As
companies, professionals and other stakeholders in the built environment continue
searching for the right processes, people, materials and technologies towards
the growth of Facility Management industry in Nigeria, Infoprations believes that learning from Professor Ndubuisi Ekekwe’s aspirational mission
framework will not be a bad idea.
At
a recent public forum in Lagos, Professor Ekekwe emphasised the need for
Nigerian governments to adopt aspirational mission. According to him, to
achieve growth, every citizen must believe in its growth. Governments must
convince the citizens that truly leaders believe in the country’s
growth before asking citizens to make certain sacrifices. Citizens will be
willing to pay taxes when they are seeing developments in every aspect of the
society.
Situating
this within FM industry, it means FM brands must be ready to make sacrifices.
Efforts for the recognition of the industry must be intensified by the experts
and professionals. The standardization of the processes, materials and
technologies being used for solutions delivery must not be jettisoned too. Currently,
it appears that businesses, people and governments are realizing the essence of
FM solutions, but the delivery using the right processes, people and materials
seems limited due to quackery in the industry.
After
dissecting Professor Ekekwe’s aspirational mission, Infoprations discovered that the growth of the FM industry within
the mission context requires a reformulation of FM brands’ mission statements
and creating aspirational brands instead of inspiration brands. It has also
emerged that the growth would be phenomenal when companies hire and nurture
aspirational employees.
Reformulate Mission Statements
Analysis
of 14 companies that published their mission statements on the website indicates
that quality, comfort and creativity are being prioritised
at the expense of global reach, regional reach and social impacts consideration.
This has established that companies prefer communicating the industry to the clients
based on the specific values they will capture. It has also showed that FM
brands believe in presenting information that will attract clients locally.
From the analysis, it is obvious that most of
the companies are not aspiring to be market leaders. This shows that
competition is not fierce in the industry, our analysis suggests. When the
companies are not aspiring to be leaders with realistic plans, it would be
impossible for the industry to grow. Being aspirational will facilitate the process
and solution innovations towards the industry competitiveness.
The Need for Aspirational Brands
It is high time that FM brands move from inspirational to aspirational
brands. As stated earlier, the focus of the companies over the years has been
the provision of quality solutions using the creative minds to businesses,
individuals and governments. Moving to aspirational brands has been necessitated
by the growing interest in FM activities. Beyond the quality, creativity and
making places comfortable for people, companies must strengthen processes and
equip employees with the required skills and knowledge towards effective performance.
Aspirational brands can be attained when employees know that they are part of
the journey to the growth of the brands and the FM industry.
Aspirational
Employees
Employees should be able to discern what brands want to be by solving
frictions for clients. They must strive in a long-lasting and
meaningful way to achieve their companies’ aspirational mission. Efforts should
be collective towards the realisation of the specific activities stated in the
mission through aspirational roles. Understanding clients’ demographics and psychographics is also crucial
for delivering solutions that enable businesses and people achieved what they wanted to
achieve. A bank manager would be happy that an FM company pays prompt attention
to his or her faulty facilities’ peculiarities and deliver tailored solutions
that ensure positive experience for the users.
FM Industry as a Movement
Companies
and professionals need to turn the industry into a movement. It should be a
movement because people, businesses and governments still need to know the
importance of the FM solutions. It must be a movement because poor maintenance
culture remains the tradition among the people and some businesses. Professionals
need to determine the industry’s identities and connect with them while
preaching the mission and vision of the industry.
For instance, cost reduction
and operational efficiency of organisations and people who demand FM solutions must
be more pronounced. From the mission statements, our analysis has also
established that the FM industry as a movement can only be realised when the
statements are revisited by the brands.
Dimensional
analysis shows that clients, distinctive competency, motivation on excellence and
employees are embedded in the statements more than the investors, suppliers,
future orientation and company philosophy or values which are important for the
FM industry as a movement. The growth of
the industry cannot largely be achieved with the brands communicating
capabilities and competencies, and having the right people to solve clients’
issues. Investors and suppliers must be involved by demonstrating the future
orientation (create, anticipate and dedicate must be explicit in future
activities) and values will attract and retain them for a long period.
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