[IAmYourDensity]

> "Software Stalins," managers who grab onto one indicator and think that driving it to zero (or 100, or 11 for you Spinal Tap Fans) will resolve all other problems.

Paul O’Neill famously did exactly this at Alcoa starting in 1987, focusing solely on worker safety resolved many other problems and multiplied profitability.

>The company's market value increased from $3 billion in 1986 to $27.53 billion in 2000, while net income increased from $200 million to $1.484 billion.

[0] https://www.forbes.com/sites/roddwagner/2019/01/22/have-we-l...

[skmurphy]

It's a reasonable counter-example, two other CEOs of successful firms who emphasized safety were Lawrence Culp at Danaher (he is now at GE) and David Cote at Honeywell. All three had tenures more than a decade where their firms invested in and introduced new products, so I suspect they focused on more than worker safety but I am not personally familiar with their policies and decisions.

I think it makes a very good story that a focus on worker safety--to the exclusion of any other objectives--is all that you need. But I don't think anything is that simple.