Kushal Singh

The biggest challenge any facility manager faces is cost pressure and customer engagement, especially when one is dealing with people from diverse ethnicity, cultures and geographies, mentions Singh. The Global Real Estate & Facilities (GRF) team overcame this through standardising requirements and maintaining a regular feedback mechanism with stakeholders. One of the major catalysts in achieving this was the alignment of erstwhile administration function to the current GRF framework.

Before the advent of competition in the telecom sector, there was a huge outflow on account of monthly telecom usage at the Merck office. The company took it up aggressively with the provider and explored more completive plans, considering the usage patterns. With new tariffs being introduced, the monthly billing has been brought down by about 50% resulting in huge savings.

The head office interiors were quite bland and there was no visible use of any branding. The management engaged with the corporate branding team and interior designers to infuse some vibrancy in line with branding guidelines. The facilities team undertook the revamping of the regional offices to align them to Merck guidelines, which resulted in better customer satisfaction and enhanced productivity.

The organisation had some real estate assets in Worli. After the office was shifted to the current location in Vikhroli, it was decided to monetise these assets. There was approval to sell off the property at a price lower than the prevailing Ready Reckoner rates and the entire proceeds would have got drained out on account of taxes. The team’s intervention and revised strategy fetched additional revenue.