Safety is a profit center nobody measures

My pleasure. Thank you for the invite.

So as a professional in the environmental health and safety space, one of the things when I was working for another company is I always felt we could do more for businesses that would be helpful and something that would be much more in line with not just a compliance aspect, but actually improving business performance because what I witnessed was a lot of organizations that would spend money to become compliant, and then things would just fall off. in business performance as you know whatever really contributes to the outcome of the organization is what gets worked and stays within the organization and the whole system and continues to move forward. So in looking at that, I actually formed an organization called JSL Risk Control back in 1995. I can't believe I'm saying that long ago, but 1995, and with two other people who had the same outlook. And what happened was the two other people ended up going to work for some of our clients. And I was the one that ended up saying, now I want to go ahead and continue onward. And I formed Baretti Inc. in January 1, 2003. And the whole idea about this is what we say, our our vision is just four words. It's better business through safety. And that is exactly it. So we take organizations on a journey of compliance and beyond. So we help them become compliant with various regulations, and it's not just the United States. It's also the EU and Asia and different places around the world where our clients have run into challenges from that standpoint. But we also try to then say, although you're compliant, why don't we get a return on this? So if you're doing this, let's go beyond and make this part of the way you work and the way your system operates so it become profitable. And we've had over the years many, many, many, many instances where the organizations have evaluated this and they can tell how much the safety effort has actually contributed to profit. So the whole idea was to start with that in mind is that we believed we could do it better. So yeah, that's the way to put it shortly anyway.

Wow, that's a very good question because as anyone who's been in business realizes there's a point where you get to in the organization that you wonder, is this really all worth it? because it's hard work. It and I'm trying to think of an instance itself. There's been several over the years. I I think I originally thought that, well, once you hit one down point and you make it through, that's it. You're gonna be on your way, you don't have to worry about any more down points. And that is just not true. Every business goes through ups and downs, some because of the economy in general, others because of a change in direction with what you want to do. So I can think of two instances. One where it was turning the entrepreneurial ideas into an actual organization. That is hard to do. I'm not a very detailed oriented person myself as an individual. But what I did do was I looked for and hired people who are, who were very good at organization, very good at prompting, very good at and diligent with timelines and setting that up. They helped me then develop to be a better person in that direction, which helps you be a better leader. But what you recognize is that this is a team effort. It's not just one individual. So, really, as a leader from that standpoint, looking at a vision that's shared that everyone really can get behind and really feels that what they do is of value to the organization helped me get through that process. Now, I say through that process because as we've gone through the years, we've realized that our competitive advantage and what we do very different from anyone else. or any other safety organization that we have found in the world is we focus on business results. Whereas a lot of other organizations, what they do is they focus on compliance and prevention, which is perfect. I mean it's the outcome you want. You definitely want to be there. But we're looking at it from the standpoint too that if you are making sure that people are working safe, they are also being very productive. And therefore, you should be able to measure that outcome in your profit. It's the same thing as you would find with any other department in any company. And that is the accounting department is always looking for ways to be sure that expenses are held to a minimum while maximizing what you get from your capital investment. And certainly we could say that accounting is an expense, but without that, are we really analyzing what we're doing here and being more productive from that standpoint? So I'd say those are two parts of the journey that have been very difficult. One is changing from the entrepreneurial standpoint into an actual organization, meaning that why are we doing this and becoming more functional and more effective and more profitable ourselves and more efficient? And then at the same time, changing direction and how do you mirror that into the marketplace so that people really understand what it is that you do? even today we run up against that because people have A preconceived idea of what a safety company should be. And we buck that trend. We don't adhere to that. Yeah, we can get anybody compliant. We do a lot of that work. We do a lot of, you know, legal work with different lawyers and different expert witnessing and things like that around the world. However, if you really want to get something out of that investment, you want to end up with profit. And that's what we're looking for. The efficiency, the productivity that leads to and is the reason why that you can measure this is why we're doing better as a company. That's a big long answer for just a quick question.

