Publications

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08 Mar 2019
Research & Ideas

Seven Negotiation Lessons from Amazon's HQ Disaster in Queens

hardball pullout option. Even with a worthy project, there will inevitably be opponents and naysayers; that is the nature of complex, multiparty contexts. But having an ongoing finger on the pulse of the communities and groups involved,... View Details

Keywords: by James K. Sebenius; Real Estate; Construction

29 Jan 2018
Book

How 'Teaming' Saved 33 Lives in the Chilean Mining Disaster

led to chaos or harm. It required extreme teaming. Facing the unprecedented nature of the disaster, multiple temporary, constantly shifting groups of people working separately on different types of problems, and coordinating across... View Details

Keywords: by Amy C. Edmondson; Mining

1999
Chapter

Courting Disaster: The Transformation of Federal Disaster Policy since 1803

By: David A. Moss

Keywords: History; Natural Disasters; Policy; United States

May–June 2021
Article

Case Study: What Role Should a Company Play in a National Crisis?

By: Christopher J. Malloy

The article presents a fictionalized case study asking what type of role should a company play in a national crisis, specifically a tsunami hitting Indonesia, similar to the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Topics include how disasters can impact family-owned companies, the... View Details

Keywords: Emergency Preparedness; Disaster Relief; Natural Disasters; Crisis Management

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September 9, 2016
Article

Command under Attack: What We've Learned Since 9/11 about Managing Crises

By: Dutch Leonard, Arnold M. Howitt, Christine M. Cole and Joseph W. Pfeifer

Keywords: Crisis Management; Natural Disasters; September 11; Mass Shootings; Crisis Response Plans

Read Now

September 2014 (Revised March 2017)
Case

Humanitarian Assistance/Disaster Relief: What Can We Learn from Commercial Supply Chains?

By: Willy Shih and Margaret Pierson

Organizing speedy and efficient supply operations for unpredictable major natural disasters was a continuing challenge for the U.S. military, and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti was both unique in its operational scope and political complexity. As he reviewed the... View Details

Keywords: Supply Chains; Humanitarian Assistance; Disaster Relief; Distribution; Logistics; Supply Chain; Supply Chain Management; Operations; Distribution Industry; United States; Haiti

2010
Chapter

Advance Recovery and the Development of Resilient Organizations and Societies

By: Dutch Leonard and Arnold M. Howitt

Societies face a wide array of significant hazards-ranging from the possibility of natural disasters to industrial accidents to large-scale terrorist incidents. View Details

Keywords: Natural Disasters; Society; Organizations; Growth and Development; National Security; Safety

March 2009
Case

The Home Depot: Leadership in Crisis Management

By: Herman B. Leonard, Marc J. Epstein and Melissa Tritter

Examines the challenges The Home Depot faced in the aftermath of natural disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Andrew. By providing 40,000 to 50,000 items sold by knowledgeable associates, The Home Depot became a destination place for customers in need of... View Details

Keywords: Disruption; Customer Focus and Relationships; Leadership; Crisis Management; Logistics; Natural Disasters; Retail Industry

2009
Casebook

Managing Crises: Responses to Large-Scale Emergencies

By: Arnold M. Howitt and Herman B. Leonard

This casebook provides an organized treatment of the major challenges associated with managing large scale disaster events, including discussion of systematic methods of organizing disaster response, preparing in advance for disaster situations, and distinguishing... View Details

Keywords: Crisis Management; Planning; Natural Disasters

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19 Sep 2011
Research & Ideas

Doomsday Coming for Catastrophic Risk Insurers?

Kenneth A. Froot spends more time thinking about natural disasters than the average business school professor. In addition to the rise and fall of the Dow and the long-term implications of the financial... View Details

Keywords: by Maggie Starvish; Financial Services

22 Mar 2021
Research & Ideas

How to Learn from the Big Mistake You Almost Make

department report near misses and whether that changes based on the nature of the incident. "A near miss ... can also be thought of as a success, where they say, 'Whew, we caught the error and delivered great care.'" “What's interesting... View Details

Keywords: by Kristen Senz; Health

12 Jul 2004
Research & Ideas

Enron’s Lessons for Managers

reckless gambling of assets. Its hubris was to attempt to commoditize electric power, water, and broadband, despite what Salter called critical points of difference from natural gas. (Electric power and water are politically sensitive at... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

06 Sep 2005
What Do You Think?

What are the Lessons of New Orleans?

Red Cross. They should be listened to for counsel in scenario planning before the next natural nightmare hits. . . ." Nikhil Zaveri proposed that ". . . there should be training and development of citizens by the government,... View Details

Keywords: by James Heskett

17 Nov 2014
Lessons from the Classroom

Managing the Family Business: Are Optimists or Pessimists Better Leaders?

the worst. Never disappointed." Which do you pick up first? It's probably a good thing for us that so-called rationalists (tagline: "Why so emotional?") are in the minority, because studies show that without optimism or pessimism people don't accomplish... View Details

02 Sep 2002
Research & Ideas

The Role of Government When All Else Fails

consumers to producers, has dramatically influenced the calculus of production in a large number of industries. Our federal disaster relief policy, meanwhile, has likely affected housing patterns all over the country. In fact, the list... View Details

Keywords: by Laura Linard

November 2022
Case

Goonj: Growing in the Face of a Pandemic

By: V. Kasturi Rangan and Priyank Narayan

Founded by the husband and wife team of Anshu and Meenakshi Gupta in 1999, Goonj had quickly emerged as one of the leading disaster relief and rural development organizations in India. Their main mode of development was through providing a clothing kit to the village... View Details

Keywords: COVID-19 Pandemic; Management; Family Business; Natural Disasters; Social Issues; Entrepreneurship; Operations; Business and Community Relations; Strategy; India

January 2014 (Revised August 2014)
Case

The Kursk Submarine Rescue Mission

By: Anette Mikes

The Kursk, a Russian nuclear-powered submarine sank in the relatively shallow waters of the Barents Sea in August 2000, during a naval exercise. Numerous survivors were reported to be awaiting rescue, and within a week, an international rescue party gathered at the... View Details

Keywords: Risk Management; Moral Sensibility; Leadership; Organizational Structure; Crisis Management; Failure; Cooperation; Cross-Cultural and Cross-Border Issues; Norway; United Kingdom; Russia

February 2011 (Revised May 2011)
Case

Utilis: Designing, Producing, and Selling Rapid Deployment Shelters for a Troubled World

By: Herman B. Leonard, Daniela Beyersdorfer and Simon Harrow

How can a company that supplies disaster response and humanitarian agencies best handle the intrinsically unpredictable and highly volatile demand for its products? Utilis is a French supplier of rapid-deploy high-end tent solutions for civilian and military uses (such... View Details

Keywords: Business Model; Growth and Development Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Strategic Planning; Natural Disasters; Competitive Strategy; Consumer Products Industry; Industrial Products Industry; France