1. Case: Mastitis at Lacteos del Pacífico (and here's some additional information on Cheese Types and Cheesemaking) . (Unless you're very familiar with business cases, you may aslo want to read my teaching note, "Case Learning: How It Works, Why It's Effective" (it's only 2 pages)
2. Topic Development project: Choose a topic related to the course for which you might want to develop a simple website, e.g., these from last year. Can be a real or potential crisis (Global, National, Local, Organizational, Individual, Group or Family); a topic related to resilience or some other method for averting or copic with crisis; or, possibly, a topic related to systems thinking as it relates to crisis and resilience.
Bring to class or send me a brief note explaining which topic you have chosen and why.
3. Course project: reflect on why you have taken the course and what you hope to get out of it. By the end of January, you should at least have one or two possible topic areas .
4. From The Essential Guide to Managing Corporate Crises: A Step-by-Step Handbook for Surviving Major Catastrophes by Ian I. Mitroff, Christine M. Pearson, and L. Katharine Harrington (Oxford University Press)
- Read Chapter One: What To Do When a Crisis Hits and Chapter Two: What To Do During a Crisis: A detailed guide; Skim Chapter Three: Auditing an Organization's CM Strengths and Vulnerabilities
- Think about Table 1.1, How Well Prepared is Your Organization for a Crisis? on pages 22-23.
Regardless of whether you have time to read the full two chapters, please review this' 1-page illustration of the authors' system for managing a crisis
5. Read In Case of Emergency (from The New Yorker) (only 2 pages)
6. Read Mini-case: Coca Cola Belguim (also only 2 pages). For those of you who prefer Fortune 500 cases. Depending on time, we may do this case towards the end of class, but if that’s going to happen, you can probably read it during break.