Yeah. Yeah. Overall industries I'd say are manufacturing high tech, funny enough, high tech R and D, where rules aren't written yet. you know, how do we handle this and and keep the people who are the brains that are making this work healthy and safe with what they do. Agriculture from a business perspective, and that agricultural industry will run from crops to trees, you know. fruits and nuts, those kind of things, to processing and distribution. So logistics and warehousing, construction we've done very well as as well. and I'm really proud of that part because our president of the company actually was a construction safety manager. And he was one that could see the business aspect of safety and was able to take his organization at that time through three different phases of construction. where after the first phase, everybody else who came from the same area that they did, they were blocked out because they weren't following the safety stuff. They were making fun of it. He integrated it within the organization. So it was always a never an issue for the contractor. So they were very happy with it. And but those are I'd say are probably the five biggest industries. We do some work with governmental agencies, and that definitely is is is a different type of challenge, but very successful. that we've been there as well. So yeah, I'd say that's that's pretty much it.

Correct. Yes. And actually the assessment and the monitoring are pretty much the same. All we've done over the years is make them more effective for our clients. And so we've, you know, taken the input they had on those areas that would help them be able to go through this journey much more effectively. So those things have really helped. So the assessment sometimes in the beginning, people were scared off by the amount of what we would find. So we now make sure that we put in where their strengths are as an organization and how those strengths can help build up on these challenges, the opportunities, the threats that they may see with regard for them. The monitoring continues along those lines where it's used not just as a, hey, this is your status, here's an educational and a continuous performance improvement process that we can make it be. So therefore, we're in partnership and in sync with what the organization is. It's the action and the measure that's different. The measure, and I'll start there, used to be all around looking at safety metrics. And while we still continue those occupational safety and health metrics, we have now incorporated looking at how it's made processes more effective more efficient and effective and more productive. so we're looking at it, yeah, in terms of reduction of risk. And then from that standpoint, how has that positively affected the organization? Sometimes you can see a return on investment within days, and other times it takes a couple of years. But as long as we know we're going the right direction, we will continue that with the monitoring. The action component has become more complex. So whereas our our clients have asked for more complex reviews. Integrations, all those things, we've had to adapt that. So the action component is really truly now in partnership where it's here's what we're doing, but since we're not working inside your organization, here's what we need this person to be doing too. And let's put in a who has done what by when component in it. So we know there's a time frame and we know there's solutions coming along. So the A2M2 thing, the act the assessment, action, measure, and monitor aspect is working well. It's just those two components, I would say, that have morphed over the years from where we originally thought it would be. And I'm glad for it. I mean, it's really been the marketplace that has been driving those changes. And I think what that does is it puts a challenge internally for our consultants because they know technically. the safety aspects that that organizations need to deal with. It's really understanding how that works organizationally. So in other words, yes, you see these things and say as an example, that's an unguarded piece of equipment or a machine. That's fine, but what's going on here really within the process that has led to this situation? Because people tend to do those things to be more productive, what they feel to be more effective and more efficient to get the job done. If that's the case, then maybe we don't have the right guard in place, or there's something upstream or downstream that's more of a challenge. How do we look at that and and you know solve those problems? if I may, if if if it's okay with you, I'll share a great example of this with okay, good. So we worked with a clothing manufacturer in the United States, in the state of California, which

If anybody knows, they always say, that's impossible. You can't do that. California's too difficult to work in. The United States is not a good place to be able to do clothing. and we found that working with them, they asked us to do an ergonomic evaluation of a shipping station. And when I came back to the organization's operation manager, I told them, I said, I can only solve half your problem. You just have to decide which side you want done. And He asked the question, why? And I said, because some of these things really should be addressed upstream, which would then help this workstation be more effective, more efficient, then we can solve the whole problem. And he said, that gives me an idea. Write up both sides of this. Tell me what you think needs to be upstream and let's have a meeting about it, which we did. That led to a Kaizen event. So if you know Kaizen with regard to quality and efficiency, that all marries this in. And he four months later asked me if I was in the neighborhood to come by for a presentation. It was the first Kaizen event of this organization's history. And what happened was they did take all that information, changed everything using the Kaizen event, and they saved 120 minutes of their process time. So the process time used to be from picking to shipment in 128 minutes. It got reduced down to eight minutes. And the great thing was the president of the company had had no knowledge of this. He pointed to us saying that was the catalyst that led to this. And he's asked he asked us then to come in, take a look at it from a human factor standpoint. Are we doing well? We're not, you know, we're preventing the risk of injury from strain sprains, those kind of things. But do you see any issues? And they addressed most of it. There were a couple of little things we we did, but see, that's the monitoring component and that's the measurement. Component. The action was the issue of look, we're seeing this, but we can only solve half of it. What you need to do is look upstream to resolve some of the issues there and look downstream so therefore this doesn't remain a bottleneck in your process. And to save 120 minutes on order process time, that's phenomenal. The president of the company cried. I mean, literally stood there on the stage and cried. And everybody stood up with standing ovation for the team that did it. You know, yeah, they pointed to me, but quite frankly, the organization, the team that the Kaizen team that looked at this figured it out by using the information we provided and the knowledge they have from Kaizen events. So they ended up doing 4,000 over 4,100 different Kaizen events in all their history, remained in California to be competitive globally, which a lot of people say you can't do. the US Department of Commerce actually asked that operations manager at the time to speak in different events in North America about how you can keep manufacturing in North America and be productive and efficient around the world. And they lasted until a wildfire actually wiped them out in California. So they ended up going down with that, unfortunately. What they did do is they did rebuild and sold the company. So the company does exist, it's just been sold to another entity. and that operation, as far as I know, is still in the United States. So they've gone more towards the customization. And because that other organization that bought them had facilities around the world, they were able to, you know, take some of the more routine things and put them in other places. But that got them going. It was phenomenal how he was able to use that as the catalyst. And we worked with them for many, many years, all the way up to the time of the wildfire. and was able to see all the progress they made. They changed the entire process of the way clothing was manufactured. It was phenomenal to watch. so anyway, I I'm proud of that as you can tell. So but I think that gives an idea. Yeah. thanks. Yeah. So it is something. I mean, we actually did a presentation on it

