A New Way Of Thinking

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The simple message of asset management is that one cannot design improvements to a part of the business without understanding the whole system.  PAS55 stipulates that the starting point for developing an asset management policy is the organisation’s strategic plan, but many managers take a narrower view, working within their own functional or departmental boundaries.  The result is that property is often managed in isolation to the rest of the enterprise, particularly at the level of business strategy formulation. [4] 

Roger Bootle’s report to RICS in 2002 regarding commercial and industrial property states: ‘Property is rarely on the boardroom agenda, despite often being the second highest business cost after wages … the management of property is usually handled at an operational, rather than strategic level.’ [5]  If the symptom described in the Bootle Report as ‘boardroom blindness’ is to be addressed, then a new way of thinking is needed: a mindset that acknowledges that property and the core business are inextricably linked and should be considered as a whole - a systems thinking approach.  The diagram on the opposite page shows the shift in thinking and practice needed to move from the current situation to a whole systems approach.

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