Frank and Brown

Can Johan Cruyff help FM embrace total football ideals?

One reaction to the pressure to save money in the UK business services sector is to bundle services together. For the facilities management industry this is translated as Total Facilities Management. In reality TFM means not a true totality, but an attempt by the bigger players (as smaller organisation just don’t have the scale) to take control of the services normally sub-contracted and self deliver them as much as possible. As with the whole of FM the definition of ‘total’ is easily stretched and manipulated to suit the requirements of the customer. To work properly it has to be done with an open, honest partnership approach – i.e. not hiding what the supplier is unable to self-deliver.

But the key here is that it is not Total FM. Not really. (more…)

Football is like PR. That might seem an odd idea, but stick with it for a while. Holland, in the 1960s and 1970s emerged as a footballing nation and introduced a new way of playing. It was called total football.

The concept was that each player possessed sufficient technical skill and awareness on the pitch to play in any position. The method was embraced throughout network of the country’s football clubs and its strength was its simplicity. Any child joining any club in Holland was brought up to play football in such a way – they would think nothing of being asked to play at full back, midfield or attack on different occasions. (more…)