Changing FM Profession Creates Need for Advanced Education by Phil Hammond

In a recent LinkedIn blog post from the Corporate Real Estate and Facilities Management Professionals Group, the question was posed, Is FM a Strategic Discipline?  The answer is a resounding “yes.”
Historically, as many of you know, facilities management has not been considered strategic, at least in the eyes of those outside of the profession.  As Richard Christiano, Assistant Professor at Wentworth Institute of Technology points out in his recent article, Professional Development: Changing Face of Facility Management, most facility managers entered the profession through the “back door” of an organization where they were likely managing critical equipment or running physical assets, for instance.  While their work was vital to the success of a business, it was not typically integrated into the larger strategic vision of an organization.
With the increasing complexity of the built environment—the operation of multi-campus buildings, managing multi-faceted HVAC facilities, understanding intricate security systems—coupled with the ever-growing need to be cost-efficient, there is great demand for facility managers to think more strategically.  Professor Kathy O. Roper and her colleagues at Georgia Institute of Technology point out in their white paper, Strategic Facility Planning, that strategic thinking among facility managers will only become more critical in the coming years as budgets grow tighter and a heightened focus on worker performance and productivity continues to increase in the knowledge age.
The growing need for strategic thinking in the field of facilities management, in turn, is creating high demand for a more professionalized workforce.  Today’s facility manager increasingly must be a person who not only has the technical knowledge to manage the 21st century built environment, but must also be an individual who is armed with the business savvy to have a seat at the executive table.  Their insight and management expertise will guide the operation, technology, systems, finance, and innovation for buildings of the future.  These business leaders will help organizations save money on facilities, which is typically the second highest business cost (labor being first).
Responding to the need for a more professionalized, strategic facility manager, Wentworth Institute of Technology launched the Master of Science in Facility Management (MSFM) program in the fall of 2012.  The MSFM program is designed to educate students in foundational post-graduate management principles while enhancing facility management skills and knowledge.  Students learn the leadership and business skills necessary to respond to the demand to keep their facilities highly efficient and functional.  Coursework integrates elements of project management, finance, real estate, employees and their working environment, space planning, building operations and maintenance, and quality assessment.  Graduates will be prepared to lead the next generation of facilities management as strategic and innovative thinkers.
Facilities management is certainly in the midst of an exciting yet critically important period in its evolution as a profession.  There is a very bright future for the facilities management profession and Wentworth’s Master of Science in Facility Management program will help to usher in the next generation of strategic leaders in the field, who, as Professor Christiano notes, will serve to elevate the role of the facility manager as a core business function.
Phil Hammond is the Director of Graduate Programs for the College of Professional and Continuing Education at Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston.