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Lyle Hestermann
Property Manager
Raytheon Network Centric Systems
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“Standards provide a sense of direction as well as measurements of when you’ve arrived or how you’ve performed.”
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Who is your current employer and what is your current position? |
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I am a property manager at Raytheon Network Centric Systems in Fort Wayne, Ind. |
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Where did you obtain your undergraduate/ graduate degree(s) and in what fields? |
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I have a bachelor’s degree in general studies from Indiana University, Bloomington, Ind. |
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When and why did you become involved in ASTM International? |
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A group of visionary people (all members of the National Property Management Association (NPMA)) were talking about the need for property management standards and I was fortunate enough to be in the area! As the idea germinated in the late 1990s and grew to the extent that the NPMA committed to forming a “Council On Standards” in 1998, I followed the development and volunteered to be a part of the very necessary effort. NPMA, whose strength is training and development of property professionals, realized that promulgating and vetting standards required a well-established standards organization. After a thorough review of many organizations, NPMA teamed up with ASTM International to develop property management standards; the first of those standards was published in 2001. |
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In which committees are you active? Are you a committee officer; if so, what group or groups? |
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I am the current chair of Committee E53 on Property Management Systems. I also participate in Committees E06 on Performance of Buildings and F36 on Technology and Underground Utilities. |
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How do you apply ASTM standards in your work? |
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In many ways! Property is often referred to as the “third resource,” the other two being human resources and monetary resources (frequently shortened to “people, money and stuff”). While there is a rich and extensive literature base, including undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, for human and monetary resources as well as for real property and material, we are in the process of building a similar base as well as degree programs for the third resource, and more specifically for the personal property or equipment subcategories of property.
Property professionals utilize ASTM standards as those absolutely critical benchmarks required for robust policies, processes, professional development and performance measurements.
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Apart from using standards, are there advantages to participating in standards development? |
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I suppose that the greatest serendipitous result of participating in standards development is the networking opportunities that result from working with property professionals who hail from very diverse backgrounds, industries, nonprofit organizations, governmental agencies at all levels, etc.
In a different vein, there are no words to express the wonderment that, in lieu of directed processes, property professionals are developing “performance based” standards. A relevant quote appeared in the NPMA publication, The Property Professional, that said “…with the publication of [these standards], the typically prescriptive sector specific “how to” processes that were used historically have been rejected by a large body of practicing property professionals in favor of requirements expressed in performance terms and consensus outcomes.” Steven Michelsen and Pat Picariello, Consensus Standards, A Public Sector Forecast, The Property Professional, Vol. 13, Issue 3, 2001
Just as the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) establishes financial accounting and reporting standards, Committee E53 is striving mightily to launch property management performance terms and consensus outcomes.
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What are some of your favorite aspects of your job? |
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. After 26 years in the property profession, it still seems that there is something new to learn each and every day. While there are some very basic aspects to managing property, the many different types of property and their functions present a seemingly endless array of varying considerations.
Similarly, property professionals have the opportunity to interact with literally all of the different functional areas during the property life cycle. Whether it’s the end users/program personnel and supply chain management during the acquisition phase; the users, engineers or production people during the utilization phase; or any of a number of functional areas during the disposition phase, property people have the great fortune of being able to work with everybody!
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Are there advantages that you can identify that result from having an understanding of standards? |
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Absolutely! The first thing that comes to mind is the famous Eli Goldratt quote, “Tell me how you’re going to measure me, and I’ll tell you how I’m going to perform.” The second thought would be the great Yogi Berra quote, "You've got to be very careful if you don't know where you're going, because you might not get there." Standards provide a sense of direction as well as measurements of when you’ve arrived or how you’ve performed.
More specifically, ASTM property standards help define and measure the level of success of a property management system in several different ways. For example, ASTM E 2132, Standard Practice for Physical Inventory of Durable, Moveable Property, provides guidance on how to plan, prepare and conduct a physical inventory. Just as important, the standard also provides guidance on how to analyze and measure the results of the physical inventory.
Finally, the “third resource” represents a significant investment on the part of the owning agency, and managing and maintaining the third resource requires ongoing expenditures that can also be quite significant. Standards are helping property professionals better track and analyze those costs, and will without a doubt lead to ever improving techniques and cost savings.
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Are there any words of wisdom that you can offer to professionals starting out in your field? |
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Property Management is a relatively new and very exciting field! We are arguably on the frontier of a previously unexplored realm that is so vital to almost any human endeavor. While so many efforts have been directed at measuring and improving human relations, operations, financial management, etc., we are on the brink of describing and delineating, in detail, the contribution that our profession makes to any entity!
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