Before I joined Johnson Controls, I worked for Forest Mere health farm and before that I worked for Ashdown Park hotel and country club. At Forest Mere, I took part in a fly-on-the-wall documentary film (Khredraoui was the man heard asking a customer to extinguish a cigarette in a particularly tense moment of the programme). I enjoyed working in the hotel industry, it was great to meet all the stars who visited.
Is working for Cisco very different from your last job?
I look on Cisco as my hotel now. My brief is to bring the expertise I have gained in the hotel industry and introduce it into the corporate environment.
Where and with whom do you work?
At Cisco head office there are three buildings, each with a reception and concierge service. The executive briefing centre takes over half the ground floor of the main building. There are 14 in my team, including reception, switchboard and other front office services. My job is to bring a hotel-style approach.
How do you export the customer service ethic to the workplace?
It's all about going the extra mile and giving people what they don't expect.
For example, I believe in management by walkabout and will go around the office floors. I try to make myself visible.
People don't expect to see you, they think that facilities management is something that takes place behind the scenes.
What has been the biggest culture change in moving to your new job?
The difficulty has been getting used to the language of the computer industry. For example, a coupler is a device which joins two networks together.
Describe what your typical day is like.
I arrive at work at 7am. My first job is to make sure the meeting rooms are ready. Next I'll check that the newspapers are in reception and then I'll meet with the executive briefing programme manager.
The kind of issues that might emerge may be the quality of the cleaning or that the air conditioning has not been turned on. Around 8am, I go to reception and welcome people arriving at work.
Sometimes I may have to make a presentation to our service partners, explaining Cisco's mission. In the afternoon, there may be HR and recruitment issues to deal with, as well as ensuring the service level agreements are being achieved. I leave work about 6.30pm.
Source
The Facilities Business