Crisis Management & Business Resiliency - Fall Session

This comprehensive course provides up-to-date assessments and knowledge on issues that affect you and your organization — the COVID-19 Pandemic, cyber security, supply chain, leadership, data breach, communications, news media, social media — from the experts involved with these efforts. We also examine strategies for job and career improvement. You will have the opportunity to interact online with our lecturers and with your peers from industry, academia, and government.

By the end of the course, you will have the tools, knowledge, and understanding to benchmark, assess, and improve your business continuity, disaster recovery, and crisis management program. This includes the course manual (e-files), templates, and current articles. You will gain valuable contacts, have plenty of online networking opportunities, and acquire insights for immediate implementation.

• Presentations by and discussions with industry and government leaders/subject matter experts
• Overview of the current status of issues that affect you and your organization
• Interactions with peers from academia, industry, and government
• Lessons learned from multiple case studies
• Course manual e-files
• Various templates for your immediate use
• Current articles by industry authors
• Official MIT Professional Education Certificate of Completion
• Upon completion, course graduates will be eligible to enroll in the MIT Crisis Course Alumni LinkedIn group
• Upon completion, course graduates will be eligible to enroll in the MIT Professional Education Advanced Business Resiliency course.

Program Outline

This dynamic course offers an effective combination of lecture, case studies, and class participation activities conducted by knowledgeable and experienced instructors who are leaders in their fields. Case studies of actual crisis situations are used to emphasize and enhance the concepts. Several interactive class activities provide additional hands-on experience. Participants can also practice what is learned: the course concludes with a highly interactive crisis simulation in which participants take active roles in a multiple event crisis, including a realistic news media briefing.

Notes:

• Course days generally run from 12:00 Noon to 5:00 PM EDT, with generous breaks and optional networking time included.
• Topics, speakers, and schedule are subject to change.

DAY ONE - October 16, 2023

• Welcome
  • Faculty Introductions
  • Course Information; our Online Experience
  • Student Introductions
  • Virtual Student/Faculty Reception
    • Steve Goldman, Dick Larson, Lou DiBerardinis, Sandra Galletti (MIT)
• Crisis Management & Business Resiliency Overview and Issues
  • Dr. Steve Goldman, MIT
• Day’s Review; Faculty/Student Networking

DAY TWO - October 17

• Business Resiliency Laws, Standards, and Metrics
  • Don Byrne, President, Metrix411
• Case Study: JetBlue - From aircraft incidents to the pandemic and beyond!
  • Penny Neferis, Director Emergency Response & Care, JetBlue
• Day’s Review; Faculty/Student Networking

DAY THREE - October 18

• Cyber Security: Threats, Response, and Recent Events
  • Dr. Abel Sanchez, MIT
• Working with the FBI on Cybersecurity and Terrorism
  • Special Agents Brian LeBlanc and Doug Domin, US Federal Bureau of Investigation
• Day’s Review; Faculty/Student Networking

DAY FOUR - October 19

• Building the Plane while Flying it: Organizational; Resilience
  • Zona Walton, Senior Director - Global Business Resiliency, ADP 
• Emergency Preparedness & the Dimensions of Meta-Leadership 
  • Eric McNulty, National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, Harvard University 
• Day’s Review; Faculty/Student Networking

DAY FIVE - October 20

• Local, State, and Federal Response
  • Bill VanSchalkwyk, City of Groton FD and HazMat
  • Allen Phillips, State of MA Emergency Management Agency
  • John McGough, US FEMA/DHS
• Day’s Review; Faculty/Student Networking

DAY SIX - October 23

• The News Media: What we are going to do to you and how to prepare!
• Social media issues and crisis response
  • Katie Nelson, Social Media Manager, Mountain View CA Police Department
• Newspapers/Radio/Websites
  • Joe Sciacca, Editor-in-Chief (retired), The Boston Herald; Senior Enterprise Editor, WHDH-TV7 News
• Television/Visual Media
  • Howard B. Price, NBC-TV News Editor and Producer
• Day’s Review; Faculty/Student Networking

DAY SEVEN - October 24

• Supply Chain Management 
  • Dr. Yossi Sheffi, Director, MIT Center for Transportation & Logistics
• Industry Trends: Impact on your program and your career
  • Cheyene Marling, President, BC Management Inc.
• Day’s Review; Faculty/Student Networking

DAY EIGHT - October 25

• 12 Activations in 12 Months - plus a Pandemic! 
  • Bob Vance, Keck Medicine of USC
• Leadership Insights for the BC Manager
  • Steve Goldman
• Simulation Briefing
  • Steve Goldman, Sandra Galletti

DAY NINE - October 26

• Virtual crisis response simulation
  • Course instructors present an online realistic simulation of an unfolding, multi-incident crisis. Participants take active roles as facility, corporate, federal agency, local agency, news or social media, or other responders to manage and recover from the events. These events, including hazmat leak, workplace violence, and cybersecurity events.
    • Steve Goldman, Lou DiBerardinis, Sandra Galletti, Howard Price, Joe Sciacca, Mark Carroll, Donna Speckhard, Don Byrne, and others
• Course Review, Final  Thoughts, Graduation!
  • Steve Goldman, Dick Larson, Lou DiBerardinis, Sandra Galletti

This course is designed for professionals who work in Business Resiliency, Disaster Recovery, Cyber Security, Emergency Management, Crisis Management, or Crisis Communications. 

Participants who will also benefit from the curriculum also include:

• Corporate executives/directors who want to enhance the efficacy of their organization's business continuity, disaster recovery, cyber security, crisis management, and crisis communications programs
• Federal, state, and local government officials who need to assess and improve their department's crisis management planning to better protect and serve their constituents
• Human Resources and Legal professionals who are looking to understand the potential impact and response to certain threats on their organization's workforce, from COVID-19 to cybersecurity threats to data breaches 
• Anyone interested in acquiring knowledge and understanding to create, assess, or improve a business resiliency, disaster recovery, cyber security, crisis management, or crisis communications program.