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"Performance Review" with
Michael Leach, R.E. & Facilities Director, Cadence Design Systems
"Performance Review"
is a regularly featured interview with one of our chapter's
professional members. The response from this
month's guest was unavailable at press time, so we are reprinting one of
our favorites.
Provide some insight on your Employer/Company's core function/service.
Cadence Design
Systems, Inc., is headquartered in San Jose, California, and is the
largest supplier of EDA (electronic design automation) technologies,
methodology services and design services. Our software is used to
accelerate and manage the design of semiconductors, computer systems,
networking and telecommunicat ions
equipment, consumer electronics and a variety of other electronics-based
products.
Identify Company's total number, sq. ft., types, and locations of
offices, e.g., corporate, industrial, owned, leased, downtown, suburban,
local, regional.
Cadence operates 56
offices world wide totaling 1.8M sf, with our typical office building
located in a suburban area near a customer location. We have 766K sf of
owned space at our Headquarters, with the balance of the square footage
leased. In North America there are 26 US office locations in 15 states,
and one in Canada. Our 30 international offices are located throughout
China, India, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Taiwan, Finland, France,
Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Russia, Scotland,
Sweden and the United Kingdom. International properties total 680K sf
with our largest presence being India with 288K sf. We also have a 205K
sf, five-story R&D building under construction at Headquarters.
Identify Company's total number of employees.
Over 5,000 full-time
employees worldwide with 1,800 residing in San Jose.
What are your primary job functions?
As Real Estate and
Facilities Director for the Central and Eastern Regions, I manage 17 of
the domestic office locations and one in Canada with the support of two
Facility Managers. I am responsible for site selection of new lease
space, lease negotiation and project management of the office build-out
and relocation. I also manage the on-going office operations including
Landlord relations and all support services at each office. How long have you been in the FM field?
I started in the Real
Estate field in 1989 as a commercial real estate appraiser and then a
stint as a residential appraiser. That experience led to employment in
the FM field with Dell Computer in 1995 and Cadence in 2000. I have a
BBA from The University of Texas at Austin, a Texas Real Estate Broker
license and the CFM, FMA and RPA designations.
Who do you report to?
I report to the
Worldwide Vice-President of Workplace Resources at Corporate. He
manages global Real Estate, Facilities, Security & Safety, Planning,
Procurement, Travel, Community Involvement and Shipping/Receiving &
Importing/Exporting.  Who
reports to you?
Six reports; three
receptionists in Austin, Plano and Columbia, MD, a full time mail room
contractor and an Assistant Facilities Manager in Austin, as well as, a
Facility Manager in Chelmsford, MA that has a dotted line to me for
Eastern Region sites.
Do you outsource any functions? Which ones?
Staubach Real Estate
for assistance with market research, lease negotiation and lease
administration services. And yes, I have met Roger, been to a party at
his house and attended a Dallas Cowboys game in his private suite…the
game that Emmitt broke the rushing record. I was just lucky picking
that game.
We use AlliedBarton for our Security Central monitoring station and
security guard service in San Jose. We use preferred vendors for real
estate legal services, architectural, furniture, network cabling and
security systems. Other facility related functions and services are
sourced to local vendors.
Describe your recycling program, if applicable.
Paper, plastic and
aluminum recycling bins throughout most of our office locations.
Describe any energy conservation measures you have implemented in your
facility.
There are some
programmable thermostats and lighting controls in my various office
locations, however, the Landlords control most of the energy
conservation features.
Identify some FM challenges you face within your organization.
Our Planning
Department is communicating the “alternative workplace” (AWS) concept to
the employees of our new building, which will incorporate low-walled
cubes, open collaborative spaces, and a minimal amount of assigned
space. Quoting one of the seminars at IFMA New Orleans, Planning is in
the process of educating the employees on how the AWS model “reaches
beyond physical workspaces to leverage technology, design strategies and
innovative real estate planning to create a vibrant, high-performing
culture…”
Identify some challenges the FM industry as a whole must face in the
near future.
Same as above. A
number of presentations in New Orleans dealt with AWS issues and how to
position your Company to accommodate the changing work habits of future
generations of employees which are shifting more and more towards a
mobile work style.
What are some of your hobbies and interests outside work?
Water skiing, hunting,
outdoor activities, UT football games and sports in general. My wife
and I enjoy managing the lives and travels of our 14 year old twin boys,
shuttling them to and from daily swim practice and competitive swim
meets across Texas.
Thank you, Michael!
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"Cold Call"
with Daryl Miller of Southwest Solutions Group
"Cold Call" is a
regularly featured interview with an
associate member.
Is your company affiliated with any
others?
Many refer
to us as Spacesaver of Texas since that was the original name of our
team. In 1997, new ownership was established through Ray Streight, Craig
Crock, and Troy Menchhofer. Since then, our team has grown from
eight full
time employees to over 80.
Describe your company's core competency.
Southwest
Solutions Group, Inc. designs, installs, and services unique solutions
to store the physical assets of a facility. Those assets have included
microchips, aircraft engines, files, archive boxes, maintenance parts,
surgical kits, supplies, evidence, and priceless artifacts. The only
area we hesitate to touch is your garage at home. We suggest keeping the
door closed!
Describe your primary job functions.
My primary
function is educate department managers, decision makers, planners,
designers/architects, and facility managers on how we can help them get
involved with a solution that makes sense for their business. Benefits
generally include saved space, more efficient space utilization,
improved workflow, maintaining a safe environment, and creating
sustainable storage solutions.
Describe an average day.
