Today Mel Blackmore is joined by Richard Turner, the Head of Asset Management at Greater Anglia, a train operating company in the UK. We're going to be talking about his journey in relation to asset management and ISO 55001. Greater Anglia have been certified to this standard for a few years now, and they're a bit of a trendsetter, as far as asset management and certification to ISO 55001 is concerned.   What you’ll learn: What is Asset Management? What made Greater Anglia consider ISO 55001? Tackling the challenge of total buy-in Coordinating with stakeholders Benefits for Greater Anglia   First of all, let’s talk about what Greater Anglia is and does…   What does Greater Anglia do? Greater Anglia was one of the first train operating companies to embark on a full repairing lease in 2012. That means having a full responsibility as opposed to the normal setup (with Network Rail as the landlord and the train operating company as a tenant). It was a first for a train operating company to have their own Asset Management Department and it was a really big deal for a lot of those that joined asset management. Richard came from Network Rail, doing asset management in a department where a train operating company was leading from an asset management point of view.   Let’s get to know more about Richard’s background… Richard joined Network Rail around the year 2000. He was an asset manager at the start, and then the senior asset manager, soon after becoming a root asset manager – he went right through the asset management field! So, when the Greater Anglia job came around in 2012, Richard jumped at it because it was a massive new challenge for him, as it was a new thing for a train operating company to start off with an Asset Management Department which never existed before. Now for those of you who aren't actually familiar with asset management, let’s take a moment to understand what it is and why it’s important to an organisation…   Asset Management From the asset management side for Greater Anglia, they look after the stations, depots, all the assets within the station demise that sit under their responsibility, maintain, renew, enhance and they look at longevity. They see themselves literally from inception to completion…they are like a landlord effectively. From an asset management point, it’s really, really key that they are involved every step of the way from design to construction essentially. It's an interesting role that is very varied. One day you could get involved in the refurbishment of a waiting room, then the next day, you would be discussing a brand-new station that's going to be built. It's so varied and what Richard loves about his job is that every day is so different. It’s safe to say he definitely needs to work in collaboration with lots of different stakeholders in this role! And that's a key point, actually…Richard tells us that one thing you learn through asset management is how to meet the expectations of your stakeholders, how you have performed, and what their expectations are. So, the stakeholder internally and externally is vital for any business to succeed. Because if you haven't got the buy-in of your stakeholders, then you're going to really struggle.   Now let's dive into ISO 55001… What made Greater Anglia consider ISO 55001? Striving for excellence, once the franchise agreement was in place, Richard was keen to set a high standard and embed Asset Management ‘Best practice’ into the DNA of the organisation.  ISO 55001 was the ideal framework for this. So, let’s find out how Greater Anglia went about tackling the challenge of achieving certification… Tackling the challenge There was a massive change of direction in everything Greater Anglia did with regards to presentations, training, updating their process strategy and getting everybody's buy-in, and inductions in what they do within the company. Richard thinks they got this from the ISO standard itself -in terms of the structure of how it was set ou