Editorial

Citation

Finch, E. (1999), "Editorial", Facilities, Vol. 17 No. 12/13. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.1999.06917laa.001

Editorial

As a commercial firm why produce a paper for Facilities? Is this not the sort of things that academics do? Facilities has always devoted a special section for practice papers. Unlike the academic papers, the practice papers bypass the formal refereeing process. Typically the practice papers are produced by practitioners willing to share their experiences and know-how in a particular area of facilities management. In the past this has often been initiated by a press release that prompts the editor to cajole a firm into producing a more in-depth article. But for anyone who has ever received volumes of press releases they will appreciate the difficulties of finding the "diamond in the rough". Many press releases have a heavy marketing spin and offer little in terms of content.

Writing can be a painful though rewarding experience: even more so when the authors receive feedback and become involved in new dialogues. Facilities has always attracted a large proportion of practitioners. So the opportunity for creating dialogue with new partners and new customers is considerable. But why, I hear you say, do I want to disclose our closely guarded secrets? Because today the facilities management industry like many other industries is moving towards a much more "open" environment. This means being open not only in terms of disclosing your own business practices but also being willing to listen and learn about others. This is not driven by any particular altruistic motivation but by the recognition of a fundamentally new business model. Whether you are providing security services, building maintenance, health and safety or whatever, no such business can operate as an "island". Increasingly, the appeal of a facilities management operation is founded not on their ability to deliver an efficient service, but in their ability to interact and integrate with other services. This plug-and-play capability requires a level of transparency to processes. By publishing papers in international journals such as Facilities, firms are able to articulate their expertise and make their processes much more visible.

Busy professionals may only be able to spare the time to write a letter to the editor, perhaps about a recent Facilities article or an emerging issue. Others might consider seriously the value of spending time writing case-studies of past work, including an honest description of the challenges faced and how they were overcome. As editor I am hoping to start up a comments page, to increase the dialogue of the facilities management community. Facilities is very definitely an "active" rather than a "passive" journal and everyone's views are important. So get those pens out.

Edward Finch