Future FM, the Solution Provider

The 100% Hungarian-owned Future FM Facility Management Corporation provides full-ranging facility management services all over the country. Since 1991, their scope of activity has gradually increased in accordance with the changing demand of the market and their customers.

As the CEO of the company, Zoltán Mikó explains to Diplomacy&Trade, the facility management market itself is a very large one, with a huge number of service providers, but not all of them offer complex service packages to their partners. “Future FM is in that narrow segment of the palette that can offer cleaning and security services, technical operations and other complementary service ranges entirely in-house, either as a whole or starting in parts and adding a portfolio element later on. Our strength is that we can mobilize a very large number of in-house resources for these tasks. We have a workforce of over 2,000 people in this respect.”

The Deputy CEO for HR, Katalin Takács, adds that the basic concept has always been the same throughout the company's more than three decades of existence: "trying to provide solutions to our clients for all activities that are not part of their own portfolio. It is important to be in partnership with our clients so that they entrust us with everything else and they can concentrate on their own activities. This concept, which is still valid today, has resulted in all the solutions and full service we provide.”

In times of crises
The CEO points out that facility management is the set of services that support the core business. "When there's a crisis, everyone should focus on survival and, if possible, keep the core business going as long as possible. Companies are more inclined to cut back on any other external costs, thinking that without those, it will be easier to survive. Facility management service providers can try to help in this playing field. On the one hand, they can find resources on the cost-cutting side, ones that can be approached and unlocked from the efficiency side. If necessary, they can suggest reducing the content of the service, together with the partners, so that costs can be handled better.”

This is the facility management side, but there is also the labor market problem, Katalin Takács notes. “As Zoltán mentioned, our company is working with a workforce of about two thousand people. A significant part of that staff is physical workers: we have cleaners, security guards, maintenance workers, etc. This category and this layer of the labor market is now in quite a serious crisis. It is because there was a period when a lot of people who do this kind of manual work left for abroad. The other reason is that there has been insecurity and a wage spiral that are pushing the boundaries of what can be achieved in a market like this. A significant proportion, about three quarters of the workforce, is over 55 years of age. Meanwhile, it is very difficult to recruit new colleagues. There are very few people who are really serious about getting into these jobs. We, on the other hand, must survive every day and deliver the service we have undertaken to provide, which requires a stable workforce every day.”

Enlarging the portfolio
In addition to the specific facility management tasks, the Future FM group is also active in the field of security services and fleet management. “The need for these things always emerged when we were carrying out our initial job, cleaning. Then, it turned out that it would be nice to change the light bulb or manage the boiler, maybe water the flowers or do the garden in front of the office building. Our experience shows that there are more and more customers who ask for help with these issues, and we always try to answer these. So, it is the client needs that have brought about these portfolio expansions,” she highlights.
As Zoltán Mikó stresses, “in a market of security companies with a very, very long history, we have the opportunity to have a share because we are more flexible. We have a much deeper relationship with our partners, a better understanding of what they need but not getting, what they should be doing a little bit differently in a service like this. Or, let's say, in our fleet service, we have built-in service elements that the partners don't get elsewhere as part of a package of the same quality or the same extent.”

Flexibility, the ongoing value
The Future FM managers say they very much appreciate the feedback they get from customers and this helps them to improve their services. As an example, Katalin Takács mentions that they are in charge of facility management tasks at the Hungarian capital’s Ferenc Liszt International Airport. “We are very proud of this job. There, we had to take an ownership stake in the operating company itself that does the operations and we have made that company part of our group, and that is also due to our flexibility. If a need arises, we bring the solution. This flexibility has been an unchanged value for three decades: we always adapt to the situation and to the customer. I think that this tailoring and personalized service is quite typical of our group.”

Sustainability
Nowadays, companies are increasingly expected to work in a sustainable way. Concerning this issue, Zoltán Mikó explains that in addition to general energy-saving things “for example, we have been jointly operating a photovoltaic solar park at one of our partners with almost one megawatt capacity for five years now. So, it's not that we're riding on the now trendy wave, we set up such a park five years ago. We have been able to implement a water consumption reduction project, which is probably unique in Hungary, in that building, whereby the temperature can be programmed and managed to be periodically controlled. If one of our partners has these kinds of requests or ideas, we can either do it ourselves or we can find partners together.”

Helping those in need
Since 2016, it has become a tradition for Future FM to select an organization each year and help run its operations. According to Katalin Takács, “the most important thing in the company's CSR policy has always been to try to support a good cause in a way what we are good at. One example is the Suhanj! [‘Whoosh!’] Foundation, which we supported on a regular basis. They have set up a gym where disabled and able-bodied people can train together. We have provided mechanical assistance to help them set up their air conditioning system, as well as specific cleaning products to ensure cleanliness and hygiene. Or there is the Bátor Tábor [‘Camp Courageous’], another of our returning partners, who we also supported with hygiene products, or provided classic financial support, for instance, when they wanted to renew their ropes course. Also, we renovated the bathroom of a gentleman in need, in order to make his daily life easier. In helping people's lives in this way, we have a very kind partner, three-time Olympic fencing champion Áron Szilágyi, who is our CSR ambassador.”