An average
day for me is ever changing. Generally, I will return e-mails starting
around 7:00 AM, review my goals for the day, and get started. When I have a
meeting with a client on a specific project, I will have done research
on what kind of business or project the client has, think through what
we have done for others, and start formulating a game plan to help them
succeed. My goal is always to listen first, ask questions to ensure
clear communication of criteria and goals, take note of accurate
measurements & other details of their space, and create a hand sketch of
ideas to share with the client before leaving. Then, I will take all the
survey information from that day, review my detailed notes and start
preliminary drawings. After this, I will work with one of the five
planners we have on staff to come up with accurate turnkey pricing, plan
views, 3D drawings, a clear proposal, and a few different options to
discuss with the client so they have the ability to clearly present it
to their team and determine what will best fit their business needs.
What type of clients you work with?
We actually are
very much a market-driven company focused on solutions, as compared to a
product-driven company. Though we have the ability to create solutions
to store anything, we serve six major markets. Those markets include
Commercial & Industrial, Library & Education, Public Safety, Government
(Federal, State, & Local, Military, etc.), Museums, Healthcare.
What percentage of your work and clients is local/regional/national?
Over the
past ten years, we have established offices in Dallas (HQ), Austin, San
Antonio, Houston, McAllen, Oklahoma City, Little Rock, and Memphis. We
are the largest Spacesaver dealer in North America. With over 10,000
installations in Texas alone, I would say this great state contains
80% of our work. However, as we grow, our area of effectiveness grows
too. We recently have done work in Mexico and have actually installed
systems in South Africa in the past. My personal goal is to help create
a greater international presence with the Southwest Solutions Group
team.
How long have you been in this field?
Tell us briefly about your career, education, certifications.
It’s amazing
to look back and see where you have come from. From 1999 – 2004, I was
in a project coordination role. This mainly consisted of logistics and
scheduling. However, I had the privilege to plug into our ownership and
other departments which truly helped me understand the business overall. This included helping to create and implement systems and processes that
we use today. In 2005, I entered into our first sales apprentice
program with one of the owners in Dallas. After six months of intensive
training, I had the opportunity to be transferred to our Austin area
office. Let’s just say, my wife and I were not going to complain one
bit. Once we landed in Austin, it wasn’t three months before I called
this home. I hope to be here for many more years.
What’s the best lesson you’ve learned from a client?
Do what I say I
am going to do, take ownership of my mistakes, and always, always, do
the right thing for the client, even if it costs. By doing this, trust
that spans years will begin to build, the client always knows they will
be treated with honesty, any extra cost of doing business that may occur
by doing the right thing will eventually give returns in much greater
proportion.
Tell us about an
interesting situation(s) you’ve encountered related to your current
work.
Sometimes
storms and challenges come when you least expect them, and it is the
disciplines and skills you acquired that will help solve major issues. I received an email from my client during their large project letting me
know that one full trailer of our material was at his dock and two
others had called and were two hours away. We had been informed that
these trucks were not arriving for another two days, which is when we
had our team scheduled. I immediately picked up the phone, called my
client, and assessed the situation. I learned that with this large
project of theirs, they were working with a 3rd party
logistics company just up the road from their site. Though they had been
receiving & sending multiple trucks throughout the day and were pretty
much at capacity, they were willing to work with us to receive this
material. It was now up to us to get the actual number of pallets and
boxes, figure out total weight and how much square footage was needed,
and relay that back to the 3PL company, so they could find a space. They
called back and said they had just enough room to hold this material for
the next 2 days. We had called in one of our installation managers to
meet the trucks there so we could get an accurate inventory, and two
hours later had the trucks offloaded and staged. All parties involved
had been updated every 15-30 minutes of the progress up to this point
and by the end of the day, everything was fine. A couple of days later
our box trucks were loading material for delivery to the site. Had it
not been for my background outside of sales, our team, and the ability
to work with others, this could have been very costly for us and
especially inconvenient for the client. In the end, the client looked
good and through this challenge we were able to show what our team was
capable of.
How's business right now?
Overall for
the Southwest Solutions Group team, we have hit our annual goals by 104%
and with all the activity we have had starting in Q2, we look like we
are still on track. To be honest, with the current feeling in the
economy, we all risk starting negative talk. However, companies are
always running out of space, reallocating space, downsizing, relocating,
consolidating, and many times growing. With all the markets we cover and
the solutions we provide, the Southwest Solutions Group team will
continue to do whatever it takes to serve our clients with excellence.
Identify some challenges in your industry.
One of the
major challenges is not having enough resources to educate people on how
important it is to think about storage design Early in the process. When
we are brought in during the programming or schematic phase of a space
plan, it is amazing to see a client’s reaction to how much more they can
store and how much money they could save by planning early. Tell us about your personal life, family, hobbies and interests outside
work.
I have
learned and continue to learn that God must come first, Family must come
second, and Work must come third. Throughout each week I am involved
with a strong group of men from my church who challenge one another to
grow. I have been married to my best friend and incredible wife for
almost 4 years and love her with all my heart. We just had our first
child three months ago, Jack Edward Miller, so that’s pretty exciting. Some of the activities I enjoy outside of work would include camping
with friends and family, rock climbing with someone who can handle the
ropes, and in general spending quality time with my family and friends.
Can we quote you on that?
You are
what you think about, so be mindful of your thoughts.
Thanks, Daryl!
Be
a Leader!! For information on LEED, please visit
www.usgbc.org.
For more information on sustainable building
materials and processes,
www.usgbc.com.
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At our May luncheon, the
distinguished speaker was
