Overheard in an executive suite: “We don’t want to be world-class; we just want to be ‘safe enough’.” This doesn’t mean executives are heartless capitalists willing to break the bodies of workers just to earn an extra couple of bucks, and it doesn’t necessarily mean they care any less about safety than the rest of us; as Michael Corleone might have said, “it’s just business.”
“Safe enough” begs the question, “Safe enough for what?” (Although I admit, asking that question to your executive is likely to get you an organizational smack on the mouth.) Let’s look at the question another way. Let’s replace “safety” with “profits.” What executive would ever say, “We just want to be profitable enough”? It’s absurd; likely to get the executive fired in short order.