When the Lights Go Out – Is your organization prepared with a Business Continuity Plan?

It can happen  – a power failure that blacks out your building or your offices. What would you do? First Canadian Place, shown here, went black for an entire day from about 7:30am to 4:30pm on October 14th, 2010. It’s a  44 story, 2.7 million sq.ft. building in the heart of Toronto’s financial district.

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Top 10 Issues

These Top 10 issues come from an association that focuses on educational facilities, but as you can see, they can apply to anyone managing properties.They confirm that managing physical space is essentially the same regardless of whether you are managing corporate facilities or commercial properties. The list was put forward by APPA, the North American…

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Sparring Partners – At The Facilities Show, Birmingham, UK

I had the privilege of speaking at The Facilities Show in May. My seminar is based on a cover article I wrote for Building Operations Management Magazine called ‘Sparring Partners’ (email me for a copy of the article) and focused on the 3 ways we fail to develop a strong partnership with our service providers…

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Shifting From Maintenance to Management in Facilities Management – Business Skills vs. Technical Skills

The modern Facility Manager needs a slightly different mix of skills to navigate not just within the profession, but within their own organizations to be successful, especially if they want to become the Head of FM, whether for a small organization or a multi-national corporation. The FM Knowledge Grid illustration (see a larger one further…

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Serving Up Quality

My recent magazine article on getting the right service level from your outsourced (or subcontracted) service provider has been published and already I’ve received positive feedback. This article came from a startling statistic from a recent IFMA research report that said getting the right service was an issue with 78% of the facility executives surveyed.

Quality Assurance for FM’s – Facilities Leadership Webinar

Webinar originally held February 12, 2013. Duration 30 Min. Quality Assurance helps you establish leadership in your Facilities role. It means you are being pro-active about service standards for your organization and implementing leading practices. It’s also a key way you ensure you and your suppliers are providing your organization with quality, consistent service. If…

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Organizational Design for Facility Departments – Functional or Integrated

I’ve been doing quite a few operational reviews and benchmarking exercises for facility clients recently. Something that keeps coming up is the optimal design of the facility management department’s organization structure. Through my career I’ve worked  in functional,  integrated and even matrix organizations. My facility clients are also a mix. In each approach, I saw…

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Now Available: “Managing Facilities & Real Estate” Book by Michel Theriault

My Facility Management book is now available. It’s written for both new and experienced facility professionals, regardless of  level, function or the type of facility managed, who want to leverage existing skills and advance their career with leading business practices, strategy, management and leadership in FM. $39.95  US Soft Cover  7″x10″  532 pages ISBN 978-0-9813374-1-8…

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