NEWS & ANALYSIS FMJ.CO.UK
WORLD WORKPLACE EUROPE
IN March 2019, the
International Facility
Management Association (IFMA)
and Facility Management Nederland
(FMN), the Dutch association for FM,
joined forces for what has become
World Workplace Europe meets
Facility for Future.
IFMA’s strategic partnerships with the
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors
(RICS) and FMN have helped to raise the
profile of this $1 trillion industry. The
prerogative of each professional body
is to make FM more visible, to create
more impact, to support current and
future leaders, and to connect the dots
so that FM no longer operates in its own
bubble. That vision certainly manifested
during the Amsterdam conference,
which saw 800 people from the FM
profession come together to share ideas
and debate the future of not just FM, but
the people it serves.
Business Speaker of the Year Nigel
Risner opened the conference with
a timely reminder that if we are to
embrace the opportunities that are out
there, we need dialogue, conversation,
and to work with each other. “This is not a
dress rehearsal for the rest of our lives,” he
said. “It’s the show.”
10 MAY 2019
Enter stage right – the speakers, authors,
educators, academics, entrepreneurs,
workplace consultants, futurists and
architects of new models of work. The
impressive speaker line-up played its
part in pushing the conversation forward,
much like the event partners who were
showcasing the latest facility and business
solutions on ‘The Strip’.
Four Ds dominated the programme –
digital, data, design, and debate.
Where digital was once a novelty, it is
now the new normal. Internet is the
new air. And tech is changing human
behaviour. “Our physiology matches
our battery levels,” claimed Nancy
Rademaker during her entertaining
and powerful keynote speech that
focused on extreme customer
centricity in a networked world. As
our smartphones run out of juice, we
run out of enthusiasm for life.
Serial entrepreneur and fellow
keynote speaker James Dearsley
reiterated that we are living in a time
where tech is rewriting the rules for just
about everything. “Tech is reimagining
business,” he said. “It has more of a
relationship with the consumer than
people do.”
A sentiment somewhat disputed by
one of the event partners – a tech firm,
ironically enough. The team at visitor
so ware developer Proxyclick believe
the key point is that in the end, only
people can create joy – but tech can
facilitate that emotion. “It’s clear that
despite the digital age we live in, the
human touch is still king,” whispered the
founder of Proxyclick, Gregory Blondeau,
from a nearby aisle.
The trick is twofold: finding a balance
between man and machine, and
recognising that shi ing expectations
demand a new approach. “We won’t be
selling the same products and services
to the same customers in 2030,” said
Rademaker. “So, we need a new strategy
for a new world.”
The first building block of that new
world is data. And stealing the show
on that front was Leesman’s Peggie
Rothe. Using the data from half a
million respondents across 3,500
workplaces, Rothe revealed how the
world’s best performing organisations,
the elite Leesman+ collective, approach
collaboration in the workplace.
“The best organisations in the world
are realising there’s another button
– bigger than the cost button – that
has the ability to bring a lot more
added value,” said Rothe. “That’s the
experience button. The best workplaces
in the world are providing the employee
with a choice depending on their
activity, mood, and preference.”
An IFMA World Workplace conference
wouldn’t be complete without the
odd hearty debate. Two stood out as
particularly prevalent.
In FM, there’s always a question mark
that hovers over the ‘value or price’
agenda. Some say that in the wake of
the Carillion fallout, it’s all about value;
others say it’s still about price. As Kate
Vitasek, architect of the Vested business
model, argued: “If we’re to deliver great
customer experiences, we need to think
about money in the right way, refresh
the way we’re buying and selling, invest
in the power of relationships – and use
capitalism in a together fashion to drive
innovation.”
DOES THE WORKPLACE MATTER?
That’s the first debate. Cost versus value.
Specifically, the ways the industry can
ensure the latter gets the limelight. The
second – brace yourself – is whether the
workplace actually matters. In a bold
debate, IFMA Workplace Evolutionary
Chris Hood, and Arnold Levin, Director
of Workplace Strategy at Gensler, both
argued that it doesn’t. There are many
things such as leadership and culture
that are far more influential to the final
outcome.
“Of course workplace should matter,
but in so many cases it doesn’t,” said
Advanced Workplace Associates’ Hood.
“Architects and space planners leap
quickly to their design solutions to meet
aggressive implementation timelines,
and in so doing, work their way out of
complex discussions about business
priorities and drivers, shi ing culture
and changing behaviours – things they
neither have time, or o en the skill, to
accommodate.
“As an example,” he continued,
“building collaboration spaces doesn’t
make collaboration happen. More
profound changes in culture are required
to get people to step outside their teams
and away from familiar colleagues
to embrace new conversations and
new ideas. The ‘why, what and how’
questions need to be answered but o en
aren’t, leading to shallow, skin-deep
design solutions. We need to get more
disciplined about how we think about
these things if we’re to create workplaces
that matter.”
The opposing team – Peggie Rothe and
Peter Ankerstjerne, IFMA’s Vice Chair –
retorted with the same level of passion.
“The workplace does matter,” said Rothe.
“It matters because people matter. The
data proves it matters – 85 per cent of
half a million employees say the design
of their workplace is important to them.”
Whatever your stance, one thing’s
clear. It all comes down to CEx. Customer
Experience. Good CEx comes from
meeting customer expectation. And
really good CEx comes when we exceed
that expectation.
IFMA’s investment in CExy, sustainable
partnerships stems from a deep-rooted
desire to increase the exchange of
knowledge within the community it
serves. This calling has also formed the
basis of the decision to launch three
new chapters last year, including the
IFMA UK chapter that celebrates its first
anniversary this April. The collaborative
approach is certainly generating value
for everyone who’s part of IFMA’s everincreasing
community. In the space of a
year, the annual event has attracted 220
per cent more delegates, up from 250 to
around 800.
Slowly but surely, FM – and all who
sail with her – is connecting the dots. We
can’t quite hang our masterpiece on the
wall, but it’s at least beginning to take
shape. Who knows, maybe next year we’ll
even have our very own Rembrandt.
Jo Sutherland, Director of Magenta Associates, reports
from World Workplace Europe, which took place in
Amsterdam at the end of March