Assignment 1 Total Marks: 20

1. Give short answers for the following questions: (15)

i. Briefly explain the objectives of facilities management.
ii. What skills, knowledge and character traits are necessary to succeed in facilities management?
iii. What is the purpose of an annual work plan?

Answer:
i. Objective of Facilities management is coordinating everything at every level to
provide organization capacity to perform optimally and consistently without
interruptions by optimally using recourses and advance FM software to identify
issues, schedule tasks and important decisions.

ii. The necessary skills required to succeed are

a. Business acumen,
b. resourcefulness,
c. good oral and written communication,
d. man management ability,
e. networking ability
f. problem solving ability
g.

The necessary knowledge required to succeed are

a. Organisational structures
b. Financial management,
c. quantitative measurement,
d. technical knowhow,
e. Legal policies, laws and regulation.

The necessary character traits required to succeed are

a. honesty,
b. diplomatic,
c. business oriented
d. action oriented
e. cost consciousness
f. outgoing decisive mentor,
g. innovator,
h. risk taker,
i. Survivor.
j. Ethical and agile purchaser, lessor and contractor.

iii. Purpose of an annual work plan is to present a clear and structured solution to a
problem and plan’s objective, goals and priorities are easy to understand for all
employees and managers.
Plan is based on identification of a problem, source and nature of the problem,
whether it is a consequence of inaction. Next step is to plan for resolution of the
 problem by allocating resources considering availability, corporate culture and other
related priorities.
Plan should be feasible; time bound and budgeted within limits.

2. ‘There is obviously no one way to lead, but there are principles applicable at all levels’
discuss. (5)

Answer:
As every organisation’s values, mission, vision, objective, and working styles are different.
Leading any organization with its own policies, procedures, structure is complex and demanding.
Organisational attitude also makes it difficult as some of them have published standard
procedure to work on; some of them are flexible; few of them have no standard to follow.
However, there are important leadership principles applicable for all levels of all organisations.
Facility managers should lead reactively to the nature of challenges faced daily and in their
future plan. They should lead by their business orientation externally and internally, they must be
technology driven and result oriented. Resources are never adequate hence they have to advocate
for new facilities that optimized the resource allocation. Leadership also requires hiring
strategically capable team members, implementing loose-rein techniques, evaluate based on
agreed upon matrix or KPI and manage by walking around.