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Post-Katrina: Problems Linger on (Part 3 of 3)
Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.
The real heroes, leaders,andtrained and untrained disaster and crisis managers are nearby and very approachable. They have the credentials, experience and track record for the job. You guessed it: They're in private industry--household-name companies the likes of Wal-Mart, FedEx, Target and Home Depot, to name a few.
Disaster management ought to be taken out of the government's hands and farmed out to major corporations like those. This is not an original idea by any stretch of the imagination: It's been kicked around for the last six months (at least). Sen. John McCain and other legislators have been aggressively advocating contracting out many of the disaster/crisis management functions to private industry. It would be simpler, not to mention efficient and ultimately cost-effective.
Col. Randall Larsen (ret.), founding director of the Institute for Homeland Security (tihls.org), recently said that companies like Wal-Mart and Target not only have the hottest technology to manage the distribution of food and medical supplies, but they also have real live experts--PMs with impressive backgrounds in crisis and disaster management who are paid a lot of money to do their jobs well. The Institute is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit research organization.
Larsen says, "In terms of supply chain management, no one can compete with the likes of Wal-Mart and Target, not even …
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