Upstream April 2016 0
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Upstream The Newsletter of Incentive FM Group Autumn/Winter April 2016 Inside This Issue Our Brand & Strategy Group Contract Wins Our latest P&FM Awards Comserve Six Months on acquisition Group Conference Our Charities Around the Park Welcome to the April 2016 edition of the Incentive FM Group Newsletter, Upstream. We hope you enjoy reading our news and views. We were delighted to complete the acquisition of been opened for the company and we have Specialist Window Cleaning Limited (SWC) on expanded the range and quality of services 4th January this year. We have worked with SWC offered to our impressive list of group clients. for some time and as a trusted subcontractor had Currently the business is quite ‘London developed a good working relationship with Centric’ and whilst this will continue to be our Gareth Thomas, Managing Director of the busi- main area of focus given the high rise nature of ness, through Incentive QAS, our contract clean- much of the City, we will also expand the service ing business. The SWC team has provided our out in the regions. If another suitable bolt-on specialist window cleaning service at both St window cleaning business becomes available we Botolph Building and 110 Bishopsgate (The may also consider it, as the synergies are very Heron Tower) in the City of London for some time strong for us with our existing Incentive QAS and following friendly discussions, it seemed to office cleaning business. It is interesting to note be the natural development for both businesses that the margins in technical window cleaning to formalise the relationship and welcome Gareth are better than can be found in most other main and his team into Incentive FM Group along with stream FM service disciplines. their staff and expanding third party client base. The business will continue to trade as SWC in Jeremy Waud and Martin Reed worked on this new stylised version of the company’s brand. the deal from Incentive’s side and we believe the opportunities that can be presented to SWC from both our own wider customer base and SWC’s contacts given a stronger and broader commer- cial footing are considerable. In the first quarter of the calendar year we have seen strong growth for the company already, as various doors have fm group limited Our Brand and our Brand Strategy By Incentive FM Group Chairman, Jeremy Waud The way we use our Incentive they plug into being delivered with passion, energy and professionalism. The reason brand and its association with they should feel that way is that these are both facilities management the building blocks upon which our busi- ness is built and this entrepreneurial yet (FM) and all of our other caring and driven culture is what makes us services is a point of some appealing to much of the market. interest to everybody involved What do the letter ‘FM’ mean to in our business. I thought it people in our brand? would be both useful and We frequently debate the correct position- ing of our brand, and whilst we are interesting to set out our involved in an ever increasing number of thinking and our strategy in service disciplines and brands, they are all associated with the facilities management this respect. and service sectors, hence our positioning of Incentive FM Group as the holding com- In the Beginning pany – i.e. all companies providing services, When we started Incentive FM Ltd back in be they cleaning, engineering or consul- January 2002, it was clear to us that we tancy from within the broader FM market wanted to both incentivise our staff and sector. It is imperative to us that our cus- our customers with a new, fresh and tomers have a choice when it comes to uncluttered way of both doing business both contract style/type and service and rewarding hard work and success for provider. Our brand representation and all. The name in many ways set out our stall service offer allows this full flexibity so that and we have been successful in building our customers can pick what suits them from that zero base to a business over the and leave behind anything that doesn’t. last fourteen years with forecast sales of some £ 85m. Going Forward – How does it look to us? Acquisitions From a branding point of view, it’s largely Our strategy with the acquisitions of more of the same. If we have two or more Quality Assured Services (QAS) in 2008, brands in the same space we will want to Lynx Security in 2012, Comserve in 2014 harmonise these when the time is right. If and Specialist Window Cleaning in 2015 and when we acquire new businesses for has been consistent. Initially we leave the the group we will want to link them to our brand totally alone and allow the business brand when the opportunity presents itself to operate much in the way it has tradition- and when we start something new, we will ally and at an appropriate point in time and associate it with our incentive brand. with the buy in of all stakeholders, we The net result we feel is that our teams introduce the Incentive brand in a linked are able to continue to work under the manner to the original name and trading brand and within the service area that rep- style – hence, Incentive QAS and Incentive resents their chosen calling and skill set, Lynx. whilst allowing our clients to easily identify with these specialisms as well. Many of our Start Up Divisions competitors go in the opposite direction Where we have started a new business or and call everything the same thing, paint it, division from scratch, we have used a simi- brand it and market it as one and wonder lar brand architecture linking the Incentive why employees and customers alike feel name to the activity being undertaken, for somewhat disenfranchised! example Incentive FM Consultancy, Incentive Workspace, Incentive Catering and Incentive Carbon Management. What Brand values should our customers expect? The Incentive brand stands for Loyalty, Integrity and Respect. Our staff within the group understand this but just as impor- tantly, our customers should and will be on the receiving end of a whichever service Page 2 Culture – A Key Commercial Differentiator By Martin Reed, Managing Director at Incentive FM Group As Incentive FM Group is one believe their company offers excellent train- ing opportunities are generally less likely to of a very few medium sized leave their jobs than employees that feel businesses in the sector able to their training opportunities are somewhat limited. As a result we have witnessed year- offer a fully self-delivered on-year growth in staff retention, whilst our multi-service solution, we ability to attract the very best recruits contin- often find ourselves tendering ues to grow. We are quite simply playing to our against the big players. strengths. We aren’t large enough to carry the overhead of a large HR and training What we lack in scale we need to make up department but nor do we have the kind of in other areas and the culture of our busi- bureaucracy which means that everything ness is playing an increasingly important has to be prescriptive. role. Our business culture is ‘freedom within a For the past couple of years Incentive framework’ meaning that as long as the have been working hard to embody a cul- legal, financial and client stakeholder ture of ‘trusted advisor’ where our teams are requirements are met then it is down to the encouraged to really understand the opera- individual teams how they achieve this. We tions, get close to our clients and develop find this helps people to develop faster and creative thought through solutions. better and enables us to promote from Underpinning this is a unique training and within and reward loyalty and hard work. development programme, created in con- In the service sector people are the foun- junction with our training partners, Positive dation of any business and can be a com- Change. This bespoke training is designed pany’s greatest asset. At Incentive FM Group to help promote the culture of the business, we put our trust into our team and whilst also gives people the additional skills empower them to deliver innovative, pro- and knowledge to enable them to unlock gressive solutions to maximise value for cus- their full potential. tomers. This culture is invaluable for the There is no doubt that we have reaped business as we face the ongoing challenge the benefits of prioritising the training and of differentiating ourselves in the market- development of our workforce. Staff that place and staying one step ahead. Incentive FM to provide a ‘Safe Place’ for those in need By Glenn Wilson, Regional Director at Incentive Facilities Managment Ltd Incentive FM has joined a challenging situations. Incentive FM’s staff will be trained on pioneering scheme designed how to provide help and reassurance, to help vulnerable members which may involve making a phone call where necessary to the trusted person on of the community. the card, (where carried), or to one of the The Safe Place Scheme helps people with numbers on an emergency contact list pro- learning disabilities, mental illness, demen- vided to the premises. They will also keep tia and other conditions by providing them the vulnerable person safe until the situa- with somewhere to go to and get help tion is resolved. immediately if they are out and about and The scheme has been successfully feel scared or at risk. This in turn encour- piloted at St Stephen’s Shopping Centre in ages them to have a more independent Hull and is now being rolled out through- lifestyle whilst knowing there is support out the business, with Crystal Peaks nearby.