Among the surfeit of columns analyzing what went wrong with Katrina relief is this column by MIT engineering professor Yossi Sheffi who thinks that a core reason for government’s initially tepid response to Hurricane Katrina may have been cultural. He cites (in this article) three disasters that presented an insurmountable obstacle to one company and a market opportunity for another. The 1999 Taiwan earthquake disrupted 40 percent of the world's chip supplies. According to Sheffi, Apple stumbled while Dell kept increasing its market share not just because Dell had a better handle on supply chains and flexible contingency plans, but because of Dell’s corporate culture. Companies that successfully deal with disasters have a culture in which employees are empowered, in constant communication and looking at the big picture.
Sheffi concludes:
The response to Katrina demonstrated how woefully unprepared the government was at all levels. Instead of taking decisive actions, city, state and federal officials argued with one another; communications broke down, and too many civil servants, from New Orleans police officers to Louisiana state officials to FEMA directors, did not have the urgency or the passion required.
Of course this isn’t true in all cases, but Sheffi’s point is that if we don’t try to simplify the Byzantine relationship among all parties and start working together, “then all the special commissions, forecasting tools, special gear, and training available will not fix the problem.�
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