FEC-C01 · REAL ESTATE GROUP · GULF REGION (GCC)
The plan Grow the property business and its building-care side (facilities) with new investment money, without making the problems already inside the company bigger.
The plan to grow made sense. The problem was inside the company: 8 of the 9 areas of the business we checked were not ready for what the plan would ask of them.
What we found
- The founder was still the person most decisions had to go through.
- The founder, the maintenance supervisor and the storage manager were three critical single points of failure: so much depended on each of them that if one was missing, their part of the work could stall.
- Maintenance requests were taking around two months to fix.
- Bookings were done by hand, and customers were dropping out before they came to view the property.
- The storeroom and buying were being run mostly from memory.
- There were no written step-by-step procedures for how the work should be done.
- All HR (staff matters) and legal work was being handled by one overloaded role.
- Managers had not been told clearly what they could decide, what they were responsible for, or how their work would be measured.
What we changed
- DECISIONS · MOVED CLOSER TO THE WORK
We set up a clear chain of managers: Chief Executive → General Manager → Department Heads → Teams. Each level was told in writing what it could decide by itself and what it had to pass up to the level above.
- MAINTENANCE SOFTWARE · BUILT
We built maintenance software made for this job and put it into use. Every request was recorded, given to someone, followed, finished and checked before it could be closed. Late jobs set off alerts, and the company could now measure how well each technician was doing.
- STOCK-TRACKING SOFTWARE · BUILT
We built stock-tracking software that uses barcodes, and put it into use. Every item taken out of the storeroom was linked to the person who took it and the job it was for. Buying could now be based on what was really used instead of memory.
- BOOKING · MADE DIGITAL
Booking by hand was replaced with a digital booking process. Customers paid a reservation fee (a payment to hold their place) before the viewing, and every booking could be followed from that payment until the deal was done.
- HR & LEGAL · BUILT
The one overloaded role became three clear jobs: HR & Legal Manager, Contracts & Compliance Officer (compliance means making sure the company follows the rules and laws), and Junior HR & Legal Associate.
- 35 PROCEDURES · WRITTEN
We wrote 35 step-by-step procedures (15 core procedures and 20 management procedures), so important work no longer depended on whoever happened to remember how to do it.
Time to fix a maintenance request
About 2 monthsDATED REQUESTS + EXCEL RECORDS, CONFIRMED BY MANAGEMENT
48 hoursMAINTENANCE SOFTWARE RECORDS
Before the changes, maintenance requests were sitting open for roughly two months. After the new software and way of working went live, the normal time from request to fix came down to 48 hours.
What changed:
Request → given to a technician → followed → finished → checked.
The people did not suddenly become better technicians. What changed was how the work was handed out, followed and checked.
Material cost
No reliable, up-to-date record of stock
32% lower over 5 monthsAbout $230K saved a year, at that rateSTOCK SOFTWARE RECORDS + PURCHASE RECORDS
Material costs fell 32% over the five months we measured. The company bought the same amount as before, so the saving did not come simply from buying less.
The saving came from three things together: tighter control of stock, stopping items being used without a record, and lower prices from suppliers. The evidence we have does not show that the software alone produced the full $230K saving.
More results from our work with this company
- Stock theft
- Items taken with no record → Zero items taken without matching recordsBARCODE CHECK RECORDS
- Booking speed
- 37% fasterMANAGEMENT'S MEMORY → SALES SOFTWARE RECORDS
- Customer satisfaction
- 48% higherTENANT SURVEYS, BEFORE AND AFTER
- Staff job satisfaction
- 73% higher over 6 monthsSURVEY OF ALL STAFF
- Founder micromanagement (stepping into small, everyday details)
- 58% lessSEEN ON SITE BY FEC + STAFF INTERVIEWS





