Janus-faced management; looking to to the past and future

Blog from Rob Legge, Group Chief Executive Officer, Servest 

2017 has been quite a year. Not just for Servest but for the industry as a whole. The dynamics of facilities management have subtly adjusted. There’s now much more pressure on FM service providers to differentiate themselves. To do so, some companies are focusing on certain sectors; others are placing innovation at the core of the offering; and there are those that believe a venture into new territories will give them the edge. For us, it’s about a combination of the above; but the recognition of technology’s game-changing power has particularly curbed our thinking. We believe technology has to play a large part in future planning if we’re to set ourselves apart, merge into new markets, increase our global footprint and really add value to our customers.  

Nobody has quite got it right yet when it comes to integrating technological solutions, probably because the landscape is so fast-paced. We believe it’s imperative to stay ahead, so even though our vision places people at the heart of everything we do, we keep asking the question – what do our people need to be the best that they can be? And it’s clear to us that the answer lies within technology. It can both encourage and facilitate innovation, while helping us to cement relationships with our customers. 

Thanks to our spirit of innovation and inventiveness, we’re looking to explore all the possibilities so we can continue to create custom, relevant solutions for a complex marketplace. To be trusted, you have to do what you say you’re going to do; and our customers know that we’re constantly on the look-out for new ways of demonstrating our value. We love joining forces with our customers and proving ourselves, and then building on that success by keeping our ears to the ground and trialling the latest technological advancements.

The biggest lesson we’ve learned is to remain agile, expand our thinking and always challenge ourselves to ask – what’s next? What do our customers need and how can we adapt to help? Tech is the platform that enables us to develop our offering in a way that better supports our customers. Moving into a sectorised model has also helped us hone in on what our customers need. A lot of businesses have individual divisions to drive service density – that becomes the focus. It’s not and shouldn’t be about that though. It’s not about us. Nor is it about the services we can sell. It’s about the question that our customers need us to answer; the solution to the problem that lies in our toolkit. 

FM is an exciting space; if you’re fantastic at what you do, and if you get the basics right, then people will invite you to play a part in their journey and they will trust you to deliver solutions. In the future, anything is possible. There is no boundary on what we can achieve if we keep an open mind, don’t restrict our thinking, be bold and have the conversations that nobody else is having.