Facilities @ Management

2.9 How to Make Good Facility Decisions

Barry Lynch

When retired athletes are asked what they remember most about their careers, they say, “the people.” I’m the same way when I think about my FM career – I recall the people, not the budget presentations, close calls in making deadlines or problems solved. What I’ve learned from various mentors and situations along my career path is what I would like to share; in this brief; a decision-making process that can be applied in multiple situations, and I would like to offer insights in applying that process to address new situations.

Jim Cogdill was my first mentor and head of Facilities at R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company (RJR) in the 1980s (for the setting – picture Mad Men ¹ – guys in dark suits with narrow ties, everyone smoking, secretaries bringing in coffee on trays). He hired me away from Gensler Architects and had a relaxed, slow, southern drawl that lulled “them corporate Yankee boys” into thinking he wasn’t smart, but he was sharp as a tack. His style was unparalleled. For example, after we finished rehearsing an executive presentation he would take a drag from his cigarette, think deeply for a while and proclaim, “well if it don’t work out, I can always go back to Tennessee and raise hogs.” I eventually found out this was a complement, but it took a little while to decipher this and other sayings like “bless his heart” (did not mean what you would think). Jim was a visionary, a former plant manager who worked his way up ...