What are the immediate opportunities do you see where TFM can be successfully implemented in India?
The Make in India programme by Prime Minister Modi has initiated huge opportunities. The key to what we are doing now and what we plan to do in the future capitalises on the opportunities thrown up by the Make in India programme. The program, as you may know, envisages a pentagonal corridor across India, dotted by industries and smart cities. In the next five years, we plan to be part of the corridor and provide our services to the industries that shall mushroom through this project. .
We are equally excited about the concept of Smart Cities; firstly because innovations and technology form the basis of the Smart City concept. There is much more to India than just the four metros. Smart cities and other tiers cities are the focus today. We have already penetrated smaller cities like Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Ludhiana, Indore and many others.
More acquisitions in the pipeline?
The focus, at present, is on organic growth. Yes, we may need to acquire companies to increase our service range in India; however at the moment we
have plenty to go on with.
In the Middle East, OCS Group announced the formation of a facilities services joint venture in Saudi Arabia with the Jeddah-based Zahid Group in December 2014. The joint venture complements OCS’s operations in the Middle East, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Now that we have got the channel, we can see people from our businesses’ in India going there as well.
We are introducing a new brand of the OCS Group internationally – we have OCS for TFM, Cannon for complete restroom solutions and now, i2 for serviced offices. OCS Group acquired i2Office in the UK in 2014 and provides many of the core services within the UK’s i2Office Business Centres.
OCS Group operates across five continents and employs 94,000 people in 50 countries worldwide.
OCS has also received awards this year…
In fact, it has been a big honour to be at the Buckingham Palace to receive awards. OCS Group was given a Queen’s Award for Enterprise in International Trade for 2015. Chris Cracknel received the award from the Queen. OCS Group won the award for a sustained period of international growth beyond its UK base in Crawley. I personally received an OBE – 2015 New Year Honours List – for exceptional services to British interests overseas and charity work in Thailand.
[box type=”shadow” ]OCS Group operates across five continents and employs 94,000 people in 50 countries worldwide.[/box]
PCS, Thailand, a part of the OCS Group, also won the 2015 Frost & Sullivan Thailand Excellence Awards as “Thailand Facilities Management Company of the Year”. This is the second consecutive year OCS is bagging this award.
Apart from the acquisitions and awards, any other new initiative?
We are in the process of creating a charitable foundation, with the aim of bringing even greater benefits to the communities we live and work in. The OCS Family Foundation acts as a focal point for our staff’s talents and their passion to make a difference. The Foundation will have a strong focus on tackling social and economic disadvantaged by building people’s capacity and skills. It will develop vibrant partnerships, matching in-kind resources with opportunities to make a positive, lasting difference. The objective is to scale up the people in disadvantaged position in the society. That will help alleviate poverty overall.
The Foundation has been registered in the UK but we are globalizing it. The OCS Family Foundation will act as a focal point for our staff’s talents and their passion to make a difference. Thus it will be a win-win for the society, win-win for the people and win-win for our business. We can utilize our people to work with the Society and with the disadvant
aged people. It is a huge team building exercise. Hopefully, they can come and work with us or can make their lives better so that they can take care of themselves.
