About 15 years ago, contractor Allan Myers suffered two tragic on-the-job accidents in the same year—one was fatal, the other resulted in serious injury. Ever since, the family-owned Pennsylvania firm has been on a crusade to improve not only its own safety standards, but those for the industry, too. “I just couldn’t look in the mirror and be proud of myself and my leadership if I didn’t do everything I could to change our company and our culture,” says Ross Myers, the firm’s chief executive. “I wanted to be able to give back and pay it forward.”
Seeking guidance from what Myers calls the “most dangerous industry in the country,” Myers looked to petrochemical companies. “If they have an accident, 1,000 people can get injured,” Myers says. “They have a totally different mindset for what’s palatable.” Myers says he learned how to “win the hearts and minds of people to get them to believe that they will get hurt if we don’t all work together.”