HIghstreet 2.0

Highstreet 2.0

It’s been a bad year for high street retail.  Numerous brands have gone in to administration with some gone forever.  The question on everyone’s lips isn’t “Do you think anyone else will go?” but “Who will go next?

Where does this leave our high streets of towns and cities? Can they thrive on coffee, poundshops, charities and banks? Unlike the shops that have gone, the high street needs to adapt, innovate and change its business model in order to stop declining and thrive once again.

But who needs to do this?

The people responsible for our high streets are the local authorities where they reside.  In many cases this could be two or three different local authorities or in some cases a single local authority will be responsible for hundreds of high streets.  Under significant financial pressure themselves, local authorities need thriving high streets, they create tax revenue and create jobs easing the burden on social care costs

 But what do they change to and how?

Mary Portas makes some good recommendations in her recent report to shift the emphasis to the business on the high street.  How about shifting the emphasis of the high street to public services – like going to town to pay your council tax, speak to your councillor or hire a book from the library? Should public authorities move out of their offices in to the high street and provide more services on a Saturday afternoon?  How about a high street sure start centre in a old Blockbuster? Or the police station where HMV used to be? Or a doctors surgery, dentist and library in the old Republic clothing shop?

Hang on! – clogging up the high yield commercial outlets public services isn’t going to generate more tax or jobs?  No – it won’t.  However, it will remove boarded up shop fronts and add diversity to the high-street pulling in more customers for commercial shops that in turn will create demand for more shops. Which can only be a good thing for the high streets?

So – what do you think? Public service shops mixed in with Starbucks, Primark and Boots?

What we must fight to protect

What we must fight to protect

Recently I met a Local Authority manager who runs a local authority children’s centre.  It is a fantastic facility for young people.  There is play equipment, BMX track, outdoor cinema, kitchens and sound recording studio.  There are 10 of these in the local authority and in recent years their opening days have been cut bit by bit.

The manager told me a story.  He asked some of the children who visit where chips come from?  The response was “Iceland”.  The manager planted potato seeds with the children and taught them where chips come from.  He then went on to challenge the children to see how many people they could feed with £10.  Most came back with meals that could feed 3 or so people.  But after growing vegetables in the centre garden and some basic cookery lessons the children soon knew how to feed 20 people. 

This is just one example of the fantastic services local authorities operate.  Some people may read this and say that this learning should be done in schools. However, these centres are open after school finishes - If these centres are not open where will they go?  Local Authorities are required to make savings and it’s tough to decide where the axe falls.

You may wonder why I, a FM practitioner, have such a passionate view on this subject. Well I believe that although FM is a non-core, non-front line service, it deserves strategic input in to the core services of a Local Authority.  Local Authorities property and support service portfolio is currently experiencing rapid change as a result of the decisions being taken to make budget.   It is up to us FMs to deliver services to local authorities that support their changing business.    Here are some thoughts on how to do this in Local Authority FM:

1. Right size the estate to the projected size of the organisation

Understanding how much space is needed is obviously key.  Keeping space open plan and flexible will minimise costs of churn.  Perhaps keeping some “swing” space which can be used if needed or let to new local businesses – can Local Authority FMs become a local traded service, generating revenue?

2. Establish facilities to co-locate services reducing the quantity of smaller properties

Can a library be the job centre, children’s centre and housing offices all in one?  If these can be collocated it would save in all areas whilst protecting the services.

3. Centralise all FM budgets across all departments to maximise synergies

Point 2 is rarely achieveable if budgets aren’t centralised.  There are also big procurement benefits if only one department is buying all FM goods and services.  A single point of decision making will also help with points 1 and 2 to speed up change and maximise efficiency.

My view is that once we deliver at this level waste will be removed, costs will come down in non-front line areas and the axe may not need to be as big on the front line – especially on services future generations rely on.

Proving our worth

Proving our worth

Following on from the Workplace Futures 2013 debates of the last week I was thinking about how FM can get its seat on the board – get its voice heard – and prove its worth - to the organisation.  In times of budget cuts and shrinking margins FM is seen as an easy target, a non-front line service that won’t matter to the organisations business goals.

Wrong! – here are 5 steps to making FM strategic:

1. Combine the property strategy with the FM service provision

Most organisations (public or private) will grow or shrink their property portfolios to suit their business.  The FM team need to change their delivery model to adapt to this change.  Supporting the workforce in the workplace change – be it space planning or minimising moves disruption will go a long way to maintaining a productive business.

