David Savage- Welcome to today's episode of In Conversation
With. Today, I'm looking to be joined by Cijo from Mitie. Thank you for making
the short trip up here from London Bridge.
Cijo Joseph- Thank you very much, David. Beautiful office. Fantastic. I
look at the facilities, I get fascinated.
- Well, given the background of Mitie, I'm sure that people
will very quickly understand why.
- Yeah.
- Your office must be quite beautiful, I'd imagine in The
Shard.
- It is an amazing office. There's a story behind it. We
took that office, it was just a shell.
- Yeah.
- And- The Mitie engineering went in, the Mitie designers
went in. The complete office is a Mitie design and quite a lot of modern
technology in there as well. Quite a lot of sensor technologies, the cleaning
technologies. You have got around 6:00, the robots comes out and clean the
floors. Yes, it's pretty fascinating office.
- Well, let's start with that because people might be
thinking, Hang on, the Mitie design goes in. What do you want about? Who are
Mitie? What does Mitie do?
- Yeah, a little bit about Mitie. Mitie is UK's leading
facility management company. We are roughly around 4 billion revenue per year.
And we have got 75,000 colleagues, where 60,000, our colleagues are frontline
heroes. Which means they're out in there looking after the facilities, keep it
efficient, keep it safe, keep it clean, and keep it secure. So, we are very
proud about it. We have got 149 nationalities working within this organisation.
We are very UK-focused and we are predominantly... You walk in pretty much any
big super malls or you walk in any supermarkets and you walk into rail stations
or airports, we are there.
- And one thing we haven't said is, well, what do you do
for?
- My name is Cijo Joseph, I'm the Chief Technology and
Information Officer for Mitie. And I look after the technology rollout within
Mitie and to our clients.
- Now, Mitie's been on a bit of a transformation journey
yourself over the last five years.
- Yes.
- Could you describe that for us? Because I mean... Look,
everyone's going to be sitting here going facilities management. Obviously,
there's been some challenges over the last couple of years at least. But what's
that transformation during that life in the business?
- It's an interesting, it's a very good question as well and
a very interesting journey because the portion you've said about the facility
management itself, gone through a very traditional rough path. The traditional
facility management companies gone through a very rough path. Itself became a
need for us to change. So when our CEO, Phil Bentley, took over around five
years back, he straight away see, that we have got pretty rich data and we have
got a amazing talent of people. But what we were lacking is a people process
technology landscape or a transformation. And that's the journey we started. We
looked at our people, we looked at the facilities we serve, and we bought
technology in the middle to bring everything together. And over the five years,
technology has become the core pillar of our strategy growth.
- The fact that the business has transformed and grown to
that extent, suggests that there are demands being made of facilities and
workspaces. I suppose, as a general overview before we dive into some more
detail, how has facilities management evolved and what do people want from
workspaces?
- So, there's quite a lot of evolution happen or within
Mitie. We've all, or we reinvented ourselves last five years. We reinvented
ourself to keep us competitive, to make sure that we get the best cost to serve
value. We make sure that our customers are looked after well with the
technology and they get the best services from us. So quite a lot of stuff. We
started what we called connected workspace. We started around three to four
years back especially around the technology side, connecting the people, the
process and the facility manager to the technology. Now, that was Mitie
journey. So we were pushing out quite a lot of technology to our client, to our
cleaning frontline staff, to our engineers. Then, COVID happened. And when
COVID happened, all of a sudden, you could see that facility management become
the core pillar. I mean, people want to go back to the office if it is safe and
clean and secure. The paradigm of the facility management changed completely.
And luckily for us because we had a strategy five years back. To be technology
enabled, to make sure that people are connected up with big data solutions and
the IoT. It helped us during the COVID time and it helped us in our growth
strategy as well. Right in the middle of the pandemic, we acquired InterServe
FM, which is one of the other facility management company out there. That shows
that we were happy to take big pets and challenge because we were ready with
technology to absorb new companies into our Mitie landscape.
- So, during the pandemic...
- Yeah.
- The technology estate of an organisation expanded to
include people's kitchen tables. And when we talked about security, people
suddenly thought about the company's perimeter being the kitchen table. But
now, coming back into the workspace and as you said, people want to come into
the office.
- Yeah.
- If it's safe. If it's clean. If it's secure.
- Yeah. Yeah. What are people expecting or bringing from
their dining room, their kitchen table into the workspace? What are they
looking for and what demands are they placing of a collaborative environment?
- It's a very good question. I mean, if you think about all
of us went back to our drawing rooms, our kitchens, our whole rooms, wherever
we could sit and have a... If you're a family man, I got two kids as well.
Wherever we could get a less noise place where I can find a corner wherever it
is, because kids are studying in another room. What happened was, people...
There's a good and bad. I'll go through the good part of it. People get more
used to the technology they have got there in hands. They got used to some
wonderful remote methodologies like teams, whether it is Microsoft Teams or
whether it is your Zoom. People start a new way of communicating each other.
Which means people were not trained for that. I mean, if you think about it,
when you traditionally roll out a technology in any offices, whether it is
facility management or banking or utilities, there's a whole lot of training
goes around, people get used to it, end user training. Nothing happened because
people there found innovative way to connect with their machines, to connect
with others. So they get used to working with their mobile phone, with their
machines, much more closer. What does that give the opportunity to companies
like us? Where we were pushing mobile app to order a coffee, to book a space
before you come in or book a meeting room. That become very natural for people.
