Communications Director for The UK Chapter of the Institute of Asset Management

I’m very excited to have joined the board of the UK Chapter of the Institute of Asset Management as Communications Director. This is a big role that I intend to take seriously.

Here are 3 things I want to achieve:

(1) To Connect

What is life if it isn’t the connections that we make - interactions that enrich our shared human experience. TheIAM is all about helping industry professionals to connect, share and learn from each other. As we come together to explore concepts and mash ideas together, we each improve our own understanding and often create new configurations of ideas or new ideas entirely.

Smart people make each other smarter.

(2) Make a positive impact

I’m a massive geek when it comes to asset management. I love it. I want to share that passion - helping to build a structured approach to our communications and marketing. This will help connect our membership to the chapter, to each other, as well as promoting best practice.

Now is the right time.

(3) Learn and grow

I also hope that this role will give me opportunities to learn, enrich my own experience, and better understand myself. Specifically - I’m keen to build my confidence presenting and get better at using technology to improve my productivity.

Be comfortable being uncomfortable.

Next steps

I’ve agreed an initial plan with the rest of the board. The first tasks are (1) get set up with all the existing tools and accounts. (2) getting into a regular rhythm of email updates to our membership. (3) getting coordinated with our colleagues who look after Assets Magazine.

Thank you!

There wouldn’t be anything to communicate if it wasn’t for the huge amount of hard work by the many thousands of asset management professionals in our community, our membership, and the institute's staff and volunteers.

And on a personal note, a massive thank you to Stewart Whyte, the UK Chapter Chairperson, and also to the rest of the board, for giving me this opportunity to contribute to the Asset Management Community.

P.S.

It’s a ridiculously exciting time at the Institute. More structure, more members, more events, more connections. If you want to know how you can get involved in the continuing professionalisation of the asset management industry, drop me a message.

The documents that are professionalising asset management

Asset management is one of the fastest growing engineering disciplines. Engineering is about using logic to solve problems. Asset management is about applying engineering logic specifically to the ownership of physical assets. By agreeing how to apply this logic and codifying this agreement, we can go about experimenting and iterating with our approach to asset management. And so, in this codified way of doing things and continuous improvement, we make asset management a profession.

And make no mistake – asset management is big business. Physical assets are the foundation of every economy on the planet. Even modest asset owning companies are worth more than small countries. And large organisations can be worth hundreds of billions. Take 3 examples: ExxonMobil holds over $250 billion of physical assets, EDF $170 billion and Highways England $185 billion.

Subject Specific Guidelines

At the cutting edge of professionalisation of asset management are “Subject Specific Guidelines”. These are a series of publications designed to expand and enrich asset management knowledge building on the 39 Subjects in “Asset Management - an anatomy” .

In 2016, the Institute of Asset Management launched the first 4 Subject Specific Guidelines covering 9 of the 39 subjects. Since then a further 5 subjects have been covered, leaving 25 subjects remaining.

So, when and how are the subject specific guidelines being completed?

When? As soon as possible. Many of them are in progress and it is hoped that they will all be completed within the next few years.

How? Through working groups comprised of volunteers like me. I’m currently leading the development of Subject Specific Guideline 34: Management of Change. We have a fantastic team with experts in the planning and delivery of changes in organisations, operations, projects and of course, the physical assets themselves. Between us we have over 80 years professional experience. All the authors of all the subject specific guidelines are volunteers from the asset management community. We aren’t paid for this work.

Why Volunteer?

Which raises an obvious follow up question, why volunteer? There are lots of reasons why people volunteer to write subject specific guidelines, but here are the 3 main reasons for me:

1. Let’s be honest – a huge motivator is for recognition and publicity. As a freelance consultant, it’s a pretty helpful way to get noticed by potential clients.

2. Let’s be even more honest – I’m a massive geek and I genuinely love asset management. Not only does this work help professionalise our industry, it helps my knowledge stay current. To write one SGG, you need to have a handle of all the other SSG’s plus other documents like the anatomy.

3. Lastly, but not leastly, being part of the team has been a lovely way to network and meet like minded individuals.

If you’re interested in volunteering, or want to know more about the SSG’s, why not get in touch with The Institute of Asset Management today?

P.S.

For help improving your asset management tools and processes, please do get in touch, or find out about how I can help you!