Business Consort

When things go wrong but, it doesn’t actually result in an accident where someone gets injured, everyone heaves a sigh of relief and you hear phrases like ‘it was a near miss’ and ‘there was an incident’. Consider that a near miss is also a near hit – and an incident that is out of the ordinary and unplanned needs looking into – or it will almost certainly happen again – perhaps with a less fortunate outcome. So why are ‘incidents’ and ‘near misses’ often not investigated?

An accident is not simply a description of a situation where someone gets hurt. An effective organisation uses the tools of accident investigation as a business improvement tool.
1. To explore any unplanned occurrence – and find out why it happened and what could be done to prevent it happening again.
2. To investigate conditions that staff experience – such as back pain – to find out what activities are causing this or exacerbating it.
3. To discover the causes of industrial diseases – where people suffer from certain ailments that may be related to their working environment.
4. To reveal the root cause of injuries; for example, if someone injures their hand in machinery, the investigation may discover that they were not wearing their safety gloves – but, that wasn’t the cause of the accident. The root cause has everything to do with the process or the way in which the machinery is being used – everyone doesn’t get their hands trapped, even with gloves on, so something needs to change – maybe additional training in machine usage for the injured operator or the addition of safety guards on the machine.

Seeing incidents that don’t cause injury as ‘a lucky break’ is simply short-sightedness – and missing an opportunity to make your organisation more efficient, more effective and more profitable.

Email, internet usage and electronic communication are used more and more in everyday business. In fact, for 94% of all business they are an absolutely essential tool. They’ve brought a whole new world of ways to save money, time and hassle – from online banking to instant messaging and e-business. Email especially is a fast, easy and cheap way to get your message out to customers, partners or suppliers. Yet email and web access is also a gateway in to your business – and keeping that gateway secure is just as important as the lock on the front door, the CCTV or the security guard in the doorway. As all businesses rely more on IT, the security risks are increasing. In the last 2-3 years cyber criminals have uncovered new and sophisticated ways to infiltrate and harm any and all kinds of networks. Targeted Trojan attacks; increased by nearly 800% in 2008, according to some reports. Spammers also managed to crack CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart), distributing malicious spam through trusted web-based email providers by creating hundreds of accounts with the sole purpose of distributing spam. 6 out10 emails are spam which now originate from these email services. The proliferation of dangerous spam and infected websites means that no business is safe, it’s no longer the big targets (like banks and large corporations) which are vulnerable. The very fact of being connected to the internet and using electronic communication places any business at risk. The true costs to business from threats like those mentioned above are far greater than merely the financial implications. In addition to direct cost there are: • Cost of computer downtime • Lost productivity • Lost sales More importantly is the possibility that your confidential corporate or customer information could fall into the wrong hands. Take for example the recent data breach in America, which was disclosed by Heartland Payment Systems in January 2008, that breach affected millions of customers, and caused the company’s stock to lose 42% of its value and to close at a 52 week low. The financial loss was painful, but the loss of customer trust and the company’s reputation may yet be even more harmful. Businesses of all sizes face similar challenges today, but the difference is, small and medium sized organizations do not have the IT budget or resources to deliver real levels of protection needed today. So where does this leave small and medium businesses when it comes to security? Part of the answer must be, security that is simple to install, easy to use and manage, and above all, effective. It is also a common challenge to find IT solutions that minimize total cost of ownership, while making sure they improve productivity and customer service. Any company regardless of size needs to be free to conduct their business without worrying about security headaches. Five security tips that will help you secure your information network, business data and reputation. 1. Ensure you have a multi layered defence 2. Educate your employees and users about security risks 3. Control all web access 4. Stay ahead of threats 5. Know your legal obligations