Paul O'Neill
Former CEO of Alcoa, the Aluminum Manufacturing Giant
Speaking on the Importance of Safety Leadership
Mr. Paul O’Neill served as CEO at Alcoa for 13 years and his #1 Priority remained the same from his very first day until the day he retired: * SAFETY *
He said, I knew I had to transform Alcoa. But you can’t order people to change. So I decided I was going to start by focusing on one thing. If I could start disrupting the habits around one thing, it would spread throughout the entire company.
Now, keep in mind, he wasn’t the safety officer, the HR VP or the EVP of Operations, Mr. O’Neill was the CEO of Alcoa. He was the guy in charge of making sure his company made money, and his focus to make that happen? SAFETY.
Mr. O’Neill gave a speech some years later reflecting on his tenure at Alcoa and why his focus on safety led to the ultimate success of the company. Play the video above to view some or all of Mr. O'Neill's inspiring speech on Safety Leadership, or read through the transcript below.
The team at Weeklysafety.com is passionate about safety and are thrilled to share this video as the first in our Safety Masters series. The link to the entire transcript of his speech is below for you to read, be in awe of, learn from, be inspired by and share.
You will not find a transcript of this historical speech anywhere else! This is exclusive from Weeklysafety.com. If you have just a few minutes, we encourage you to just skim the transcript, the best parts are highlighted!