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Managing Katrina: Another Look at First Response
Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.
Last week, you read what Eric Spanitz, a PM and president of Chicago management consulting and training company Synergest, Inc., would have done if he had suddenly beenthrust into deposed FEMA chief Michael Brown’s job.
Now you’re going to hear what Philadelphia PM Mark Gershon would have done if he had been summoned to the scene to manage the chaos, destruction and rampant panic triggered by Hurricane Katrina, which has already earned the distinction of being not only the most expensive natural disaster in United States history, but also one that has triggered debate from every crevice of the world. Katrina has been catapulted to one of the biggest news stories of the century. It involves mismanagement of gargantuan proportions, dirty politics, corruption, buck-passing, crime and rampant mayhem. And it’s far from over.
If you’re looking for unlimited material for the ultimate reality show, Katrina is it.
With 25 years’ experience as a PM, Mark Gershon, 52, says he would have welcomed the challenge of managing the New Orleans crisis from the outset. An engineering graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, his first job was in the project management office for the Army’s Armaments Command at Picatinny Arsenal in Dover, N.J. Gershon is chairman of the operations management department at Temple University and developer of the school’s online certificate program for PMs. …
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