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Just Because You're Necessary Doesn't Mean You're Important

How post-secondary institutions misposition Facilities Management, the consequences that follow, and how to correct the system.

Facilities Management is essential to institutional performance, yet it is often positioned downstream of the decisions that shape its workload, resources and results. This book explains why that happens, what it costs, and how institutional leaders can redesign the system.

Most FM literature concentrates on maintenance, capital planning, asset systems and technical delivery. This book examines the institutional system surrounding FM: governance, positioning, decision rights, workflows, accountability and behaviour.

This Book Challenges the Conventional View of Facilities Management

Most facilities management literature focuses on maintenance practices, capital planning, asset systems, or technical delivery. This book examines the institutional conditions underneath operational instability. The book introduces a practical framework for understanding how governance, positioning, workflows, decision rights, and organizational structure shape operational outcomes across the built environment.

It is particularly relevant for institutions experiencing:

  • Rising operational complaints
  • Budget constraints
  • Service instability
  • Leadership fatigue
  • Organizational friction between departments
  • Constant reactive escalation

About the Author

Grant Sommerfeld is the founder of Executive FM Consulting and a former university Associate Vice-President of Facilities Management. He has 17 years of chief facilities leadership experience across post-secondary education, health care and municipal government. His work focuses on the structural conditions that shape FM performance, including governance, operating models, decision rights and accountability.

Grant is President of the IFMA FM Consultants Council, a Fellow of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, and has been named as one of 10 Top Global FM Influencers by IFMA.

Grant Sommerfeld, MBA, CMC, CFM, CEFP, FRICS