The market is not holy

(The following post is a response to a previous Random Sampling blog post: With no new regs, the market will dictate safety's direction. You can read that post at: www.ishn.com/blogs/16-random-sampling/post/91773-random-sampling-2011-10-05-with-no-new-regs-the-market-will-dictate-safetys-direction)

The Market is not holy. The author himself is stuck with antiquated thinking. What this author is suggesting is that you want to be the top seller of buggy whips and just hope the world likes your product and advertising without noticing that cars are coming soon. The market is not holy, especially when it comes to something that has life or death importance like safety and health in the workplace. As is obvious from the summaries of the late Steve Job’s life, he didn’t think the market was holy; he envisioned and created his own markets then shaped them to suit his business plan.  This was done through great vision and great execution of new products people didn’t know they needed until they were built. Most people who are in the position to make business decision that involve safety in their workplaces have very little understanding of either the technology or the psychology of safety health and the environment. What they think about it is not an “EHS market.” If they are lucky or smart enough to hire or consult with an EHS leader they will discover a new world they didn’t know existed. EHS pros can either sit back and rely on decisions made by people who can’t see past the next quarter or become thought and vision leaders that create and shape new ideas and products that save life and limb. This is critical because the EHS “business” is like the burglar alarm business: the market is people who don’t buy them till after the burglary. It is up to EHS pros to break out of the market is holy paradigm and stop being so reactive to this concept that the masses know all.