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Get with the Plan

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facility management , communications , strategic planning , budgeting .

It’s important to align facility plans with the strategy of the organization. The usefulness of that approach can be overlooked by facility executives frustrated because top management so often turns down their requests for funds. But it’s an essential way of establishing credibility with top management.

A facility executive in synch with management’s ideas is more likely to spot ways to add value. In response to a corporate decision to focus on its core restaurant business, one facility executive redesigned field offices to make them resource centers rather than workplaces. The plan not only cut real estate costs, but also encouraged managers to spend more time in restaurants and less in regional offices – a goal of the corporation. By taking the initiative, the facility executive built credibility.

Facility executives should be alert to changing external conditions that affect company strategies. Power outages, for example, have been used to sensitize top management to the value of power infrastructure improvements. And bankruptcies of hospitals have helped show top management of other hospitals the risk of letting the physical plant deteriorate so long that the organization simply can’t afford to replace items that finally wear out.