With over 30 years experience in the property, facilities and infrastructure sector, Michael Cant qualified and practiced as an architect before business school and pursuing his career in portfolio and construction management as a chartered surveyor.
Founding Larch Consulting in the mid-1990’s, he is currently a director of CAFM provider ComplyNC, and amongst a number of other business interests is currently Chair of the Board of Glyndwr University, one of the UK’s newest universities.
Construction Magazine: With the current unsettled economy and major financial pressures on the construction and facilities sectors, how do you see the future?
Michael Cant: We have a number of challenging issues, but it is more about optimising the things we do that lead or compete on a European or global scale. We still export so much technical expertise around the world, which is why Larch and our associate company RLF jointly provide strategy, procurement, project management and QS solutions to a wide range of countries, including those in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Glyndwr University operates in a number of countries too, including China, Russia and Vietnam, so UK-based construction and facilities organisations have real potential to operate even more globally if we really focus on this tactic.
Construction Magazine: Many PFI’s are appearing to be running into problems and this should have, to some extent, been predicted at the outset. What is your view?
Michael Cant: In some regards, PFI took us all down the wrong track. The concept was, and still is, fairly robust. But the mechanics were poorly conceived and subsequently implemented. Whilst we needed to find a more effective way to invest in major infrastructural initiatives – whether roads, hospitals or schools – we then created (or allowed to have created) a model that ‘front ended’ the profit margins, and to some extent
is fundamentally flawed.
Facilities professionals are constantly battling for the whole-life cost of buildings to be considered at the design and construction stages. Underestimating the cost-in-use of buildings presents continuing challenges for the FM sector across all types of projects. Larch and RLF have been working on this as a joint QS/Facilities model for our clients, and it’s proving financially and operationally beneficial.
Construction Magazine: Sustainability has become one of the many buzz words to have entered the building and facilities arenas. How do you view this and other such issues?
Michael Cant: What is becoming increasingly clear is that whilst there are real gains being made in addressing compliance, environmental, social support and many other issues that have shaped our social and economic lives in recent years, this complexity is working
against our need to reduce unit cost and operating efficiencies. Ironically, in Facilities Management contracts we now have an increasing percentage of the total contract value invested in ‘management’ as against ‘delivery on the workface’ than in the 90’s and 00’s.
Construction Magazine: How do you feel about the increasing use of e.tenders and e.auctions?
Michael Cant: Unfortunately, the drive to reduce cost and beat suppliers up in the procurement process is becoming counterproductive. E-tendering is a helpful innovation. However, despite its extensive capabilities it is often used to reduce complex information-seeking processes down to a tick-box exercise which does not enable touch-sensitive services to present themselves to best advantage.
E-auctions go one step further than this, and are not in my opinion a sensible way to buy services, as they encourage bidders into a position where they may reduce their prices to sub-profit submissions to secure work.
