IWFM London Region Series 1: Blog 11: Russell Wood

1.      Name, role and company:

Russell Wood, Facilities Manager for Dentsu.

2.      Tell us about a typical working day:

A typical day feels intense with a high volume of meetings and various projects ongoing. The current pandemic has accelerated our Real Estate strategy and we have recently undergone the closure of a number of premises to migrate into our Global HQ in London. Throughout the various lockdowns we have rolled back and forth regarding opening our offices and that naturally has an impact on various areas of the department in terms of workload which is regularly monitored to establish our requirements vs furlough scheme.   Like many businesses there has been a step change to ensure our employee’s wellbeing sits higher on the agenda than ever before and with a relatively large team this is a rolling theme for me.

Over the past 12 months dentsu have gone through various changes which has focussed our FM delivery strategy and forced us to look at more efficient ways of working. This will enable the delivery to become more relevant when we are looking at migration to new premises in the near future.

3.      What’s top of your to-do list?

Project management of multiple office integrations (and subsequent restack activities) along with the execution & launching a dentsu UK first CAFM solution. The expectation of successful delivery to these projects are high and demand a significant amount of time to do this once and do it well!

The business has gone through a number of changes in the past 12 months, with more to come, and these projects support the change management elements that are being undertaken across the board.

4.      How and where did your FM journey begin?

My first role in FM was as a client-side Facilities Assistant at a UK law firm. The position was one of convenience at the time as opposed to having a strong desire to get into the industry, but I immediately enjoyed adding value and making a difference whilst working with some really good people, so it organically continued and here we are.

5.      What’s been your career highlight?

I have been very fortunate to date with progressive opportunities and remain very proud of my journey so far. Prior to leaving my last company I delivered a relocation project from inception to completion and whilst the size of the project in ￡/psf wasn’t of the greatest value it played a significant part in the wider wealth management business strategy and was successfully delivered under budget.

The career highlight though is soon to come within the next 18 months as I am fortunate to be involved in Project Mint. This is an extremely exciting project, and by far my biggest, to be a part of and I look forward to being able to share the outcome in due course.

6.      How do you feel the world of FM has changed since the Coronavirus pandemic?

The landscape has naturally changed and it’s great to see so many of the industry’s supply chain reasonably adapting their practices to support the new ways of working. We need to evolve with it and whilst there are some good remote webinars on offer it would be great to start networking in person again and enjoy learning with our peers. Technology has been great but face to face interaction just can’t be replicated in my opinion, that said, I am still very keen to remotely engage with my connections (and new connections) too whilst remain operating in the restricted world.

There has been some great recognition of our industry and it’s important that we optimise the limelight and continue to showcase the value add within our organisations. The continuation of how the disciplines of FM, HR/Wellbeing, Technology, H&S are integrating is important as this is key to enhancing business resilience.

7.      What words of wisdom would you pass on to any aspiring facilities professional?

In the earlier career days, I felt the job was rather thankless and that we just react to the complaints. I would encourage aspiring facilities professionals to take a step back, understand all the disciplines that fall with FM and the importance of the function and value it adds. The industry has so much diversity and career opportunities and you are a key part of those successes however big or small and whatever seniority. Embrace it, connect to the amazing people that are in the industry and enjoy the ride!

8.      If you weren’t in FM, what would you be?

I have always retained a keen interest in sport since a young age. With that embedded in me plus my desire of helping others I would have perhaps taken the path of helping the younger generation in some sort of sporting capacity.