Focused on Risk

Building material dealers, furniture manufacturers, military suppliers, aviation service providers of all types, local and long distance moving companies, retail stores, service providers of all kinds-HVAC, auto repair, contractors of any type, or any other business all have one common denominator: without a positive attitude from the top down, their business will never be best in class, and with marginal to poor attitude from the top, most businesses will not prosper and they will die a slow death, and horribly, may never know it is their own fault and correctible!

There are always excuses for poor performance or failure, and all people and businesses make mistakes on occasion. This is human and we are not perfect. Mistakes are not failure, at least unless they go unknown or ignored. Most of the mistakes I have made in my long business life, painful as they were, became unplanned growth and learning lessons. In a long career of commercial property and casualty insurance, I had the opportunity as a young Loss Prevention Representative working with a major insurance company to climb through hundreds of buildings, climb bridge structures, and take vibration readings in caves for the purpose blasting damage control from road building. Adding to the fun was working with the largest case goods-wood-furniture manufacturer in the country on accident reduction, including machine guarding. A time or two, I even found my picture in a local newspaper presenting an award for 1,000,000 man hours without a loss time injury to the manager of a manufacturing plant in a small town.

For those interested in numbers, it takes 250 workers working 40 hours per week for 100 weeks- yes; I used 50 week years to make a million hours! What a great way to learn the real purpose, importance, and true cost of insurance. Here is the real significance of what I am trying to share: in these businesses, the most successful had some important things in common, they cared about their workers, they expected to produce an excellent, not only good, but excellent product–let’s call that “zero defects” as a goal. Their worker turnover was better than their competitors, absenteeism less, and direct and indirect injury and insurance cost lower than industry norms. And by the way, they were profitable and growing. The ingredient that is the engine of this process is a good attitude; it can’t be done for any length of time otherwise.

If you put proper attitude with a proper set of measurable standards, you can have great results. If you buy into the attitude part, and are interested in learning how a good insurance program can benefit your business in many ways other than just meeting minimal requirements, then follow this blog as I unravel the pieces and processes for you. The stories and events will be real personal experiences. Most likely, I will add a few characters as we go. You may recognize them in your company. Ride this train with me!

Thanks for your interest.

For more information please contact Jodie Folk at 615.435.8291 or contact CS&A Insurance at 615.435.8300. Visit our web site: www.ChappellSmith.com Today!