2.Support the workforce and the changing nature of the workplace

Can FM move itself away from the “Facility Manager” to the “Workplace Manager”?  One manages buildings, the other manages workplaces.  The workplace is changing, there is a higher proportion of home workers, field workers and hot-deskers. - Is this a reason for needing less office space?  Providing workplace support will move FM in to areas of ICT, Fleet, and Regus style services – expanding the role of the Facility Manager.

3. Have a demonstrable effect on the businesses goals

Whatever the business, there will be primary business goals.  If the FM service can measure their impact on those business goals, then they will be directly proving their worth to the organisation.  For example, in Local Authorities this could be local employment, training local people or supporting local businesses.  FM can buy local, employ local people and train those employees.  This contributes to the economic development of the local area – and Local Authorities will see this as a benefit.

4. Provide a highly efficient and modern service

In a constantly changing business environment, any service can ill afford to stand still.  There is no getting away from the need to constantly be providing a cost efficient, lean and productive service.  Either if FM is in house or outsourced – innovating through continuous improvement will keep the service modern and cost efficient and be seen less of an easy target.

5. Award Winning

What could be a better endorsement of your FM service than an industry award.  There are many available – Go for it! and don’t just prove your worth to your organisation – Prove it to the industry.

Cross charging your Facilities Management outsourcing

Cross charging your Facilities Management outsourcing

I know I have banged on before about a simple and clear pricing pro-forma for tender returns but this blog should also help if you need to recharge your FM costs to various internal departments.  This can be tricky, if the specification has changed, some departments may need more 'wooden dollars' that they were not expecting, or the way in which your pro-forma is designed can allow bidders to profile a price you were not expecting.  Usually during a tender re-charging is the last thing on your mind.  Therefore, here are my top tips for a successful tender and simple recharge afterwards.

1.       A clear and visible winner

Key is a pricing model that creates a clear winner. You need to be sure that you know who the winner is.  This avoids challenges from losing bidders and makes your internal approval process less stressful.

2.       Tailor your service to meet your budget

Sometimes you may not be sure what level of service you can afford.  Use your tender to ensure you maximise the quality of service for your budget. There are different options for input or output specifications so doing this could be the key to fewer disagreements when recharging departments.

3.       A transparent elemental build-up of costs

If you are recharging this is necessary – but it is also necessary if you have a changing estate or workforce.  Granularity is important to consider, you need enough detail to recharge and analyse prices but too much can be like trying to see the wood through the trees.

4.       Consistent parameters for all bidders

It is essential that parameters such as building data and inflation assumptions are the same for all bidders to allow an ‘apples for apples’ comparison.  However, things change, so it is also essential that if the parameter changes you know the impact on your costs. 

5.       Audit, audit, audit

Building in some audit tools is good practice so you know that your pricing model is crunching numbers correctly.  You do not need a degree in financial analysis to do this, some basic arithmetic tests and checks are usually sufficient.

Put it in Context



Bring me a dead cat and all I can tell you is that it was a cat and it is now dead.  Bring me a dead cat and tell me you found it in the middle of the road, what killed it? A car? heat exhaustion? 

What are we talking about?

Context!   -   The difference between road kill and a meal.

Context is critical for people to make up their minds and make decisions.

Recently I did some work with a public sector organisation who wanted to outsource their FM services.  Together we did some work to quantify the savings and the service improvements that would be guaranteed by a service provider.  The client needed to get the project approved by their board made up of people who didn’t know much about FM and elected members who represent the public. 

 “We will save £500,000 by doing this outsourcing”.  Is that good or bad? We don’t know until we attach some context to it.  A £ number is just that – a number – it has no meaning without putting it in context. 

“We will save 0.5% of the organisations budget”.  That doesn’t sound very good. 

“We will save 15% of our current expenditure”.  That sounds good! 

This means something internally but for a public sector organisation who is accountable to the public it may mean little.

“We will be able to employ an additional 20 front line jobs to support the community”.  That sounds great! 

Jobs put the sheer quantity of iphones
sold in to context for the audience

The presentation we put together had 3 numbers on it…

“By outsourcing, we will save £500,000 (15% of our budget) which is the same as employing an additional 20 people in front line jobs in the community”

The board now understood the importance of doing the outsourcing both for the organisation and the people they provide services to.  Needless to say the questions were not “Why should we do this?” but “How soon can it be done?”