Safety: Context
Safety is central to Good Business, and vital for business health. A safety error can mean the difference between an organisation being in business, being under duress, or being out of business.
Effective safety management requires leadership commitment, backed up by good processes and systems. Overall, however, it needs strong values and a deeply embedded culture in which safety is owned by all. The impacts of safety culture can be illustrated by an example from the airline industry
Increasingly, effective safety management is found to be an indicator for business viability and resilience, delivering real competitive advantage. Studies have shown that investment in safety reliably delivers substantial savings.
Still, however, proactive investment in safety is often viewed as an extra. Given that the time, money and resources always seems to be found after an incident - when the damage has been done and the bill has escalated – that investment, and the benefits which it brings, makes clear-cut business sense.
Our core thinking on safety is summarised in our Safety Point of View document (opens as pdf in a new window).
