Help President Bush Manage His Priorities

Let’s say you have decades of experience with risk, threats and management. President Bush taps you to help him. What would you do?

By Janice Brand

September 21, 2005 — CSO — You have decades of experience in managing risks, assessing threats to your organization – whether it be to your company’s bottom-line goals, to your people or to assets both physical and digital – and crafting appropriate responses. Over the years, you’ve come to understand that there are sometimes no right answers to the most pressing problems, only actions that leave you in the best possible posture given tough circumstances. You work hard to learn from what went right and what went wrong in these crisis situations – both at your headquarters and around the world. You’re a leader in the security field.

Now imagine President Bush is on the line. He has heard of your broad experience and he’s asking for your help.  He explains that he wants your advice as a seasoned security leader who’s worked at a variety of organizations. His approval rating stands at 40 percent, according to a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Sept. 19.  Adjustments to all of his priorities – and there are many – are on the table. He wants you to help him assess these situations and calibrate the appropriate responses to deliver positive results to the American people.

He begins a rundown of his top-of-mind issues and questions:

The rebuilding of the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina’s devastation, including repairing one million Americans’ lives.  There are critical rumblings in Congress about the cost of the effort and whether it should influence spending on other projects, like the Iraq war (see below) or tax cuts.  How should the president handle this issue?

The need to restore public confidence in the government’s domestic disaster response, after the weak Katrina performance and billions invested in the Department of Homeland Security.  The president has appointed a top security adviser, Frances Fragos Townsend, to do a post-mortem on the response. Some in Congress are calling for a 9/11-style commission.  How should the president respond? Why?

The Iraq war drags on, with the country’s factions failing to reach consensus on a new government structure, a deadly insurgency claiming more Iraqi lives. American casualties surpassed 1,900 dead as of Sept. 20.  Political analysts say that the Katrina aftermath affects the president’s ability to press on indefinitely with this war. Using your own sense of the risks and threats in this situation, what would you advise?

The president continues on for several minutes – there’s the cost of gasoline, his next pending Supreme Court nomination, his plan to overhaul Social Security,  the nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, China’s unabated appetite for natural resources.  “If you think I should tackle any of these issues before the first three I cited, tell me, I’m all ears,” the president tells you.  He asks for your best three ideas to address his list. He needs them right away.

What will you tell him?

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