Pull out and reexamine FM contracts under the harsh light of the £150m IT meltdown at BA • Everything is experience or is experience everything? Ask newly branded Landsec • The Tunbridge Wells tortoise and his hare-brained competitors in the race for Number 10 • An ice cube added to the tepid architectural cocktail at Nine Elms.
“Ye Gods! Might we suffer a colossal claim if our FM client experiences consequential losses on the scale suffered by BA when that IT guy from CBRE allegedly blew the computers by switching the power back on in haste?” Agents with FM deals will surely be jerking contracts out of the drawer to re-examine the risks they face in the light of BA’s IT shut-down, which cost the airline £150m when planes were grounded for three days in late May. CBRE is almost certainly insured at a corporate level. The steady share price indicates investors are not panicking. That is not to say the blame game might not become protracted and nasty. BA has set up an inquiry. The results will peer reviewed. Parent company boss, Willie Walsh, has called CBRE “very reputable” without naming it. But he also said “the power was brought on in an uncontrolled fashion.” There are unconfirmed reports of fingers being pointed at CBRE. CBRE says “no determination has been made yet regarding the causes.” While the world awaits, advice from an expert FM lawyer for those hurriedly re-reading contracts: Hope your consequential losses are limited to 100-160% of the annual fee; hope cover is limited to physical damage. Otherwise, fingers crossed. On not-yet-signed contracts she says: “Boys, don’t sell the farm for an annual fee that does not warrant the massive amount of risk.”
Be fatalistic, experiencing everything
Congratulations to Land Securities for imitating Estates Gazette (now EG, please) by rebranding with the familiar tag everyone uses anyway. I tweet-teased newly dubbed Landsec on Monday, suggesting its fresh brand statement “Everything is Experience” would be better reversed. “Experience is Everything” surely rings more true if you are selling the experience of Land Securities? Boss Robert Noel disagrees. “Our updated brand reflects our culture, our people and our approach, putting the experience of our customers, communities, employees and partners at the heart of everything we do.” Well, OK, I can see the subtle difference. Others can’t. A retweeter commented that “Everything is Experience” sounded like a “weirdly fatalistic note of a sign of things to come.”
