Editorial

Citation

Finch, E. (2005), "Editorial", Facilities, Vol. 23 No. 1/2. https://doi.org/10.1108/f.2005.06923aaa.001

Editorial

It was my pleasure to visit Brazil during September of 2004 to see for myself the progress that is being made in the area of facilities management. Brazil is in many ways an economy on its own, with few English speakers. For this reason, the discipline of facilities management has evolved in a way that is somewhat distinct from the European or US model – it has its own Brazilian flavour. Many practitioners in Brazil acknowledge that cost remains the main driver in facilities management, and the luxury of providing inspirational work environments is not afforded to them. Furthermore, with several hundred people often applying for a single job, the problem of workforce retention is not faced by human resources or facilities managers. Set against this, the competition for work has produced a professional service culture that is second to none. This is particularly evident in the hotel sector.

The key development during my stay was the inauguration of the new facilities management association, ABRAFAC (visit www.abrafac.com.br). Over 60 members joined the association on the first day of its formation. The level of interest in facilities management was also demonstrated with its first seminar programme, which was attended by over 250 delegates. The seminar began with a presentation from Professor Marcelo Vespoli Takaoka from the Escola Politecnica University of Sao Paulo. In it, Professor Takaoka talked at length about the real estate situation in Sao Paulo (the largest city in the Southern Hemisphere) and what the data was showing. The key message was that real estate, the bricks and mortar, was no longer “as safe as houses”. As an investment, it did not represent a risk-free option. The only way of ensuring economic return was to look at the rental return (since capital growth forms a less controllable part of the picture). From his research he demonstrated that this rental return was dramatically affected by levels of interim investment in building quality and operational standards.

This line of reasoning was pursued by Professor Moacyr Eduardo Alves da Graça, also from the Escola Politecnica. In his presentation he explained the concept of facilities as factors of production. Again, the argument was well made that good facilities management provides a means to ensure the long-term value of property whilst fulfilling its primary role – that of facilitating the organisation.

In my presentation which followed, I was fortunate enough to be afforded a translator, allowing the audience to choose between Portuguese or English. There was a high level of interest in the European approach to facilities management, which was seen to have an applicability to the Brazilian context that the US approach did not have.

All in all, from my visits to the two highest-rated universities in Brazil (University of Sao Paulo and University Federal of Minas Gerais), I was left with the impression that despite the recent recession, Brazil is set to experience major progress in facilities management. The formation of ABRAFAC will sow the seeds for FM professionalisation in a country larger than the whole of Europe.

Many thanks to our regional editor, Claudia Andrade, for facilitating my visit and engaging the journal Facilities in this development.

Edward FinchEditor