“There’s nothing more rewarding than watching someone that you mentored thrive.”
Some people think facilities managers just make sure the lifts are running and the lights are on. In reality, an FM wears many hats. From space management to sustainability and security in the built environment, responsibilities can vary from FM to FM. It’s a career full of opportunity that takes people down different paths.
Facility Management’s ‘How I Got Here’ series chats to impressive people who have worked in the field to map out some of the paths taken, and demystify this often-misunderstood yet essential profession.
This week, we speak to Ahmed Elsayed, who started his FM career in Egypt. Now, as a senior facilities and operations manager for Mirvac in Sydney, he enjoys the fast pace of the profession and supporting the growth of his team. Read on to see what Elsayed thinks facilities management will look like in ten years’ time.
Facility Management: What did you do before you became a facilities manager?
Ahmed Elsayed: I was a mechanical engineer working in the HVAC field.
FM: Where did you start your facilities management career
AE: I started in Egypt with the first professional facilities management services company in Egypt called Contrack FM.
FM: What brought you to Australia?
AE: My family had a permanent residency visa under the skilled migrant scheme. In late 2016, we decided to move permanently to Sydney, Australia.
FM: Can you tell us a bit about your current role and the assets you oversee?
AE: Currently, I’m working with one of the leading Australian developers as a senior facilities manager. I’m looking after its award-winning shopping centre in the west of Sydney CBD, in addition to a couple of commercial buildings in the same area.
This job is a mix of four main elements (with no particular order):
- Strategic planning: this is where I need to plan the asset 10 yearly capital expenditure (CapEx) budget. This should include lifecycle replacement items as well as potential upgrades and additions to the asset to align with the holistic strategic asset plan.
- Day-to-day operations: I manage asset cleaning, security and preventive and reactive maintenance activities to run the property. This includes all the tactical decisions to guarantee safe and smooth operation of the building. I also support the wider asset management team in their operations, for example, support marketing activations and tenancy fitout activities.
- Financial management: this is where I estimate and manage the operating expense (OpEx) and CAPEX budgets. I also review the financial performance monthly and update forecasts regularly to ensure we’re achieving our financial targets.
- Team management: This includes hiring, mentoring and supporting the growth of facilities team members.
FM: What is your favourite part of your job?
AE: Building teams. One of my favourite aspects of the job is the ability to mentor new facilities management professionals and support their growth overtime. I enjoy working with enthusiastic facilities professionals to help them progress in their career with a win-win mindset, allowing the individual to grow and the organisation to have a solid succession plan. There’s nothing more rewarding than watching someone that you mentored thrive.
FM: What are some of the challenges you see facing the facilities management industry at the moment?
AE: Facilities management is a fast-paced industry. This comes with lots of challenges but, at the same time, that’s what makes this industry exciting.
In my view, in our post-pandemic environment the most pressing challenges are:
- Supply chains have become unreliable compared with before the pandemic. That means more lead times for your spare parts and more risks on your projects.
- It’s also very challenging to attract talented facilities managers.
- There are economic challenges as the world economy navigates through uncharted waters. This puts more pressure on facilities managers to run projects and maintain assets efficiently.
FM: What do you think facilities management will look like in ten years’ time?
AE: Based on the trends that have already started to emerge, I would expect the following:
- Data Analytics: with the growing availability of Artificial Intelligence (AI), data analytics will be much more accessible and accurate. FMs will be able to predict building trends with a push of a button, helping them to make more effective decisions.
- Automation: in hard services, AI and Data analytics will support predictive maintenance systems that can anticipate failures and issue tickets automatically to fix them. In security cameras, sensors and drones will use data analytics to monitor and secure the asset. In cleaning, we’ll use more cost-effective cleaning robots with capabilities to automatically report back to maintenance and security systems.
- Sustainability: this will be essential to the survival of any business. A focus on renewables and energy efficient equipment is a must. New durable and safer materials will be available.
- Remote operations: systems will be integrated and connected to centralised remote automation hubs. This will provide more cost-effective and consistent facilities management services. For example, company assets around Australia could be run from one central location in Sydney.
FM: What are some of the ways that you future-proof the facilities that you manage?
AE: The great lesson we learned from the pandemic is that you need to be agile and flexible. Facilities management is not an exception. Buildings need to be smarter, and the quality of data collected needs to be better to enable the use of data analytics effectively. This requires investing in hardware and equipment as well as investing in upskilling facilities management professionals to be able to deal with these new tools.
FM: What excites you about working in facilities management?
AE: It’s a very dynamic industry that will keep your mind stimulated. You’ll never have a dull moment in facilities management. It is challenging in a good way as you engage with various stakeholders regularly where you influence their decisions and learn from them at the same time. You can see your work reflected in the assets’ success.
