Minimizing risk in high-consequence settings
We do our work in a growing community. Today, that community represents high consequence industries – aviation, healthcare, nuclear power. It is this community that has spawned the growth of risk management tools around the preservation of life; it is these industries that have spent the resources to build tools to maximize organizational reliability. We’ve climbed the safety ladder developing tools and techniques to build a better world, yet focused on parts of the world that are often already very, very reliable.
Working to improve the world around us
We turn now to look back down that ladder, to our ability as a society to produce outcomes around the globe: 27 million people still enslaved, a global financial meltdown, 1 in 5 Sub-Saharan children not making it to their fifteenth birthday. For us, we’re choosing to see the world through the eyes of the economist. How can we indeed be better stewards of limited global resources? When must a mission to Mars give way to ending famine in Africa? When must a preoccupation with rare events like a wrong site surgery, simply because they are intellectually offensive, give way to prevention of the everyday misdiagnosis, which leads to considerably more harm? When should my liberty to text message while I drive give way to the protection of the family in the car beside me?
Where our plan begins
Now it is time for us to extend our reach. Time on this planet is unfortunately short for us all. We are striving to take what we have learned and apply it to much more significant societal consequences. Now we choose to reach out, with our hands, our heads, and our hearts. We’ll ask our clients, our community, to join us in outreach around the world. We’ll partner more extensively, with groups like the Flight Safety Foundation and the National Patient Safety Foundation, to leverage our ability to change the world. We will also encourage other industries to make the commitment alongside us. We exist as a company for “helping those who build a better world.” We will join with you. We ask you to join with us. You are our community – those of you who are working to change the world.
