Scott Fasken of Colorado Document Security, Palisades, Colo., says he is looking forward to his National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) presidency as an opportunity to give back. He will assume the presidency at the 2012 NAID Annual Conference, March 30 to April 1, in Anaheim, Calif.
Since joining NAID, the Phoenix-based nonprofit trade association for the secure destruction industry, in 2004, Fasken says he has felt supported by his co-members during every step of growing his business. Having been on the receiving end of useful advice and willing educators, Fasken says NAID will continue to strive to help members become the go-to-resource for their clients by providing members with information and training as they need it.
He also says he is looking forward to the international expansion NAID is currently experiencing. On the heels of NAID’s launch of an Asian chapter and continued growth in Australia, Fasken says 2012 is shaping up to be very exciting.
Fasken tells Storage & Destruction Business (SDB) magazine his goals for his presidency as well as what the coming years have in store for information destruction professionals:
SDB: What are your goals for NAID as you prepare to take the presidency in 2012?
Scott Fasken (SF): The goals are professionalism and to educate our clients on the issue of confidentiality. Anybody can take a big piece of paper and turn it into a little piece of paper, but our focus as NAID professionals should be educating our clients on the issues of compliance. Being that resource and being that go-to guy who they say, “I’ll just call Ray, and he’ll tell me what to do”—that is the whole focus of what we are doing this year with the convention (NAID’s 2012 Annual Convention.) The focus of the convention is sales professionalism, how to service your clients and how to be that go-to guy. That’s my first area of focus. The tools we use to get there are training at the convention, certification and Downstream Data Coverage insurance. (For more on Downstream Data Coverage, see “Liability Issues,” p. 24.)
SDB: What NAID initiatives are you most excited about as the association embarks on a new year?
SF: The work with the Downstream Data Coverage and helping people understand that NAID has developed a policy that, over time, we will own. We will develop a member-owned professional liability insurance program that is designed for our membership. It’s an ongoing policy, meaning as directives from the Department of Health and Human Services come out, we will be dealing with those issues and making sure the policy is always updated.
It’s one thing when someone designs a policy and tries to sell it to an industry. When it’s a policy developed by the industry to meet the needs of its members, then it’s a much better and efficient program.
We’ve worked on this for a number of years. There were two or three times when we thought there was an iceberg in the path and we thought it was not going to happen; but, it is very important coverage, especially when we look at the new HITECH (Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health) program coming into effect.
SDB: Do you think additional laws and regulations governing information protection are on the horizon?
SF: Well, we all pray for a national shredding law that’s clear, simple and just says you have to do it, but that’s probably not something we are going to see in the next few years.
We are seeing laws like the new HITECH that are drastically changing people’s interpretation of the [Health Insurance Portability and Accountability] law. And in many ways laws are important, but businesses are generally taking the best business practices of those who are already regulated by laws like HITECH, Gramm-Leach-Bliley or FACTA (Fair and Accurage Credit Transactions Act). They’re saying, “Gee, my bank is doing this. I’d better be doing this in the same manner.”
There’s a lot of development that way, but we just decided we had to change what we were doing. There’s an organic growth rather than a directed growth from a piece of legislation. And, to be blunt, HITECH is just so new there is going to be so much spillover, and it’s very positive that way.
It would be nice to have some national program with clarity, and we can get that over time, because when you have all these data breach laws in 48 states, large corporations find it hard to realize. In time they will start pushing for a national standard, just not today.
SDB: I understand that you've seen increased interest in your services as a result of HITECH. What has your company done to target medical clients?
SF: Last year we had quite a nice program that NAID developed for marketing to doctors and other medical clients. The other DVD program for clients was employee training. And NAID created some very nice printed materials, so you don’t have to, as a member, reinvent the wheel. There are folders full of materials so that you can go in [to the client in] a professional manor and do presentations. We’ve been doing a lot more with those.
We’ve also been attending medical manager association meetings. That’s one of the things that NAID found from the focus groups [it conducted on HITECH]: The office manager is the queen bee of the office and she is the one making the decisions. NAID had some great focus issues that let us learn the different lexicons that they have. For example, doctors are called providers now, so we can speak their language when we’re doing outreach.
SDB: What role does diversification play in your business? Do you think clients will increasingly be looking for a supplier with a diverse service offering or do you believe specialization will provide the greater draw?
SF: The first thing I see is members getting involved with hard drive destruction. When I joined NAID, there was just a little fringe of that floating around. There are many members who are getting specialty equipment for their plants or they are adding it on to their trucks by adding hydraulics, and they are able to destroy hard drives right on sight. Being able to deal with e-scrap, being a resource for your clients, it gives you an ancillary product to sell to the client. It gives you another certified NAID member. It is a very effective tool to provide more services to your clients. The more hats you can wear, the more solutions you can offer, the more money you can charge the client. You don’t get into a price battle with how cheap you can do your destruction but you get a premium because you’re the solution-driven vendor for them.
SDB: What do you find to be the most challenging aspect of being involved with the NAID board? What about the most rewarding?
SF: There is a commitment and an effort to give back. I spent time with a guy who is looking to set up a new company, and there are so many people over the last eight years who gave me so many ideas and saved me from making mistakes that it’s not a challenge [to help him], it’s an opportunity to give back. It’s friendly. It’s fun when you meet with new members and they are shocked that you give them ideas, help and suggestions.
It’s not like we have battle in NAID of one type of group against the other. I think we sort of look at the battle as education, helping the clients learn what premium service is about and becoming service providers who are the go-to people for their clients instead of saying, “I don’t do that, I just shred paper.” The biggest error is when someone wants you to do something that is new and you just turn it down flat because you’ve never done it before.
The people you work with on committees are dedicated, long-time members who are committed to making sure NAID is efficient and that we can keep growing. The growth we’re seeing in Asia is just mind blowing.
SDB: Can you discuss how NAID is expanding internationally?
SF: I just spoke to Allegheny [Shredders, Delmont, Pa.,], and they said they sent a shredder down to South America. There is a lot more business interest coming from outside North America. Bob Johnson (NAID CEO) feels that we’re seeing such interest and we’re growing at such a rate that in the next few years we could see half our membership outside North America. We’re expanding to Asia; we’ve got conferences in Australia and annual meetings with PRISM and ARMA in Europe. It’s really exciting to see where those countries are going.
Scott Fasken is the owner of Colorado Document Security in Palisades, Colo., and the president-elect of National Association for Information Destruction (NAID).