This time around, after almost 16 years of PR consultancy and general communications work with two agencies and a major FTSE 250 I know a lot more. What I find worrying is that so many of the agencies and people calling me have not moved on from 1996.

It’s a big criticism, arguing that PR has not moved on in 16 years. But it is worth thinking about for a moment. Don’t get me wrong PR and marketing is a more advanced and more professional field than when I started. But it is the manner in which people communicate that is disappointing – particularly the bigger agencies. Time and again I found that the smaller specialist firms, and definitely the one man band,s provided better ideas, were more adept  at supporting their clients and far more aware of the issues facing an editor of a trade magazine.

Yes, calls need made to find out what kind of angle an editor might be pursuing, but too often the call was made with no inkling about the nature of the magazine (we’re talking about FMX by the way) or no clue about the specific feature or topic being researched. I did at times wonder about the creativity of the PR people I dealt with in three years as editor. I certainly found myself becoming more convinced daily that agencies are not the best option for the majority of organisations needing to raise their profile.

Agencies want consistent income streams. That means a retainer. But the idea of being tied to a retainer means pressure on all sides – more than anything it means a lack of flexibility. That pressure is what the junior account managers and executives deal with. It is why the director that appeared at the pitch is often notable by their absence.

A true, frank and open partnership with the tacit understanding that not all organisations need publicity 24/7 is the route for long term success.

If you’re in PR ask your clients what they think of your performance. If you’re a client ask yourself if you’re really getting the added value they said you’d get.

Working on FMX has been fascinating and a bit of an adventure, but commercially it does not fit into the business plan for Frank & Brown. So, FMX will now be edited by Martin Allen Smith – a publishing professional with a great editorial pedigree. I am walking away…

No doubt, like me, he will be hugely impressed by the ideas, intelligence and commitment in facilities management. It will be interesting though to see how people react to the final issue – particularly some of the ideas put forward by Neil Usher (my Subbuteo playing opponent on the front cover of the May issue – there is a teaser image above).

Despite the great love of FM for debating it’s definition it is time to move on. That came across loud and clear to me when talking to Neil Usher in what was a different and hugely informative interview. We even picked up on last month’s reference to philosophy (remember Emanuel Cant, better known as the Marmite Man now) and tried a few jokey riddles: what have Pope John Paul II, Nabakov, Albert Camus and Julio Inglesias got in common?

Neil is typical of the great people working in facilities management. I knew that before I began editing FMX because of being involved with the sector off and on since 1997, but I’ve met more of them now and learned to respect many and trust the judgement of some. Martin Pickard, John Moriarty, Julie Kortens, Wendy Cuthbert and Tim Oldman spring to mind – but the are heaps more. The ones to watch are listed in the FMX40underforty. We had to choose from almost 70 nominations and it is clear that FM has a healthy future. I think the people in the FMX40underforty do “know” and get what Neil Usher talks about. I am less sure about the industry institutions.

None of that is my concern now. The core work of Frank & Brown has never stopped with consultancy work in the built environment and the occasional very different client ticking along for the past three years. Just like in FM where there appears to be a positive vibe about the future, so it is with PR, marketing and general communications consultancy. My aim is to build on the relationships made in FM and the wider built environment drawing on my experience with Alfred McAlpine, Camargue and FMX as well as the feedback from numerous clients as diverse as Europa and Johnson Controls to Tata Steel and Constructing Excellence.

If you’re interested in swapping ideas or just having a constructive conversation over a coffee then do get in touch. Meanwhile I am going to have to re-write large chunks of the Frank & Brown web site!

A few weeks ago the Prime Minister stated that the role of nurses in the health service had to change and delivery of care to improve. In the FMX cover story this month Jane Sansome of Capital Hospitals, also makes a strong case for a different NHS system, but she is concerned with facilities management rather than front line carers. However, healthcare staff are clearly hugely affected by the FM and general management provided within the NHS. Sansome argues that facilities management can make a genuine contribution to improved healthcare – when properly coordinated with clinical services.

When I spoke to her she explained that her teams are working with nurses and matrons to find out more about the ‘nursing day’. You might register disbelief that FM providers are not already in close liaison with nursing teams and not already understand the demands of the nursing day and ward routines. But swapping banter with Mark Porter, the BBC R4 doctor, he gave the impression that misunderstanding and poor communication is routine – indeed, it seems there are too many examples of poor coordination in our hospitals to mention. I’ve seen it for myself having watched my father-in-law and my mother in hospital for long periods last year. The system is not a good one. What’s more if you do not fit into the ‘system’ you suffer.