I mean, if people coming to The Shard now, in our offices, they book space
through a mobile app called Aria. They can do it at their home, they can pick
up a date, they can pick up the slot. They can also book meeting rooms. They
can consult with their own colleagues who is going to come in on the same day
and collaborate more. So, this become natural for them. There's no, you know,
there's no sell to them. It's a push. That's the need. That becomes... So what we
are seeing is technology become a more prominent role. The way people now look
at facilities... I mean, they don't want to walk into a facility but they can't
book a meeting room. They don't know how many people are there. They don't know
the colleagues whom they work remotely are all going to be there. Now, imagine
if you have got all that access before even you come in, you know that you are
going to have very productive day. So, that's all the good side. The bad side
what we've seen is people became digitally fatigued a little bit. There is no
real start and stop. And that also helped for facility management company like
us to push technologies to them. Because for them to get the break from that
digital fatigue, they need to come out of the the situation where they're in.
Whether it is a home, their whole rooms or kitchen, come out, walk to a railway
station, take a train, take a bus. That's all part of a social being, what you
are as a human, you need that social interaction, you need to come out of it.
And when you come out, you are also coming out with the know-how that, I am
going to be in our office, I am going to be with the people who I see them
remotely or in digitally and I'm going to interact with them. So that entered
transition now we look after. So, we enable them to come out safely and
securely, they know that I can go to office and that gives them the break from
their digital fatigue back... You know, fatigue which they're in. They get the
break, they come to the office being productive, then go back with the
knowledge, that I met the people whom I collaborate physically, I've got that
social touch, now I'm going back. And then they can go back and then do the
remote again for a couple of days, then come back again.
- Right, you're wrongly. Probably, unfairly before the
pandemic, I suppose facilities management was probably seen as a fairly
low-skilled part of the workforce.
- Data, I suppose, is moving it up the priority list for an
organisation because they can unlock insights. But still, when I think about
the office environment, I think of people, I think of HR teams, I think of
surveys, poll surveys, I think of feedback, I think of stuff that isn't
inherently data specific or data intensive.
- Yeah. Yeah. So how is specifically data and technology
helping those teams? And I suppose, therefore, attaching grace and values of
facilities management?
- It's a great question there. If you talk to any
organisation. I mean, let's take big organisation, technology organisation like
Microsoft or AWS or Salesforce, or you take organisation like yours, like
whether it is your HR team or you... One of the prominent discussions in most
of the discussions around the executive tables are a couple of things. Safety,
obviously that is a concern for everybody. What happens if a pandemic comes
back, how we are making sure that the people are coming back in safe? Then
suddenly, you turn into ESG, you turn into energy saving, decarbonization. You
have got big numbers coming through to meet. All this obligation how we are
going to meet? And the biggest energy consumption and carbon emission happen in
the facilities you are in, 30% of the carbon emission happens there. So our
science of service, which we speak about to our client is whatever you talk about
in the modern, the current dynamics about saving the energy, making your
facilities efficient or have a productive work-life balance for your employees
or meeting your ESG target. You do need to interact with your facility managers
suddenly, you need to interact with your facility management company suddenly,
because they hold the key to unleash opportunities in all these areas you're
talking about. Because otherwise, you can't meet them. Because if your
buildings are running energy efficient, of course, you should be thinking that
current crisis. You know, you should be optimising your buildings. There you
go, they're savings come. Are you meeting your decarbonization metrics or the
commitments you made to the city or you met to your shareholders or you met to
yourself? You do need to speak to us. You do need to speak to the facility
management companies because they will help you in that. Are your employees are
well looked after or are they being proactive coming from a home environment to
office environment? Whom are you going to speak to? You have to speak to the
facility management company. So suddenly you could see that we are the force
which was behind the curtain, five years or three years back, is now in the
forefront. We are having the table in the executive table and discussing about
the critical activities you have to do or the commitments you've made.
- Your business has gone through transformation.
- Yeah.
- A lot of organisations are having to pivot or go through
transformation and are facing new challenges.
- As a leader, what skills or attributes do you think on a
personal level have helped you lead that business through that period?
- I would say, the couple of things, isn't it? I mean, when
you talk about change, people generally don't want any change. I mean, people
are scared about change. But when you talk about opportunities, when you talk
about curiosity, when you talk about solving a problem which you're
continuously going through, you are making a change to make the situation
change without knowing that you are actually part of a change. So, the journey
which Mitie gone through... Is not we are saying, "That we are doing a big
transformation programme, let's spend some money on it and see what happens and
bring lots of consultant to help us." No, we had a need to change. It was
the question of survival, as you said five years back. If you look at big names
around the facility management, they were struggling. So for us, it was a
question of survival. What happens when you have a question of survival? You
come with innovative idea to run your business in a much better way, much
efficient way. What happens there, people will be start thinking differently.
They start thinking about tools and techniques to make it more efficient. You
are actually the part of the change without you knowing you are going through
the change. So what the leadership... Me, as a leader, is about having that
curiosity, having that challenge to myself and my team to look things
differently, trying to have that problem solving. I mean, one of the great
thing about technologies is always in a continuous problem solving mode because
we are looking at a five-year plan. Then, we start the journey now because we
always look ahead. And you are always on that, I need to solve this. I need to
do it in a much better way. And that helps you. And doing that, is making you a
continuous change and continuous improvement.
- Look, it's been a pleasure for you to give up some time
and comment and talk to us and share some of the Mitie stories. So, I want to
thank you for that.
- Yeah, most welcome. Thank you very much, David, for having
me here.
