One of our Core Values is: Integrity Matters - Always Do the Right Thing. It seems elementary to ask why integrity matters. The answers are all too obvious, right? Yet all too often there are examples of integrity issues in our world, in business and in our personal affairs.

Many companies rely on transportation to make their business work. From trucking and recreational vehicle companies, to municipal governments, to food and beverage distributors, there are millions of businesses that manage vehicle fleets designed to move people and/or goods from place to place. For these organizations, a good fleet management program can minimize and, in some cases, eliminate the risks associated with vehicle investment, driver safety, transportation costs and more.

You may drive around in your town
In a brand new shiny car
Your face in the wind, your haircut's in
And your friends think you're bizarre
You may find a cushy job and I hope that you go far
But if you really want to taste some cool success
You better learn to play guitar                                                           

~ John Mellencamp, “Play Guitar"

The reason I left the Indiana State Police to become a Risk Advisor at Gibson was in large part due to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. As a tribute to the lives lost, I’d like to share a few of the lessons learned. Included are the highlights from an article featured in Campus Safety Newsletter, 7 Lessons Learned from Sandy Hook. The article is very well-written and provides important insights based on the summary report of the incident.

I’ll give a brief warning that some of the content of this post is hard to read given the tragedy of the situation. However, I urge you to push past the discomfort in order to understand how to provide impact should you be confronted by an active shooter situation.

1. Actions by school personnel saved lives

For many, if not most, businesses, intellectual property—such as inventions, trademarks, trade secrets, business strategies, or operational details—is the most valuable asset they have. It’s what allows a business to differentiate itself from competitors, whether it’s a more efficient process, more robust sales leads, or a unique product or formula. According to some recent estimates, it makes up 75% of companies’ values.

Protection Is Necessary

Despite the importance of intellectual property, few businesses take even the simplest steps to protect their intellectual property—perhaps because you can’t typically protect intellectual property like you do other property. It’s an intangible asset; it’s found in electronically stored data, in documents, or in the properties of physical things. It’s not in the warehouse behind locked doors, barbed-wire fences, and a security guard. Someone can steal it without ever setting foot on your property. They can hack your network, copy your logo, or reverse engineer your product. They can even acquire the right to use intellectual property if you’ve failed to take steps to prevent others from using it.

But once your intellectual property is stolen, it’s tough to stop the bleeding. Since intellectual property—unlike something tangible—can be used by multiple people simultaneously, a compromised business may have to pursue violators all over the country and even the world before its damages are fully contained. Even that may not be enough. Intellectual-property theft costs businesses not only real money—an estimated half a billion dollars annually—but also time and resources spent on damage control, public reputation or good will, market share, and growth opportunities. You may never completely undo the harm.

Remember the song from the 1980s commercial for Enjoli perfume: “I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan and never let you forget you’re a man.  Cause I’m a woman…Enjoli.”

Recently a tweet from Jerry Scott, our Director of Operations, caught my eye and launched a discussion about women in the workplace and at Gibson. He was responding to an earlier tweet about a recent article in The Washington Post where the new Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, the first woman in its 100 year history, said that America’s economic success over the past century has been due in large part to greater contributions by women: “Making fuller use of the talents and effort of women in the workplace has made us more productive and prosperous.”

Since a recreational vehicle (RV) is a motor vehicle similar to a car, most insurance companies are willing to issue a policy. Problems arise, however, when RV owners try to shoehorn RV coverage into a typical auto policy, which can cause gaps in coverage.

George Bernard Shaw once said “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” He died in 1950 when the methods of communication were much simpler than they are today.

There’s no question that the availability of information is abundant. The channels for information consumption are endless. Yet effective communication has become more difficult.

All tools have safety considerations, and a ladder is no different. However, when you regularly use a ladder, you may begin to take ladder safety for granted. Falls are a leading cause of injuries and fatalities in the workplace and proper ladder safety is essential. This guide will take you through picking the right ladder, the proper technique for placing and climbing the ladder, and how to conduct maintenance checks to ensure ladders remain safe to use.