It is a system that Government (of all political persuasions) has created. It has been made worse by constant tinkering. So, in my opinion the recent arguments about the planned heathcare reforms are good. They raise the issue and lets hope we see proper debate.

The problem is not nurses, or any medical staff - it is the system they  work within. The management is not great, but needs better coordination and more resources (not less). What is needed is a better system and tighter rules – the marketisation of healthcare is not the way forward, because, whilst there is room for private companies to be involved it must not be at the cost of patient welfare and care just to save money.

Right now, the salami slicing cuts don’t seem to be helping. What is needed is a plan – a clear, far sighted coordinated plan to introduce better management in to healthcare provision.

That management might be ‘facilities’ oriented. It might not (let me know what you think). I want to find out what can be done to improve things – not from a clinical perspective, but in terms of organisation and management. Let me know what you think – but meanwhile watch out for more blogs and articles.

 
In fact it strikes as a bit of a PR Olympics Fail (to use the language of Twitter) by the Olympic Delivery Authority. Murray, who is the chairman of New London Architecture (NLA), warned in a letter to the Times on Tuesday (3 January) that construction firms involved in the London Olympics were being prevented from capitalising on the success of the project by the Olympic Delivery Authority’s draconian publicity rules.
Construction firms involved in 2012 projects have to abide by the London 2012 No Marketing Rights Protocol, which prohibits most marketing activity capitalising on the Games. That covers facilities management firms as well. I know this because at least two decent editorial ideas I’ve tried to move forward have been foiled in this way.

 
Murray wrote: “The wider commercial benefits to business will only occur if the architects, engineers, contractors and suppliers who helped deliver this success are able to shout about it to the world. The Olympic Delivery Authority did a brilliant job in completing the park at Stratford ahead of schedule. It now behoves the London 2012 Organising Committee (Locog) to ease up on its restrictions and allow those firms which have served them so well to garner some credit.”

 
He has got an excellent point. I’d imagine that the communications team at the ODA must be very nervous about the comments on Twitter and the push to champion what UK construction and FM firms have achieved led by Building magazine #BLD2012. There must be ways around the rules, but Murray has picked up on something that needs changing if firms, individuals and also communities are going to benefit from the London Games.

If there is one decent New Year resolution it is to throw the Locog publicity rules in to the River Lea.

Merry Christmas. Ho! Ho! Ho!
Have a great and prosperous 2012.

Let’s compare facts. Animals of all kinds simply switch off and go to sleep when the going gets tough in the winter. If you’ve been watching BBC1 and Frozen Planet then you know what female Polar bears do.  If you can recall your formative years watching Blue Peter then you know what tortoises do in winter.

We have a tortoise. Right now it is in the fridge at a steady 4C, tucked up tightly in a cardboard box. So why don’t we do that? OK, we might not be able to go to sleep, but we could simply take things steady for a while and do the bare (or even bear) minimum to get by. This would not just save money and be good for morale; it also ticks all the green boxes that George Osborne might have ignored. Think of the energy saved by simply doing less stuff.

Frank & Brown is hunkering down for winter. Clients are tightly managed. Stores and provisions are stocked. Morale is good. Costs are pared to the bone and energy tightly managed. The shed we work in might be like a fridge, but we not going to become tortoises completely. To survive the winter tortoises need a constant temperature – severe fluctuations kill them. It’s the same with any business, especially small ones.

That’s why economic tortoises are so exposed to the wild changes in data and predictions revealed yesterday by the OBR, vaguely recognised by George Osborne, debated by Ed Balls and analysed by Robert Peston. I want the government to issue all of us with some economic hibernation guidelines now. Because, I am not sure if I fancy roaming the economic arctic wastes like male Polar Bears are obliged to – especially since this particular economic winter might be set for long time yet.

I was in London on the day itself running a product launch for Marshalls at Tower 42 in the morning before going to a meeting with WSP close to Heathrow in the afternoon. Being in London was tense, especially travelling on the underground, but it was nothing compared to what was happening that morning in New York.  Even so, the real impact of the attacks did not fully hit me until I talked to people in New York three days later through my work for WSP.

WSP had recently acquired the engineering consultants and experts in high rise buildings, Cantor Seinuk.  Based in New York they had been involved in many of the city’s skrscrapers including buildings adjacent to the World Trade Center. I felt very strongly that WSP had not just an opportunity for raising its profile, but a duty to make sure its expertise in tall buildings was at the centre of the discussion as to why the Twin Towers collapsed after the terror attacks.

