FMBusinessDaily (FMBD) is delighted to welcome Martin Stead, an experienced and well-known name in the facilities management sector.
Martin joins FMBD from Sewell Group, where he was Managing Director of FM. Sewell Group is a multi-discipline collection of companies operating across Yorkshire. Martin first joined the company in 1993 as a management apprentice, going from school straight to a building site.
The company put him through university and he broadened his horizons working as a quantity surveyor in Australia and then for UK construction giant Birse, helping them build the KC Stadium and, on completion, burying his battered shoes in the embankment behind the East Stand. His return to Sewell Group in 2007 and his subsequent elevation to the role of Managing Director of Sewell FM came as the company was about to take off. In the seven years which followed, the workforce grew from below 10 to more than 100.
Martin joins FMBD, the leading work-winning and profile enhancement business, just four months after its launch. In that time, it has experienced phenomenal growth, reaching more than 200,000 daily subscribers in the FM marketplace with 60 new FM business stories every week.
We talk to Martin as he looks to build on the initial success at FMBD.
What attracted you to the role at FMBD and what are your aims at the company?
The opportunity to join FMBD at the start of their journey was a very exciting one and I am looking forward to helping build on the amazing start. Whilst it is a different role to the one at Sewell Group, it is in a familiar sector and one that I am passionate about. I am relishing the challenge ahead of cementing our position as the leading profile enhancement platform and working closely with our clients on their own journeys.
What are some of the biggest challenges and opportunities facing facilities management?
As a result of Brexit and the latent impact of Covid-19 I believe that recruitment will be the biggest challenge in the short to medium term. This is no different to any other sector with vacancies easily outstripping demand. It is likely to be felt most acutely at the lower end of the pay scale.
The pandemic undoubtedly accelerated change in many areas but none more so than the hybrid workplace. This will present both challenges and opportunities to facilities managers, who must become leading figures for organisations adapting to this shift.
Still the largest opportunity in facilities management is the adoption and integration of technology. Those that push the frontiers in this area I believe will come out on the right side of success over time.
Has COVID had a lasting or even a permanent effect on the FM sector?
COVID has brought several specific issues into sharp focus for organisations, but none more so than air quality and cleaning. Previously, both likely received little attention beyond facilities management teams but that has changed significantly. Air quality can be impacted by many things depending on the systems installed; optimising efficiency and effectiveness was an important factor in preventing the spread of the virus.
Cleaning arguably had an even greater role to play and the often maligned and under-appreciated soft service was rapidly elevated to a critical one.
It is my hope that the new found respect for facilities management services in this pandemic becomes a lasting and deep appreciation.
