Greetings,

Leadership is thinking ahead and designing holistically to better build and operate our built environments. This means overcoming short-termism and looking further into operational performance of our buildings.

This week’s Interview is with Jo Duggan, CEO of Facilities Management Association of New Zealand (FMANZ) where we cover the exciting future of the facilities industry.

Jo Duggan - CEO, FMANZ

Jo Duggan studied Architecture and started her career with leading New Zealand building product suppliers such as GIB (Winstone Wallboards) and Resene.

At the beginning of her career, she developed a real depth of knowledge in building products and how to bring the industry together to design with cost and sustainably in mind. Since then, she has worked for NZGBC, Te Kāhui Whaihanga NZ Institute of Architects and is currently CEO of FMANZ.

Jo and her fantastic team were the masterminds behind the fantastic 2024 FM Summit, held this year in Tāmaki Makaurau.

The Interview

• The future of the Facilities Industry is overcoming short term thinking - we really need to think ahead and plan cashflow for peak operational performance of our built space. How do we all think as long term asset owners or kaitiaki?

• It’s really important to surround yourself with people who think differently to you - but this doesn’t mean that you need to change to fit what you think what a “leader” is. The best teams are those where you bring different perspectives to solving important problems

• As an industry, we need to use this time to review and improve what we do - construction and Property markets experience highs and lows with economic cycles. Where we might have extra time, now is the time to rethink and review how to improve what we do and how we do it

• Careers aren’t straight lines - For those starting out or retraining, know that a career isn’t linear and there are so many opportunities in the property sector to really build a career

We’ve been attending the FM summit for the last few years and far out, does it just keep getting better and better!

Some key takeaways -

• Protecting our crowded places - Richard Scott, Senior Sergeant at NZ Police outlined how the Deter, Detect, Delay and Respond framework drives their day-to-day. Given events around Auckland and Christchurch CBDs over the last 5 years, this is a key consideration of any Property team.

  • Action: Talk about it, Review your security practices and incorporate these events into your Emergency response plans

• Empowering property teams to perform at their peak - Stuart van Rij and Stuart Bryant talked through the importance of confident, intelligent career focus in Property roles.

  • Action: Understand your strengths, develop those and be intellectually honest about where you need to improve. Target actions to develop. Know that your points of view and ideas are incredibly valuable to a significant area of cost and you can have a huge impact on the bottom line

• Power of Infrastructure to shape our daily lives - we don’t work on Islands. Working in Property, we have the power to shape and add to EV networks, parks and green spaces, technology options

  • Action: Take a proactive interest in the community and infrastructure around you. What could be improved? What’s required to improve the value of the area?

See you next time!

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