Planning for the inevitable.

• Author: Heffes, Ellen M.
• Position: Business continuity - Disaster planning

For Factiva, a pandemic that could force its employees to work from home wouldn't be so different from a normal day--since over 700 of its 800 global employees already have the capability to, and do, work remotely a good part of the time. However, as a provider of news and information aggregated from 10,000 sources, Factiva doesn't want to miss a beat in electronically delivering content to its worldwide customers.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

"In some respects, we have a bigger burden than a lot of companies, because we are the information source," says Kristine Breuer, vice president, Global Human Resources, for Factiva, a joint venture of units of Dow Jones and Reuters.

With a culture that Breuer describes as one that "tries to provide the most flexible and adaptable work environment," something like, say, pandemic planning is a "natural extension of some of our work practices," she says. Should a pandemic strike, the company would make operational the components of its continuity plan for communicating with its employees, vendors and customers.

Not every business is as flexible as Factiva, so it's never too soon to get a plan in place.

Global health experts say it's inevitable that an influenza pandemic will strike the U.S., and with pandemics occurring around the globe on an average of three times per century--every 10 to 50 years--that it's just a matter of time before the U.S. is hit. "Pandemic" is defined as a new strain of the influenza A virus that strikes humans, spreading from person to person and causing serious illness and a high death rate.

When they strike, experts say, pandemics have the capability of killing over a half a million people in the U.S., hospitalizing more than 2 million and costing the U.S. economy a staggering $160 billion to $675 billion. In contrast, annual seasonal flu causes approximately 36,000-40,000 American deaths, while 200,000 are hospitalized and the cost to the U.S. economy is over $10 billion in lost productivity and direct medical expenses. Clearly, the scale of pandemic flu dwarfs seasonal flu in both numbers and severity.

Under such a scenario, consider the business impact if 40 percent of your employees were too sick to get to work for up to three to four months. Consider, too, the same 40 percent loss of all those in your supply chain--your vendors, customers and more. Would your business come to a screeching halt?

Whether a natural disaster, terrorist attack or other large-scale business risk--local or global--it is critical to be prepared. Following last year's devastating hurricane season, businesses have likely reviewed their disaster recovery and/or business continuity planning, but many are likely not prepared for a health emergency of pandemic magnitude.

With word that cases of "bird flu" are spreading (226 cases worldwide led to 129 deaths resulting from avian flu, reported the World Health Organization in June), and in light of the heat it took for its response to Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. government has taken early steps to prepare for an avian flu outbreak. Such preparations can also apply to other health-related events, such as a terrorist attack with chemical or biological weapons.

The government website (Pan demicFlu.gov or AvianFlu.gov) provides an overview, checklists and related links for business planning. (For more websites, see the box on page 30.)

A U.S. Chamber of Commerce brochure notes that in the event of a pandemic, "government health officials may have to implement dramatic measures, including shutting down certain businesses that involve high levels of interaction with the public. They may also have to restrict travel, cancel public events and close schools."

The Chamber's brochure notes that while many existing business continuity plans anticipate disruptions such as fires, earthquakes and floods, these events are restricted to a certain geographic area, with time frames that are fairly well-defined and...