Prafull Joshi

The Facilities Management & Corporate Real Estate functions in Indian Companies have evolved over time, and have kept pace with global best practices, and set high standards for themselves. This is true for the SMEs as well as the large MNC's in India. The Indian companies have sustained the momentum of evolution for the last couple of decades, and have reached maturity. However, this is a continuously evolving process, and companies continue to strive for excellence in each sphere of Corporate Management, matching the standards of the best in the World. Today, boardrooms have realised the value of FM and CRE functions; this vital area in their business, and have started giving reasonable attention to these functions which they now consider as an investment, an asset that adds value, yields returns, and acts as key links to strategy, thereby enabling the organizations to achieve their goals and objectives. Collective and responsible decisions by Project Managers and Facility Managers will meet the business need of the facility over its useful life and future maintenance of the facility, while ensuring cost effectiveness. However, there are always fresh challenges and problems, which need to be met/solved for the organizations to surive. Unfortunately, there is no formal programme or course for coaching/ training available in these functions today,which leaves a void that needs to be addressed. The FM & CRE fraternity in different organizations have a vast repository of knowledge and experience, which, if shared, can assist in improvement of these functions in their organizations. This is an attempt to provide a platform for the managers of FM and CRE to share their knowledge and experiences, and assist in peer learning, thereby bridging the gap and making up for the lack of formal specialization in this field.