This is the time of the year to reflect on what we have done and to prepare for next year. It has been quite a year! We wanted to release this last issue before Christmas, but business kept me busy until now…

Many are still under the shock of the blaze that killed 58 people in a residential building in downtown Shanghai on November 15. The disaster is apparently blamed on unlicensed welders, poor supervision, cascading subcontracting – all of which are the rule, rather than the exception, in construction projects in China.

The Expo is coming to an end… I feel nostalgic already, yet full of confidence for what comes next. What a success! What a brilliant example of what the city of Shanghai is becoming! I have lived here for over 12 years; I have to admit, I never really liked the place that much. Now I do! That’s what the Expo did for me!

When trouble is solved before it forms, who calls it clever? When there is victory without battle, who talks of bravery? (Du Mu, late Tang Dynasty, commenting on Sun Tzu’s Art of War)

With the Shanghai World Expo in full swing and Beijing’s ambition to become a “world city” gaining more international media coverage, we can sense renewed interest, bordering on frenzy, in FM circles. I have, in the past few weeks, taken part in several debates on the emerging Chinese Facility Management market, discussions usually involving starry-eyed foreigners hoping to sell their products and services to the “huge” Chinese market…

The trend started several years ago, but nowadays everybody is talking about “Lean”. Not denying the benefits of this approach, which from my maintenance point-of-view is nothing but a generalization of the TPM principles, I am by nature very wary of today’s over-hyped concepts…