FM FEATURE GARETH TANCRED
directors that firms in the private sector have. You become reliant on volunteers, and although volunteers are excellent – particularly this institute’s – it’s a process that can slow things down, as they all have day jobs”. Giving the BIFM the kind of speed of response and agility of a private business is a challenge Tancred relishes and he’s already looking at comparable membership organisations to see what lessons the institute can learn from them. “What motivates me is making a difference. In this role I see a huge opportunity for FM. If you look at the big issues of the day – cost consciousness, the carbon agenda, welfare – FM has a significant role to play. As the institute representing it, we should have a voice and we should be helping the people in our sector to address the issues on those agendas. Tancred also has ambitions to increase the reach of the institute. “When you look at the size of the sector, it feels that we should be bigger. FM in the UK is world renowned, but in some countries they’re where we were 20 years ago. What opportunities do we at the institute have to influence FM across the rest of world? That seems to me an important question to ask. “As for my personal motivation, I’ve always liked working with and helping to develop people. I really enjoy keeping in touch with people I’ve worked with over the years.” So that’s the motivation, but what of the inspiration? Who are the business leaders Tancred admires? Sir John Harvey-Jones stands out in particular. “He was always outspoken and quite controversial. But he took ICI from a loss-making business into one that posted the first billionpound annual profit of any company in the UK. The way he 24 | 7 JUNE 2012 | FM WORLD
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worked was inspirational to me.” And then there’s the publicityshy Richard Branson. “People either love him or hate him,” says Tancred, “but what inspires me is that he’s not afraid of a challenge – he will take on a project that looks impossible and puts good people in place to make it happen. Also, he never asks people to do things he wouldn’t do himself. As a leader, being able to show to your team that you’re not asking them to do anything you wouldn’t do yourself is a very important quality in my book.”
“This is not a business I own. I can’t just go off in one direction. We’re a membership organisation and we need to listen to what our members want”
Breaking the mould “I’ve spent 20 years as an accountant, but I’ve never seen myself simply moving from one financial director’s role to another. I’ve always enjoyed getting outside of mainstream accounting so I’ve taken career choices that have given me exposure to more commercial areas. I’ve always seen myself as a general manager rather than simply a financial director. Getting a finance qualification has given me a good business grounding, but there are lots of other things in business I like doing. “I’m really enjoying this role and would probably have done something similar in another type of general management role. There is so much to this role and it’s great to meet so many leaders in so many organisations that I can learn from personally. We’re seeing the role of the FM change, with organisations increasingly aware of the value
TESTING TIMES
OVERCOMING ADVERSITY ancred’s biggest business test, to date, occurred 15 years ago in one of his financial director roles. “I realised that the numbers presented to me at interview stage were no more than forecasts presented as reality. The company was virtually bankrupt. What’s more, it was going through the acquisition of a new head-office building that hadn’t been fully developed, and there simply wasn’t the money to complete it. Also, there was a huge delapidations bill going back to 1964 for which it had no provision and
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it was in debt by a sum close to its annual turnover. “I had to refinance the debt, get the head office development up and running and renegotiate the delaps bill so that it could be paid over number of years. “It was tough, but we promised each member of staff that if we achieved all the targets we’d set, we’d buy everyone a holiday. And gradually, we did turn the business around, posting a 5 per cent profit. It felt really good to be able to tell everyone they were going to get that holiday.” www.fm-world.co.uk
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