{"id":5431,"date":"2019-12-12T17:43:19","date_gmt":"2019-12-12T21:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=5431"},"modified":"2022-03-17T15:35:24","modified_gmt":"2022-03-17T19:35:24","slug":"walmart-hurricane-katrina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/walmart-hurricane-katrina\/","title":{"rendered":"Walmart’s Hurricane Katrina Response: How They Saved the Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Walmart’s Hurricane Katrina response is legendary. The large company did something the government wasn’t able to do at the time–provide help on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ll discuss what made Walmart’s Hurricane Katrina response so successful and why it depended on the empowerment of employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Walmart and Hurricane Katrina<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When authorities don\u2019t relinquish power in a complex situation, they\u2019re likely to fail<\/strong>. The response when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005 illustrates both how centralized power<\/a> fails and how empowerment works in such situations. This is the story of Walmart’s Hurricane Katrina response.
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Initial reports after the hurricane made landfall in New Orleans at 6 a.m. were falsely reassuring because, with power and cell service down, they were extremely incomplete. Director Michael Brown and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced the situation was mostly under control. 
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But by afternoon the levees had been breached and 80 percent of the city was flooded; 20,000 people were stranded at the Superdome, 20,000 were at a convention center, and another 5,000 had been deposited on an overpass by rescue helicopters. Tens of thousands were stranded in attics and on rooftops.
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The government\u2019s command-and-control system became overwhelmed, with too many decisions<\/a> to make and too little information available. But authorities clung to the traditional model. They argued with state and local government officials over the power to make decisions, resulting in chaos. Supply trucks were halted and requisitions for buses were held up while local transit buses sat idle.
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WalMart executives, however, took the opposite approach from command and control<\/a>. They realized Walmart’s Hurricane Katrina response could make a huge difference. Recognizing the complexity of the circumstances, CEO Lee Scott announced to managers and employees that the company would respond at the level of the disaster. He empowered local employees<\/a> to make the best decisions they could.<\/strong>
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Within 48 hours, employees had gotten more than half the 126 damaged stores up and running, and they began providing help wherever they saw needs \u2014 for instance, distributing diapers, water, baby formula, and ice. While FEMA couldn\u2019t figure out how to move supplies, WalMart managers created paper credit systems for first responders, providing them with food and supplies during Walmart’s Hurricane Katrina response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Individuals felt empowered to make their own decisions. The assistant manager of a severely flooded store drove a bulldozer through it, loaded up everything useable, and gave it away in the parking lot. When she learned that a local hospital was running out of drugs, she broke into the store\u2019s pharmacy to get what the hospital needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, instead of issuing instructions, senior company officials facilitated the team \u2014 they set goals, measured progress, and opened communication lines with the front line and official agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the common goal to do what they could and coordinate, employees of Walmart’s Hurricane Katrina response came up with some spontaneously creative solutions, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n