Noel Clancy believes that facilities management is big business, but only if you do it right. Will Jones finds out about the man and his mission.

Waltham Cross, a small town sitting just outside the M25, is not the first place you’d think to look for one of the electrical industry’s most ambitious thirty-somethings. And facilities management is not the first industry you’d think of on overhearing a conversation laced with words like commitment, excitement and passion.

You have obviously never been to Eagle House, a regional office of Integral, the facilities management expert. And you definitely haven’t spoken to regional director Noel Clancy.

Integral is one arm of public limited company Staveley Industries. Staveley is big on building services – 80% of the group’s turnover is related to the m&e sector.

In Britain, Staveley owns EI-WHS, MJN Colston and Integral. Each company specialises in its own field: MJN in industrial m&e; EI-WHS in electrical; and Integral which offers facilities management (fm), m&e maintenance and special project work dealing direct with the client/end user.

Clancy heads up the London and South East region of Integral, a nationwide player with eight bases ranging from Glasgow to Croydon. Of Integral’s £50 million national turnover, Clancy and co in Waltham Cross produce a cool £15 million. Not bad for a small town outfit with a boss aged 31.

Yes, you read it right, 31. At an age when many a sparky would be proud to be running a contract package, Noel Clancy is the boss.

And his secret is? He knows what he wants and goes for it with a passion that most would reserve for their football team. “I joined MJN from school as an electrical engineer,” says Clancy. “I enrolled at college and was surprised when they asked where my hard hat and boots were. I thought that it was a purely academic course but the practical content turned out to be invaluable experience.”

Clancy realised this early and persuaded his employers to let him stay out on site for the duration of his training. “This was quite unusual,” he says. “MJN normally trained aspiring managers from an office base, and electricians on site. I formed a bridge between the two. I sold the idea saying, ‘if we are going to be successful we need to understand the core of the business and that means the guys with the hacksaws and pliers.’”

This took Clancy to the ripe old age of 20, when he gained his City & Guilds. From there he flew through the ranks, from project engineer to project manager at 26 and contracts manager at 28.

On hitting 30, Clancy took stock: “I lifted my head out of the water and realised that what I’d been doing for the last ten years was getting mundane. I needed a new challenge.”

When I was in contracting, I thought of maintenance as a job for your latter years, when you wanted to slow down. Well, spend a day with me and I'll change that perception'

Clancy approached Bryan Glastonbury, md of Integral, and was installed as regional director of the London and South East branch of Integral in June 1999.

This meteoric climb up the corporate ladder need not be a one off, thinks Clancy. But those within the electrical industry disappoint him at times. “Electrical engineers often moan that the mechanical boys get all of the senior positions but they won’t do anything about it. They should stop crying into their beer and shout that they want a crack at running the big projects. The electrical discipline is the most complex; if you can crack that you can crack anything.”

Clancy’s new position with Integral, dealing mainly with maintenance contracts, could be seen by some as easing the foot off the pedal but he is quick to rubbish that kind of talk.

  This sector is a huge challenge.”

Contracts for departmental giant Selfridges, Channel Four and the MAFF throw up situations a might more complex than a lamp blowing. But even that can be a challenge. Selfridges has over 200 000 lamps in its London store. Or, on a contract like the one with Channel Four, maintaining power is the be all and end all. If it goes down thousands are lost in revenue in an instant. Now the scale of the work starts to be apparent.

The fm/maintenance business is not something to be glossed over. But, all too often, that is what happens. Clancy warns of problems endemic within the industry: “No-one gives enough thought to the 25 years after completion. Nobody plans for it. The project sits on a developer’s table for, say, two years. Then, they push a button and it goes to the consultant who has to return a scheme in four weeks. That just isn’t long enough. Assumptions are made that are often wrong and you have a recipe for disaster.”

The ECA needs to push the issue, says Clancy: “There is a big industry out there and much of it comes after the initial installation is complete. The ECA should be promoting this, putting its weight behind planning and building services with 25 years in mind.”

These kinds of ideals are a must in the maintenance market. “You have to constantly be thinking of ways to bring the cost down, not by cutting corners but by boxing clever. Never forfeit quality for a fast profit.”

FM and maintenance definitely excites Clancy. And if it excites him, then it is a sector that is fast moving, profitable and, above all, challenging. As companies become more and more reliant on technology there will be an ever bigger need for someone that can keep you on-line, on air, powered up and trading 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Clancy concludes: “In construction you can have a bad month, formulate a plan and get back on track. You’re remembered for your last job. In maintenance you are remembered for your last day. And that’s it.”