Insights

The Wall Street Journal Features Jetco's Safety Culture

Written by Lisa Sursavage | Mar 22, 2017 5:00:00 AM

Safety is a core value at Jetco, and we go to great lengths to ensure our team always puts safety first. Jetco CEO Brian Fielkow’s recently coauthored Leading People Safely with Jim Schultz, which is based on some of Jetco’s safety practices. The message is gaining traction. The Wall Street Journal’s management news editor Joann Lublin was fascinated by the “shock and awe” chapter which focused on how Jetco shut down operations to review safety concerns, and she reached out to learn more.

Her article “The Era of Overconfident CEOs Is Waning” talks about how quickly our Jetco team was able to assess safety situations by taking a different approach.

She explains what we did ensure our team got back on track:

“Mr. Fielkow stressed workplace safety and his firm’s spectacular safety record. In November 2015, however, staffers started to report an unusual number of minor violations and near misses.

The Jetco chief initially paid little heed, because “I was so overconfident that my procedures were working,’’ he said. When Mr. Fielkow reached out to members of Jetco’s driver committee, he discovered those staffers felt growing concern about frequent close calls.

In January 2016, the CEO suspended operations for a day and required every worker to attend a safety session where they reviewed those near misses and devised remedies. For example, Jetco expanded its use of truck cameras to detect near misses and coach drivers after they happened.”

To read the full article (WSJ subscription required), click here: 
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-era-of-overconfident-ceos-is-over-1488898801#livefyre-toggle-SB11455692400262464455204583000460014464602

To read the full “Shock and Awe” chapter from Leading People Safely, click here:
http://www.brianfielkow.com/blog/shock-and-awe