Five minutes with Ian Robinson, Khansaheb Group FM

Ian Robinson.

What does your role involve?

Leading the operational delivery for all our contracts in the UAE, ensuring we are delivering service excellence for our customers through our talented site teams. I’m also responsible for our soft and hard FM training teams, who ensure we are sharing best practice and innovation across all our contracts, delivering BICSc compliance and developing solutions for new contract tenders.

What do you love most about your job?

Working with and developing people. I’m blessed to have an incredibly passionate and diverse team of people, which generates a variety of ideas of how better to serve our customers and continue the growth we have achieved over the past three years.

What is the most memorable project and why?

Leading the mobile MEP division for a previous business, which had historically underperformed both financially and in customer satisfaction. Under a new system we worked closely with the client to understand their priorities, and developed a realistic plan to turn the division around and we succeeded in over-delivering on our objectives.

What is the most challenging aspect of your job?

The UAE market is particularly challenging in terms of client budgets with the current financial climate. So helping clients understand the long term value of quality FM services is always difficult when there are short term priorities for them to achieve the lowest headline price. We work closely with them to understand their priorities and help provide them with a range of solutions to best fit their short and long term business strategies.

Where do you see the FM industry in 5 years?

Six years ago I said energy management solutions, and I believe the same applies today. As an industry, I think the slow start made to embedding energy management into FM is accelerating with both clients and service providers united in their efforts to achieve the UAE’s 2030 vision. We’ve begun working with SmartAE on the Etihad ESCO framework to retrofit residential properties to make them more energy efficient.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I love comedy and it’s great to see so many international acts coming over to Dubai. I have a soft spot for Dubai’s restaurant scene and try to check out old and new haunts.