Jack Boss and his team are experts in the business of safety — a popular and essential topic no matter what sector of the energy industry you are engaged in. BIC Magazine recently visited with Boss, president of Honeywell Safety Products (HSP), to learn more about their “noble cause.”
Q: What led to your position at HSP?
A: My background is in mechanical engineering. Before I joined HSP, I was with Honeywell’s Performance Materials & Technology Division. In the factory, and in chemicals and materials manufacturing, safety was always top of mind for me.
I joined the Honeywell Group in 2004 and became president of HSP in 2012. I was attracted to this business because of the dedication of the people here. We’re committed to a “noble cause,” which creates a responsibility for the safety and protection of workers — not as workers but as individuals who leave their jobs to go home to their families and their lives. We take their safety personally. It’s our passion.
Q: What is the biggest news at HSP right now?
A: The opening of our new Honeywell Training and Customer Experience Center in Houston, focusing on the oil and gas industry. Here, we’re educating and motivating our customers’ employees to create enduring cultures of safety using all of our Honeywell Life Safety products and services. We’re creating customized training programs for our customers that place them — virtually — in real-life working conditions on rigs and platforms, to train them to work more safely and productively.
Q: What are your goals for your position?
A: My ultimate goal is to keep workers safe, wherever they are on the planet. While I am responsible for building Honeywell’s reputation as the premier brand in personal protective equipment in the global marketplace, I am also responsible for keeping our customers — and each individual we protect — at the center of everything we do.
One goal is to move personal protective equipment more aggressively into the world of personal protective technology through Enabled Safety Products. I am convinced introducing innovative technology like RFID, wireless enablement and analytics into our products will improve the ability of our customers, and their workers, to control safety.
Q: Do you have any plans to grow/expand your business through acquisitions and mergers?
A: Honeywell Safety Products has grown through acquisitions, becoming the leader in our industry. Our focus is global and we want to remain the global personal protective equipment leader.
Since acquiring King’s Safetywear Ltd., for example, we have become the only global player in industrial safety footwear; we expanded our position in Southeast Asia, Australia and Europe; and we introduced our first premium leather footwear line in the United States, under the Oliver brand.
Q: How do you plan to address changes in the work force, economy, emissions, etc. in the coming year?
A: As part of Honeywell, which has made protecting the environment and enhancing safety central tenets of how we do business around the world, we have established sustainability objectives and are reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing energy efficiency.
Our customers are facing economic, technological and environmental challenges. A major emerging issue is the growing shortage of experienced labor. New incoming hires must be trained — and culturally acclimated — to their company’s safe operating practices. The challenge posed to managers and safety directors is the change management of people out/in — if they’re to maintain their strong cultures of safety.
We must answer these needs — and anticipate the next generation of challenges — with new products, services, technologies and training that will help our customers, and their workers, achieve both safety and success.
For more information, visit www.honeywelllifesafety.com or call (203) 484-7161.
