The Time for Private

The central goal of the chapter is to provide theoretical arguments to explain why private companies must learn not only to operate in environments prone to disruption but to do it while increasing business volume. It highlights the benefits of engaging the emergency management and humanitarian systems, including becoming pillars of support and resilience within their communities, fostering loyal customer bases, and contributing to the community’s overall well-being. The core principle is that doing so requires introspection and foresight, complete adherence to ethical business practices, and consideration of the broader societal implications of decisions and operations. The chapter responds why institutional theory, analyzed in the previous chapters, holds importance to this end? It does it by explaining how crises and disasters are altering social behavior. It explains that in response to the heightened alertness, cognitive confusion, and the pressing need for action, global society is adapting and there is now a vast movement worldwide of people coming together into new and existing spaces whose primary goal is to contribute to humanity. Their relations within these systems which I have grouped under the term Risk Reduction Driven Systems (RRDR) are subject to logics in tension and to value systems and social expectations that are permanently changing due to increased uncertainty and chaos. The chapter ends with an important note. It explains that these systems to protect the most vulnerable are deficient due to distorted incentives generated by the fact that the recipients of service are not the ones funding their operations.