FMs urged to rethink recession strategies

13 March 2009

FM strategies which succeeded in the last recession will not work in the current crisis. “Rule books are being torn up across the business world,” said FM consultant Martin Pickard, speaking at yesterday’s FM Charity Network Forum held in the London offices of Shelter, a charity for the homeless.

Pickard urged the group of charity FMs to challenge previous policies and ensure their business strategies were still valid. They should check that they had the right service providers, right service levels and the right people to go through the tough times.

“This is no time to carry people in your FM team. You have a duty to your organisations which may mean saying goodbye to cherished projects, loyal service providers and people.”

Pickard outlined some of the traditional FM solutions to recessions and explained why they were no longer valid. Squeezing supply chains is not going to work as that has already been done, he said.

Pickard acknowledged that reducing service levels remained an option but argued that FMs can’t simply turn services off in the long-term. “You can’t defer your maintenance forever.”

In the last recession business focused on reducing square footage, but again this had already been achieved. “We’ve gone from around 20-30 sq m a person to 6-7 sq m today and flexible working is now widespread. We can’t squeeze a lot more out our buildings.”

Cutting head count was also inappropriate as “much of the fat had already gone”.

Instead, what the FD wanted from the FM department was: predictable and falling unit costs; added value without falling costs; no surprises; shifting costs from fixed to variable; guaranteed results; and income generation from innovative ideas such as subletting space, ads outside the building and masts on the roof.

“Tough times call for tough decisions,” he concluded. “You can view the recession as a crisis or an opportunity for FM. I’m a glass-half-full kind-of guy and I see it as a great opportunity for FM to step up to the mark.”