FOCUS INTERVIEW
CLEAR ADVANTAGE
Alistair Scott, Founder and Operations Director at IEM explains to
Sara Bean why clarity is crucial in simplifying the complexity of
estate management
Back before the pandemic hit, one of
the biggest talking points within the
FM sector was addressing the ‘race to the
bottom’ in the procurement and delivery of
services. The dire outcome of unnecessarily
complex procurement and tendering
processes which resulted in unsustainable
contracts was encapsulated in the infamous
collapse of Carillion in 2018.
But in the same year, Alistair Scott, a military
trained mechanical, electrical and electronic
engineer, with extensive experience of working
on the client side of FM, launched a new
company intended to avoid overly complex FM
and estate management contracting. Instead it
oƒ ers clients simple, transparent and eƒ ective
solutions.
Explains Scott: “Working on the client side
I could very clearly see that if you don’t listen
and determine what clients are trying to
achieve you can go down a road of no return,
putting across a proposal that doesn’t really
mean anything to them and halting the
discussion from going any further. That way no
one is a winner. Instead, by bedding yourself
into the organisation to gain an understanding
of what they want to achieve you make things
a lot clearer, which in turn allows you to have
productive conversations.”
Scott began his career on an apprenticeship
scheme in the Royal Electrical Mechanical
Engineers (REME). He qualified as an aircra¥
engineer and was promoted through the ranks
to a Class One Sergeant, working across the
world, from the jungle to Bosnia, Kosovo,
Northern Ireland and Germany. A¥ er being
recommended for a commission, he arrived
in Sandhurst straight from serving in the
Iraqi war. By the time he le¥ the army he had
28 SEPTEMBER 2021
achieved the rank of Captain and the position
of Engineering Oƒ icer. Moving into the role of
Terminal Facilities Manager at Gatwick was a
natural fit he says: “For many former military
people, FM is a natural place to end up. In
fact, in my first nonmilitary
role at Gatwick
Airport, one of the other facilities managers
for landside operations and his boss were
former military people. You look a¥ er men
and material in the military, getting it to the
right place at the right time. When you add the
commercial element it’s about turning up to
resolve problems, provide technical solutions
and ultimately delivering on the day. It’s the
same with FM. The biggest role is looking for
overall resolution. How can you add value to
this community
and how
can you
add value to
the client?
“Coming into the
industry, with a lot of areas to
oversee, whether it was legislation,
standards, or diƒ erent ways of working, I had
to distil it relatively quickly and ultimately
manage upwards to my clients the airlines,
and their clients, the passengers. That was
probably when I realised the importance of
having the ability to listen, use my technical
ability, distil it and pass it over in a simpler
way.”
His experiences at Gatwick and latterly
Liquid Capital, AkzoNobel (ICI), TGB and
Cloudfm gave Scott a good feel for the
importance of combining technical know how,
an understanding of what the client wants to
achieve and the ability to communicate this
to the client. Frustrated at the unnecessarily