Founding Vision
At dkmc, it is our vision to create Africa’s ultimate home of FM excellence and best practices. Raising the Facilities Management bar
The period 2000 to 2010 represents the fastest growth for FM in Africa. Unfortunately, though, the period was not accompanied by increased training and technology investment. As a result, the period also represents the period of unmet expectations
from the client and/or employer perspective. It was during this decade that companies employed the most number of FM professionals and outsourcing companies - only to realise some of their objectives. This has led to disappointment in some quarters – and this manifests itself by opposition to bundled outsourcing to FM providers and preference to manage own facilities and presumably out-task single services (Source: Frost & Sullivan 2010). In other words, companies and executives that employ facilities professionals and outsourcing companies are not convinced their facilities are in good hands. The need to raise the FM practice bar, in-house and outsourced, is clear for all to see. The founder of dkmc and associates knew this as early as 2004 that the supply industry need to catch a wake-up call. The first attempt was to change things from within the supply industry but this was uncoordinated and thus had limited impact. In late 2008 an opportunity to pilot change from outside the supply side presented itself and was grabbed with both hands by the founder. For one and a half years, our founder consulted for both public and private companies as sole proprietor and found it was more effective to make an impact from the demand/client side. The results were astounding and dkmc was founded on 3 June 2010 with a mission to improve the FM practice on the continent through the advice to client businesses. Our Pay-Off Line - ‘Re tseba ‘taba tsa rona’
Our pay-off line is decidedly in Sesotho because we take our inspiration from our humble beginnings in the eastern Free State, near Lesotho. Growing up in the company of the dramatic shapes of the Drakensberg and the inspirational account of Basotho’s ultimate leader Moshoeshoe, our founder David Khasebe learnt early on that keeping abreast of developments, never resting on your laurels can be as essential as life itself. Accordingly, we are passionately curious about facilities management, research its best practices broadly and travel the world to learn from success stories. Directly translated, it means ‘we know our story’ – and was chosen to be aspirational and a vision we seek. This pursuit of knowledge also manifests itself in the company War Cry and our founder’s favourite poem by Alexander Pope, A Little Learning:
“A little learning is a dangerous thing;
drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
there shallow droughts intoxicate the brain,
and drinking largely sobers us again.”
