How did it all start?
“We’re learning all the time. One of my proudest engagements was leading the development of the first British standard. What is known as the PAS55. That was the first attempt of writing down the must-do list for the life cycle management of physical assets, and it became a worldwide bestseller. It overtook the quality standard. It has become the basis for what is now the International Standard, ISO 55000 with 31 countries backing it and its second iteration has just been published. It’s very gratifying to see that we’ve got some of it right.”
So who is an Asset Manager?
“I think almost all organizations that reach a certain size have to specialize. They must create people who are good at designing things or good at buying things or go to building them, operating them, or maintaining them. So we, create departments responsible for that. We cluster the skillsets, but that does have downsides. It creates a tribalism. Each group develops their own jargon. Their language of everybody else is the enemy; they don’t understand my job. We also tend to reinforce the problem by creating a performance criterion, and success criteria that are localized to what it is that is being done, which sometimes actually works to the expense of somebody else. They’ll get trade-offs. And it’s quite difficult to negotiate those trade-offs because people are bringing different lenses to it.
An Asset Manager raises the discussion and talks about net benefit and net value over the whole life cycle. So, designers and builders must think in terms of operability and maintainability, and sustainability maintainers must think in terms of the usefulness of the asset, not just caring for it and so on. Asset management is a discipline for breaking down those silos.”
How do you become an Asset Manager?
“Undoubtedly, if you look at the learning journey from an organizational perspective, there are three main observable stages. And within that, there are some transitions. There is a stage of innocence that needs to be addressed, to understand what the opportunities are in the first place. What is this fancy language called asset management and which bits of it apply to our organisation?
There is a stage roughly in the middle that I might describe as competent asset management. That’s a level of maturity that is aligned with the requirements of the ISO 55000 standard. For example, a recognition of joined-up rigor, auditability that you’re in control, and coordination, including the learning behaviors and habits. And then there’s the upper reaches of pushing the boundaries of excellence in asset management, a moving feat because we’re constantly pushing additional capabilities and innovations and personalizations.
I think over the last 10, or 15 years in particular, the need for defining the curriculum to make sure that those cross-disciplinary understandings are built into a professional development path, the concept of a specialist generalist, is becoming evident. The Institute of Asset Management has several grades. There is a foundation award, a certificate level, and a diploma level, and most recently, they developed the register of asset management professionals. One has to demonstrate both subject matter familiarity and the field experience being able to apply it. This is the beginning of what will probably become a proper chartered status that will become a professional grade for those that will be responsible for conflicts infrastructure, trying to square the circle of limited funds, infants, infinite expectations, and a changing landscape that requires multi-skilled people. The recognition of those capabilities is crucial.
And now we have apprenticeships. Having been part of the trailblazer group that developed the Level 4 Asset Manager and the Level 7 Infrastructure Asset Management standards, we are delighted to provide the training for both apprenticeships. These apprenticeships are suitable for a range of industries and roles that contribute to the asset management function within an organization. Apprenticeships are an innovative way to attract new talent into your organization and to retain and upskill current employees by increasing workforce confidence, and capability and allowing an organization to develop a motivated, skilled and qualified workforce”.
The Woodhouse Academy recently hosted a series of Asset Management training courses for Network Rail, generating this feedback from their Programme Manager “Everyone has had great things to say about the course and my team has started implementing a couple of the ideas already, which will have a big impact on our business.”
So how does the Academy do it?
“You start with simple traditional classroom teaching. There are some concepts which that still is the right vehicle for explaining, illustrating, and practicing, but the magic comes when you blend it. You blend it into the way human beings actually learn things, which is mostly experiential. It’s mostly on the job. We adopt a blended learning approach, but there are self-taught elements that are also useful. We are very expert at developing e-learning, and indeed customizing it for the industry or the individual client. We have a very wide portfolio of off-the-shelf, face-to-face learning and anecdote sharing to help confidence building. Interactive teamwork is probably the most important role. Application within artificial exercises, such as our role-play Asset Management Challenge program, or via on-the-job, coaching and mentoring. With over 45 international consultants, each with over 20 years of industry experience, we do both coaching and mentoring, with assignments and feedback and review. We build long-term relationships, to develop the committed understanding, as opposed to just teaching the intellectual understanding”.
Ole Adler, former Asset Management Director at Hofor, a 1200-strong organization with responsibility for supplying power, water, wastewater, town gas, district cooling, and district heating utilities, to the city of Copenhagen, Demark, said “When we started [our asset management] journey, we were looking at the merits of different consultant companies; the technical ones were going to act on the technical side, but not on the asset management side. Then the economic companies would know of asset management, but not on the technical side. We chose the Woodhouse Partnership because they were one of the companies that had experience of implementing asset management from the start to the end. It was very important for us that we didn’t end up in a place where we had a lot of papers, but we couldn’t act in our daily work. If you just take the standard and implement it, then it would be at the standard that will drive everything. And I would like to have our [Hofor] DNA built into the DNA of asset management. We should tune it a little bit or do it a little bit different, but we will still base our decision on the asset management rule. And there you need a very experienced consulting company that can guide you through that.”
John added, “We carried out a program of significant education, training, and cultural change across all of Hofor’s business units and staff engagement in such a formal ‘design phase’ ensured that there was a strong sense of ownership and commitment to the resulting processes and solutions. In all, over 100 persons (approximately 10 % of the total workforce) were directly involved in the asset management training program and some continue. Asset management has grown into a complex and dynamic field, driven by technological advancements, changing investor expectations, and a more globalized financial landscape. It’s an exciting area with continuous evolution and emerging opportunities, and the learning journey for professionals involves staying abreast of regulatory changes, mastering new investment strategies, leveraging cutting-edge technologies like AI and continually developing skills to meet the demands of increasingly sophisticated clients. Our Woodhouse Alumni Communities serve as a hub for continuous learning, fostering mutual engagement through workshops and webinars. We welcome active participation from those seeking opportunities for growth and knowledge exchange.”