Chilean Miner cc Foto_Blog
With the Chilean miners safe above ground, it feels we all can breath easy again. This is probably not true, however, for the families of the Upper Big Branch Mine owned by Massey Energy who lost loved ones. And likely the workers and families in mines around the world will feel this is an aberration, not the normal course of events. “What is business’ responsibility to its workers?”, must still be asked, even on this joyous day.
E. I DuPont has often fired managers for a serious injury to someone under their command and certainly so in the case of death, even of a contractor. The first question that is asked every morning in any DuPont business anywhere in the world is, “how safe was the facility overnight?”. DuPont was founded over 200 years ago by working in businesses that required managing risk. It started with the making of gunpowder, which at that time was as likely to fire backward at a soldier as forward at an advancing force. Out of that early experience came a principle coined by E. I DuPont. We will only be in businesses in which we can manage the risk effectively and ensure the safety of our workers. They have stuck to that for the most part, although there have been a few CEOs along the way how forgot that mission.
When Will Lynn took over as General Manager of Kingsford Charcoal, they had a serious injury monthly and two people had died the year before. It was criminal but not prosecutable, because they were accidents by all protective agency standards. That was not acceptable as an excuse to Lynn. He demanded they immediate find out what was causing so much injury and to turn it around. When he got questions about the cost of changes that would be necessary, he immediately said that “the value of life and limb, outweighs the cost to the business”. He charted his workers to find and correct all safety problems as they went and to also improve how the business system worked while they were at it. His belief was that an unsafe work environment was an unproductive environment because fear of injury or death stole the focus of workers and shut down their creativity. They could not be stewards of the business if the business was not stewards of their safety.
It is time to return to such principles in all businesses. It is what I mean when I say, do what is right. I propose these two principles for all business.
DuPont principle: We will only be in businesses in which we can manage the risk effectively and ensure the safety of our workers and communities effected.
Will Lynn’s Principle: The value of life and limb, outweighs the cost to the business. Correct all safety problems and also improve how the business system works while you are at it.
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