in two thousand eight, and it was memorialized. We actually did this for the American Society of Safety Professionals, where it was used in the sustainability symposium that they had. the company saw everything that was put together. They actually helped record some pieces of it, and they gave it a blessing. They said this was this really, you know, is what they wanted to do. So it still exists, still something out there, but anyway.

So let me at least I'll take it from the standpoint of moving from president CEO into the CEO position. the whole idea of that was succession to make sure that should anything happen to me, the organization can continue to thrive and move forward. me by going into the CEO position allows me now to be much more strategic. the operational aspect now is being handled by the president of the company and a director that we have as well. They're really looking and formulating how this works. So they're they're executing it, which to me I think makes it more effective, more efficient. And I have found that employees throughout the organization find it much, much better to work with. They're not waiting for the boss to get back to them because the boss is doing something else. So as CEO now I can look at this more from a strategic plan, you know, standpoint. Five years from now, I want to make sure that me and my role is definitely strategic only, that the organization is being run operationally by these two individuals. They're very effective, very efficient with what they're doing. I would like to grow the organization more into the direction of being a partnership with. a number of businesses that are continually looking to be more effective and more efficient and seeing the occupational safety and health role as one that is actually part of business success. And, you know, I know that's kind of a nebulous idea out there, but it's one which is on the frontier. There are many, many organizations, global organizations that now have safety professionals who sit in the C suite. So they're part of the executive suite. However, they're still grappling with some of the challenges of legacy, meaning that they're looking at lost time incidents, things that occur on a on a back end of things. Did we do this? Whereas organizations look at it more from the standpoint of this, where profit is an outcome of the quality of the systems that you're measuring internally does to contribution to that. And so I really would like to see our organization being part of that for making changes within either global or local types of organizations or regional, anything in between, where safety is a contributor and a measured contributor to the success and the direction and the achievement of the vision and mission of organizations around the world. So five years from now, that's where I hope to be. We may not be in every you know, business. And I don't think we're made for every business. But I would like to have, you know, maybe three times the size of the organization we are now, which I think would be the sweet spot, working with those organizations that view this to be an integral component of success. Just like marketing, just like you know, operations, just like legal, just like, you know, we're contributing to this rather than being viewed as a necessary expense because some country or some organization wants a regulation in place. It's instead, this is a component of s of, you know, profitable, efficient work. So that's where I'd like to see our organization.

wow. Go to our website at berettiinc.com. So it's B O R E T T I I N as a Nancy C dot com. there is another beretti company out there, but they make stoves and you know equipment, kitchen equipment, but they're not called Baretti Inc. They're called Baretti. So berettiinc.com, that's where you want to go. And from there You can contact us at the numbers, you can contact us through email. there's a number of ways. There's also a LinkedIn profile as well as a Facebook profile. So Baretti Baretti Inc. there. So any of those ways they can get hold of us. Thank you. Yeah.

My pleasure, thank you. Any time.