INTERVIEW IRON MOUNTAIN
Moving Mountains - storing vital information and valuable assets from cradle to grave.
Takalane Khashane - Iron Mountain Managing Director (Country Head), SA
Having taken leadership roles in different companies which focussed on the movement and accumulation of information, Takalane Khashane is now the Managing Director of Iron Mountain SA an organisation which stores valuable assets for millions of people across the globe - and destroys that which is no longer needed. Ten months into her new role, Takalane has seen some major milestones in the company and is excited to see how Iron Mountain can touch and improve the lives of different people without them even realising it.
With a proud 70-year history, please give an overview of Iron Mountain’s journey and the services you offer?
Iron Mountain started just after World War 2, when many people had fled from European countries to the U.S, and had a lot of personal documents, valuable jewellery, art, family pictures and other valuable assets they didn't want to lose as they had no homes. Our first storage space was inside a mountain - hence the name. Between the 1950s and early eighties, we were providing basic paper or physical goods storage. But later on in the 2000s we started becoming digital as well. Now we are not only storing physical assets, as technology has made things easier with scanning, digitisation and with environmental awareness growing. However, different industries have different requirements, some require paper to be kept for several years and there are documents that you can't destroy for more than 20 years, such as title deeds. So, we keep a physical copy
32 | Public Sector Leaders | August 2022
that is in storage and a digital copy stored also in the cloud. We do end-to-end asset protection from cradle to grave. We also specialise in e-waste disposal. Post-COVID-19, most companies have moved towards digitisation and they were forced to do so because many people are working from different homes and there’s one document that needs to be signed and sent digitally. Our last survey showed that 93% of organisations are now saying digitisation is a priority in terms of their business strategy. The kind of era that we live in is exciting, because you can see all this happening and we have more of our customers that are downsizing from ten-storey buildings to using only two floors because the working environment is hybrid, as most people work from home and only occasionally come to the office. There’s no need for big buildings and we work with them to ensure that they can keep the documents they need, shred what they don't need and digitise what needs to