The senior management in the UK were not convinced initially, but saw the benefit of becoming involved.  I believed that WSP could make a positive contribution to the discussion, they agreed and I planned a call to the WSP Cantor Seinuk office – aiming to talk to Dr. Ahmad Rahimian its CEO. I was nervous at calling New York to do the necessary research on behalf of Building magazine, but the people I spoke to could not have been more gracious, dignified and brave. They understood the reason for the call, they appreciated my sympathy and kind words although they didn’t need it.  The facts about the collaps of the Twin Towers were discussed and relayed to Building magazine – but it was the overall warmth and dignity of the conversation that impressed me.

I didn’t visit New York until three years later. I only knew the city from TV, books and films and that single conversation with two people at Cantor Seinuk. Hearing voices on the radio; reading discussion in the newspapers this week about that terrible event and the immediate days afterwards reminded me of my call and of the huge respect I have for those people.

It is the facilities management worst kept secret that it has an image problem.  As an industry and as a profession FM needs to promote itself.  But is hiring a PR agency the best way forward?  And if so, what would they do?

Facilities management is the discipline within the built environment with the most to potential to grow, the greatest opportunity as a business sector and one of the unsung heroes of the UK economy.  Everyone in FM knows this, but people outside of the sector don’t get it and most importantly the Government doesn’t get it either – often talking about ‘construction’ or ‘built environment’ and rarely breaking down the components and assessing contributions to the success of the country. 

That’s why the Facilities Management Association and the British Institute of Facilities Management are both looking to appoint professional PR advice.  But is the brief a poisoned chalice?  Not necessarily – especially if the advice is frank and the client is willing to listen.  But in the meantime, here are ten tips to successful FM PR.

1. Determine who the target audience is – i.e. to whom are you promoting the industry/profession, UK Government, business groups, the broader built environment
2. Agree a tight and easy to understand definition of facilities management – steer clear of jargon, pick out the key aspects of FM as you’re probably talking to a non-FM audience
3. Determine exactly what the core message is – i.e. that FM is a dynamic business sector that is adding value to the UK economy and is much maligned and misunderstood etc etc
4. Get the client to agree that the measure of success is getting the overall message to be understood, not column inches about their respective organisation
5. Identify FM champions – pick out providers of different sizes and individuals that capture the very essence of what is best practice, use these guys to deliver the core message
6. Demonstrate what value FM adds to the end product on a new build – find a scheme (using your champions) where FM has been involved from the very beginning
7. Show that FM can make work spaces, hospitals, schools etc much more efficient, pleasant and low carbon spaces to use and work in with an innovative, proactive FM mindset
8. Demonstrate that investing in FM best practice will generate longer term savings
9. Show that strategic FM is the best way to create a low carbon economy
10. Organise a system for regular and relevant comment from FM organisations (and your FM champions) on key issues relating to the work space, property management and energy efficiency – i.e. make sure your respective FM body has an opinion

Then lastly, once the plan is agreed stick to it and be patient. Results are never that quick in business to business PR. But by working to a good, solid plan that everyone buys into and then sharing news, comment and data about FM the perception of the sector might begin to become far more positive.

If that doesn’t work then take some more advice. Or sack the agency.

Email is not given a second thought in the majority of progressive workplaces. For those that still print out messages and do not give teams and individuals access to PCs the future is limited. Sharing information is vital nowadays. Choosing the right format is crucial to good workplace management. Then perhaps engaging with the people in the workplace to agree some rules about that information is advisable too.

Plenty of people can be fired for gross negligence with or without the aid of modern communication initiatives like social media. Twitter and Facebook capture the imagination and channel the fear some managers have that secrets about operations, services and personnel will be revealed on the Net. So what, that goes on down the pub, via email and the phone daily amongst teams with low morale and self esteem.

The risk is not social media in the workplace itself, it is not managing it correctly and not taking advantage of its potential.

For example, Ian Broadbent of Europa has talked about operations teams using Twitter to share a maintenance problem live, but only to a chosen audience, to gain advice and resolve an issue.  Used intelligently social media can be a business tool.  Think how useful it might be to track staff using Geo Tags, what about using Twitter as a means to reach all employees for an urgent announcement?

The workplace is constantly evolving. Social media and the workplace are stuck with each other, just as over the years the work place has embraced (eventually) phones, radio, computers, email and video. It is only scary if you don’t understand it. Learn about it, use it and learn to make it work for your advantage.

With thanks to Martin Brown @fairsnape and Martin Pickard @thefmguru