Publications

January 2021 (Revised March 2022)
Case

Into the Raging Sea: Final Voyage of the SS El Faro

By: Joseph B. Fuller and Mel Martin

Captain Michael Davidson of the container ship SS El Faro was determined to make his planned shipping trip on time—but a hurricane was approaching his intended path. To succeed, Davidson and his fellow officers must plot a course to avoid the storm in the face of... View Details

Keywords: Power Dynamics; Management; Leadership Style; Crisis Management; Failure; Groups and Teams; Rank and Position; Decision Choices and Conditions; Shipping Industry; United States

November 2012 (Revised June 2013)
Case

The Levees Repaired, a System Still Broken: Post Katrina Turnaround at the Orleans Public Defenders (A)

By: Rosabeth M. Kanter and Olivia Leskinen

Law Professor Ronald Sullivan was asked to lead a turnaround of the Orleans Public Defenders as a one-year assignment following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The office was underfunded and had perverse incentives embedded throughout the system. Sullivan's new vision to... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Management; New Orleans

23 Aug 2022
Cold Call Podcast

Management Lessons from the Sinking of the SS El Faro

Keywords: Re: Joseph B. Fuller; Shipping

2024
Working Paper

When Insurers Exit: Climate Losses, Fragile Insurers, and Mortgage Markets

By: Ishita Sen, Pari Sastry and Ana-Maria Tenekedjieva

This paper studies how homeowners insurance markets respond to growing climate losses and how this impacts mortgage market dynamics. Using Florida as a case study, we show that traditional insurers are exiting high risk areas, and new lower quality insurers are... View Details

Keywords: Insurance; Natural Disasters; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Insurance Industry; Florida

SSRN

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March 2010 (Revised January 2011)
Case

Public Education in New Orleans: Pursuing Systemic Change through Entrepreneurship

By: Stacey M. Childress and James Weber

After Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in August 2005, the state had taken over 102 of the 118 public schools in New Orleans and shifted the management structure from a “single school system to a system of schools.” Entrepreneurs from the region and around the... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Governance; Natural Disasters; Education; Entrepreneurship; Education Industry; New Orleans

December 2010
Article

Organising Response to Extreme Emergencies: The Victorian Bushfires of 2009

By: Dutch Leonard and Arnold M. Howitt

How can people and organisations best respond to emergency events that are significantly beyond the boundaries of what they had generally anticipated, expected, prepared for-or even imagined? What forms of organisations are likely to be best able to cope with such... View Details

Keywords: Organizations; Management Practices and Processes; Natural Disasters; Crisis Management; Boundaries; United States

Find at Harvard

14 Jul 2008
Research & Ideas

HBS Cases: Reforming New Orleans Schools After Katrina

When Hurricane Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast region of the United States in August 2005, it destroyed homes and lives. A paradoxical effect, however, is that the storm's aftermath created an opening in New Orleans for school leaders... View Details

Keywords: by Sarah Jane Gilbert; Education

November 2018 (Revised October 2019)
Case

Rebuilding Puerto Rico

By: Laura Alfaro, Laura Phillips Sawyer and Haviland Sheldahl-Thomason

On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria swept over Puerto Rico, devastating the island’s infrastructure and agriculture. The natural disaster was layered atop years of mounting financial distress. Before the hurricane, Puerto Rico had accumulated $74 billion in debt and... View Details

Keywords: Natural Disasters; Financial Crisis; Infrastructure; Borrowing and Debt; Economy; Strategic Planning; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; Puerto Rico

05 Feb 2019
First Look

New Research and Ideas, February 5, 2019

Harvard Business School Case 719-018 Rebuilding Puerto Rico On September 20, 2017, Hurricane Maria swept over Puerto Rico, devastating the island’s infrastructure and agriculture. The natural disaster was layered atop years of mounting... View Details

Keywords: Dina Gerdeman

March 2025
Case

The Changing Climate on Wall Street

By: Clayton S. Rose, Maxim Pike Harrell and Michael Norris

Increasing and conflicting regulatory requirements and political pressures regarding climate change tested the leaders of U.S. financial institutions, as they struggled to determine how best to comply while managing their business and its risks. In October 2024,... View Details