FM market and
its economics. This is an opportunity for us to share ideas and knowledge in
our different localities especially during our BIFM and IFMA meetings through
research and networking to solve problems that are imminent in 2016. These
challenges are ubiquitous, having heaps of certification cannot solve the
problem but putting into practice all we have learnt for the year may do the
magic. Therefore, we need to set continuous personal and profession development
goals for ourselves to remain resourceful, make a great mark and write our
names in gold come 2016.
Kindly drop a comment on my blog www.facilitiesideas.blogspot.com.
I wish you a merry Christmas and a resounding new year. Remember, it always
start with an idea to be great.
