Management, 11th Edition

Part II. Part II Greensburg, Kansas, Running Video Case

Part 1

Management: New Ways to a Better Town

Greensburg, Kansas had been struggling for years. Located along Highway 54, a major trucking route, the town was merely a pit stop for people on their way somewhere else. It did have a few tourist attractions: the Big Well, the world's largest hand-dug well, and a 1,000-pound meteorite that fell from the sky in 2006.

Lonnie McCollum, the town's mayor, had been looking into ways to breathe new life into the town. McCollum wanted to add a little vintage charm to its quaint Main Street, but could not raise the money. He had launched a campaign to put the "green" back in Greensburg by promoting green building technology. However, the idea, which many residents associated with hippies and tree-hug-gers, did not go over well.

Then everything changed. "My town is gone," announced Town Administrator Steve Hewitt on May 5, 2007, after surveying the damage caused by a devastating tornado. An EF-5 tornado-the highest level on the standard meteorological scale used to estimate wind strength-demolished Greensburg, an agricultural community of about 1,400 in south-central Kansas. With 205-mph winds, the tornado cut a swath 1.5 miles wide and 22 miles long through the community. "I believe 95 percent of the homes are gone. Downtown buildings are gone, my home is gone," said Hewitt.

With a clean slate ...