Leadership Dispatches: Chile's Extraordinary Comeback from Disaster

High Reliability and Crisis Management

by Michael Useem, Howard Kunreuther, Erwann Michel-Kerjan

On February 27, 2010, Chile was rocked by a violent earthquake five hundred times more powerful than the one that hit Haiti just six weeks prior. The Chilean earthquake devastated schools, hospitals, roads, and homes, paralyzing the country for weeks and causing economic damage that was equal to 18 percent of Chile's GDP. This calamity hit just as an incumbent political regime was packing its bags and a new administration was preparing to take office. For most countries, it would have taken years, if not decades, to recover from such an event. Yet, only one year later, Chile's economy had reached a six percent annual growth rate. In Leadership Dispatches , Michael Useem, Howard Kunreuther, and Erwann Michel-Kerjan look at how the nation's leaders―in government, business, religion, academia, and beyond―facilitated Chile's recovery. They attribute Chile's remarkable comeback to a two-part formula consisting of strong national leadership on the one hand, and deeply rooted institutional practices on the other. Coupled with strategic, deliberative thinking, these levers enabled Chile to bounce back quickly and exceed its prior national performance. The authors make the case that the Chilean story contains lessons for a broad range of organizations and governments the world over. Large-scale catastrophes of many kinds―from technological meltdowns to disease pandemics―have been on the rise in recent years. Now is the time to seek ideas and guidance from other leaders who have triumphed in the wake of a disaster. In this vein, Leadership Dispatches is both a remarkable story of resilience and an instructive look at how those with the greatest responsibility for a country, company, or community should lead.

296 pages, Hardcover

First published March 11, 2015

About the author

Michael Useem is a professor in the Management Department and Faculty Director of the Center for Leadership and Change Management and McNulty Leadership Program at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. His university teaching includes MBA and executive-MBA courses on management and leadership, and he offers programs on leadership and governance for managers in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America.  He works on leadership development with many companies and organizations in the private, public and nonprofit sectors.

He is co-anchor for a weekly program “Leadership in Action” on SiriusXM Radio Channel 132 and co-director of the annual CEO Academy. He is the author of The Leader’s Checklist, The Strategic Leader’s Roadmap (with Harbir Singh), The Edge: How Ten CEOs Learned to Lead—And the Lessons for Us All, Go Long: Why Long-Term Thinking Is Your Best Short-Term Strategy (with Dennis Carey, Brian Dumaine, and Rodney Zemmel). Mastering Catastrophic Risk (with Howard Kunreuther), Fortune Makers: The Leaders Creating China’s Great Global Companies (with Harbir Singh, Neng Liang, and Peter Cappelli), The India Way (with Peter Cappelli, Harbir Singh, and Jitendra Singh), and Boards That Lead (with Ram Charan and Dennis Carey).

Reviews

[June · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I learned about the Chilean government returned the country to prosperity after the earthquake, including lessons that helped them save the lives of the miners, I really failed to learn much about leadership. The lessons, to me, were often diluted with too much rambling dialogue and too many figures. I think that this was a case where paring a book down (the job of a good editor) would have been worthwhile. It's the first book by Useem that I just did not like.

[Adam Colby · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very solid over view of a very complex subject. I had significantly higher expectations for the book than what it produced. The most frustrating thing was the book talking about critical thinking skills and there utilization but not actually giving in-depth process analysis of the decisions made. Instead the book would talk about long-term planning and then provide a short narrative of the final result due to critical thinking. The author then attempts to make up for it with checklists at the end of each chapter.

I could rate this book two stars but I do think it provides a very good perspective and makes you think. It just leaves you with more questions.