Much can be said about the safety movement mimicking the 1990s Quality Movement in the US automobile industry. Does anyone remember Ford’s “Quality is Job 1” ads? It was a huge branding image effort to compete with Toyota and Honda, who were stealing market share based on the QUALITY of their vehicles. Even today, Toyota and Honda (as well as some other foreign manufacturers) have a reputation for the quality of their products, and here’s the interesting part – we never see them touting their quality in their ads. IT SPEAKS FOR ITSELF! We either know first-hand the quality of their products, or we hear owners rave about the quality of their products – but we NEVER hear Toyota or Honda making statements like “Quality is #1” or hear them mention quality in their advertisements!
It’s because they do NOT need to tout it as their products speak for themselves. Oftentimes, companies will approach safety as an “image branding” exercise rather than a grassroots SMS exercise. There is a lot of talk about safety, but the “customer” (i.e., workers) has doubts about the product management is trying to sell them. When we go to a business with a mature safety culture, we do not see all the signs and posters or hear all the catchphrases about the importance of safety. Because “the product” (i.e., safety) speaks for itself, there is no need for all the over-the-top proclamations about safety. Heck, safety will come up in some way 10 minutes into any discussion with an employee.
But watch this video; everywhere he says “quality,” insert the word “safety,” and you can begin to understand how words mean little. It is what the “customer” experiences personally that sells the product. Sure, the customers are different; when he is talking about quality in this video, he is talking about the consumer. In safety, our customers are our employees and contractors.
