Accelerating Safety, Environmental & Business Performance

27 MAY 2016

Accelerating Safety, Environmental & Business Performance

New Zealand’s global competitiveness is declining. We’re not performing as well as we used to. So the knowledge that safety and care for the environment can be used as key drivers to accelerate business performance, will come as welcome news to many Kiwi leaders.

Broadening our focus to include safety and sustainability as motivating influences of behaviour can add considerable value to businesses, and the New Zealand economy.

Over the past number of years, research has shown a direct correlation between safety, environmental sustainability and business performance. While the research has shown this is due to the common values of care, there is also a major overlap in the underlying World Class practices that drive excellence. A major part of our Kiwi make-up is that we care for each other, and the environment, on a very personal level. It is on this fundamental level where safety and environmental performance play a major role to inspire change and accelerate competitiveness.

Many organisations view their safety and environmental obligations as burdens with very little business worth, yet the underlying motivation, values and practices behind protecting ourselves and our planet are essentially major forces needed to drive any organisation wanting to be globally competitive.

Over the past decade there has been a shift from organisations competing with each other, to supply chains being the primary competitors. Today, the shift continues, with leading businesses realising they can achieve greater results, faster, through collaboration. Industry clusters are now emerging and helping to further accelerate business performance. Safety and environmental sustainability are ideal topics for organisations to initiate collaboration. The wine industry is perhaps a good example where there is a high level of competition, yet the industry works together on environmental issues, which accelerates their ability to compete together in a global market.

Rather than experiencing nervousness at their liability regarding safety and environmental risks, leading businesses are taking a different view, and challenging themselves to leverage this synergy as a means to hasten their performance improvement.

They are realising greater results quickly, with less effort, and achieving a strong mix of tangible and strategic benefits, including increased output, safety compliance, risk reduction, people and environmental protection, inspired and committed staff, ongoing cost savings and sustained improvement.

They have also discovered that people, and the companies that employ them, thrive when there is genuine care for one another and individuals find meaning in their work. Cost savings eventually happen of their own accord, once staff participation and process reviews are taking place.

As one of New Zealand’s major improvement consultancy firms, INTENT is leading the initiative to leverage safety and sustainability to also improve the country’s competitiveness. They refer to this as the Transformation Triangle.

“Due to the personal value that people attach to safety and the environment, staff involvement in identifying improvement opportunities, and their willingness to drive the change process, the results have been phenomenal and we realised during the research and testing phase that we are looking at only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the value to organisations” said Herman Potgieter, INTENT’s General Manager Supply Chain Solutions.

“It was interesting to note that this logic also works the other way. While working with leading NZ organisations to achieve cost and performance improvements, our work also contributed significantly to environmental and other organisational benefits. Examples are reduced energy costs, due to the reduction of unproductive running with no or low throughput, and reducing waste rather than losing it to the environment in effluent or dust. Essentially, it means that we can achieve much more while consuming less natural resources and reducing the risk to people.” said Herman.

This proven link between safety and an organisation’s value offers New Zealand businesses with an excellent opportunity to use current legislation to help address our global competitiveness ranking.

For more information about transforming your business using the Transformation Triangle, visit the INTENT website or contact INTENT on 09 523 0366 or performance@intentgroup.co.nz .

ENDS

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