You are all correct, Iron Mountain should have a response for these types of incidents. This is part of a larger push towards greater governmental, social, and business responsiblity called "transparency." Iron Mountain has failed both from the PR perspective as well as the transparency perspective.

I suggest reading Tapscott and Ticoll (2003) The Naked Corporation: How the Age of Transparency Will Revolutionize Business. This was recommended to me by another board member, Roberta Shaffer. I began reading it out of politeness and then found I could not put it down. It made me think differently about how all of us need to rethink what we are doing and how we are doing it. For example, how much of the world's paper are we responsible for? Do we have a stance, either personally or as a professional association for recommending how paper is handled when it is destroyed? Yes, the shredding company takes it to the recycler, but is that a policy recommended by our profession or does it all just work out that way because of economics?

I think now is the time for us to look not just at Iron Mountain, but at all of our practices and policies from the point of view of transparency.

Best wishes,
Carol

Carol E.B. Choksy, Ph.D., CRM
CEO
IRAD Strategic Consultant. Inc.
(317) 294-8329

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