Masters of Scale – Reid Hoffman:  Carbon’s Ellen Kullman

Masters of Scale – Reid Hoffman: Carbon’s Ellen Kullman

To survive a crisis, you have to double down on who you already are as a company. This is something Ellen Kullman knows, having led DuPont through the 2008-2009 financial crisis, and taken the CEO role at 3D-printing unicorn Carbon only weeks before Covid hit.

Through her years as a leader, Ellen has developed four crisis principles that allowed her to lead teams and thrive through pandemic, economic meltdown, and beyond. The key? Practicing the principles in calmer times, before crisis hits. Because as Reid says: there’s no such thing as a crisis playbook. There’s just your playbook.

Crisis management

The importance of clear communication during a crisis

The Lessons of NASA’s Apollo 13 mission crisis

In 1970, NASA’s Apollo 13 mission faced a life-threatening crisis when an oxygen tank exploded, but the crew and ground control team remained calm and worked together to solve a chain of crises, including a build-up of deadly carbon dioxide.

Historian Amy Shira Teitel studied the mission logs and found that the astronauts and ground control team were professional and focused on solving problems, even as they faced a dangerous situation. Through slow and deliberate steps, they were able to visualize solutions to seemingly impossible problems, offering a lesson in crisis management for any workplace situation.

What to do during a crisis

The world’s going to throw at you the economy; the world’s going to throw at you a lot of things. Now the question is: What do you do about it? What can you do in order to improve your company, your situation, and your business?

In times of crisis

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