Iron Mountain: Never Sorry

To paraphrase the old saying, being Iron Mountain means never having to say you're sorry.

In the last couple of years, Iron Mountain often has made the news for the wrong reasons, while ditching responsibility as effectively as a Teflon-coated pan jettisons fried eggs.

Most recently, the company was accused of losing Social Security numbers and other data on thousands of Louisiana college students. It's also made dishonorable mentions in legal cases involving the State Fair of Texas and the Long Island Railroad (the last incident prompting calls for a Senate investigation). Then there were the fires in U.K. facilities a couple of years back.

We're not listing the myriad smaller press mentions of Iron Mountain in stories about tape loss, data mishandling, and security breaches.

Throughout it all, Iron Mountain has staunchly refused to own any blame. It's usually the user's fault for not encrypting tapes, the driver's fault for being a jerk who was subsequently fired, or the fault of a criminal element that has nothing to do with Iron Mountain.Wednesday's earnings call was no exception. Execs made clear that the physical storage of data is still a whopping good business. Indeed, Iron Mountain intends to leverage its ownership of truck-toted tapes to grow its upstart digital services business.

No mention of any unfortunate incidents in Louisiana or anywhere else that may have occurred in the line of duty.

Indeed, Iron Mountain president and COO Bob Brennan interrupted CEO Richard Reese several times on Wednesday's call -- speaking right over him -- to boast that the physical ownership of data gives Iron Mountain its edge in other services. "We believe we are unique because we are the custodian of information today," Brennan said.

Sure, we know success has nothing to do with being nice. But Iron Mountain's response to various lost data woes raises the basic question: How far should a company go to publicly acknowledge the misfortunes incurred in the course of doing business?

One could argue that any business has its risks, and that "buyer beware" covers accidental errors or losses. Then again, there's the matter of perception, which carries a "soft dollar" value.So all you PR experts out there: What do you think? Should Iron Mountain address the risks involved in its physical storage services? Or is silence the smartest response? We invite you to weigh in on our

latest poll.

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