In the increasingly dangerous and unpredictable world of the global executive, traveller safety and ‘duty of care’ responsibilities have now become a prevalent consideration. 

Terror attacks and natural disasters occur more often than ever before and over the past five years the number of incidents involving business travellers finding themselves in very dangerous situations has sparked a new way of thinking by both the employee and the employer.  Incidents such as 9/11, the tsunami and the London bombings have caused many corporations to re-think their crisis management and incident response plans after identifying shortcomings that only incidents of this size can reveal.
These examples barely touch on the sort of risks faced by executive travellers all over the world, but do confirm the risks faced by those conducting business on the international stage. Although there are no guarantees that these situations can be stopped by technology innovations, advances in IT development can provide a great deal of protection to those travelling on business, as well as reassuring employers that their employees whereabouts can be tracked aiding their safety and security at all times. Moreover, developments in IT innovation provide the means in which to contact them anywhere in world.
Although the philosophy behind such technology is nothing new the fact that IT advancements have now reached such a high level means corporations can measure risk every step of the way. Crisis management and traveller-tracking systems can be bespoke designed to meet individual corporate requirements. The best systems will include not only air movements, but also rail and hotel only bookings combined with additional intelligence offerings, such as pre-, active- and post-trip travel records, country-based risk intelligence, government and embassy warnings, as well as international security updates all centralised within one system.
But this is only the tip of the technology iceberg.  Developments in IT mean travellers and employers are also able to obtain additional intelligence such as health warnings, country threat assessments and even weather reports. The fact is that these solutions should also be designed to assist corporations in meeting their ‘duty of care’ obligations by providing a process and structure to keep employees informed of changes in policy and the threats to their safety.
In the UK the much anticipated introduction of the Corporate Manslaughter Bill will also mean a completely new way of thinking on behalf of businesses in relation to their responsibility thus ensuring company employees’ safety and security is at the forefront of any business decision. The bill received its second Commons reading on the 10th of October 2006, and has passed through the committee stage, which ended on the 31st of October 2006.
When you consider the effects of the bill along with an employer’s overall ‘duty of care’ obligation and corporate social responsibility it is no wonder that this subject has caused great concern and debate as to how a corporation can manage and demonstrate that its obligations are complied with.
Most responsible organisations already see that the safety and security of their employees has to be paramount not only for their employees’ wellbeing, but also to ensure that productivity and business activity can continue, thus ensuring the end result is achieved without harm, danger or loss to the employee and business performance.  It is technology and advances in IT that are providing the solutions to these corporate safety and security issues. 
Even though it can be difficult to prove corporate manslaughter, the rising number of convictions against company directors in UK due to a lack of safety and security measures has resulted in increase in employee fatalities. Indeed statistics in employee deaths in the UK alone in 2001 numbered over 200, whilst the number of non-fatal major injuries was recorded at over 27,000. These numbers may or may not be surprising to some readers, but the true value of loss to businesses can be equated to hundreds of millions of pounds per annum. Over the past several years the world has changed in relation to both business practice and the stability of countries across the globe, notably the war in Iraq and the war in Afghanistan, where businesses are sending employees to help with the re-build of infrastructures, such as utilities and communications, and even though these countries are essentially still war zones, business is still business, which means employees will still be sent to regions across the world where a real threat exists to both employees and indeed business operations.
There are also natural considerations to take into account, such as changes in weather patterns, as well as natural disasters, which means international business will always have to consider the safety and security of their employees.
There is little doubt that the world will remain a hostile place, certainly for the foreseeable future, and international business and partnerships will continue to flourish. At least advances in technology can not only support the executive traveller, but also help businesses continue to operate at an international level and thus achieve a positive end result benefiting both the employee and the employer.