Steve Parks

The Entrepreneur's Guide to SwineFlu

Swine Flu might seem an odd topic for an entrepreneurship blog, but stick with me.

One of my companies is a specialist communications consultancy, and for nearly 3 years we have been working with a group of extremely large global companies to help them share information and best practice to better prepare for a pandemic. A pandemic has long been expected by the World Health Organisation (WHO), and in fact they issued a statement a while back saying it was a case of 'when, not if'. The strain of virus they expected to mutate to be able to spread human-to-human was AH5N1 - a strain of Avian Influenza (commonly known as Bird Flu) - but the lessons learned and the plans put in place are the same as for this AH1N1 swine flu strain.

As well as our continuing best-practice-sharing project, last October my company was part of a simulation exercise testing the main executive team of a very large global company in executing their response plans to a pandemic.

The good news is that governments in developed countries, and the UK government in particular, are extremely well prepared for a pandemic. I've had insight into the plans, and found the level of thought and planning very reassuring. (As an aside, you may be excited to know that among many elements of the plans and supporting legislation, the UK government has given itself the powers to declare emergency bank holidays - not for fun, but to prevent the spread of disease by forcing businesses, schools etc to close)

Major global companies (especially those we've worked with of course!) are also well prepared, and employees of these companies can expect a measured and planned response from their executive teams and HR departments. They are ready with information and in many cases with supplies of anti-viral drugs.

So there really is no need to panic - let alone the fact that so far this virus doesn't seem deadly outside Mexico (for a reason that is not yet clear) - but there is every need for simple preparations to put yourself and your company in the best position.

However, smaller companies aren't at all prepared for this or any other emergency situation (fuel blockades, terrorist attacks in London, major industrial action, environmental emergencies such as floods, etc).

So as an entrepreneur, why not use the current situation as a spur to get proper business continuity plans in place for all sorts of situations - but for a pandemic in particular.

A Business Continuty Plan

The best business continuity plans are relatively generic, so that they can be used in any eventuality. So don't plan specifically for a flood at your building - plan for being generally unable to access your building, and then you'll also be ready for a fire or for the police sealing off the area because they found the bodies your accounts payable manager has been hiding there etc etc.

Work out: what are the crucial elements of your business, and what are your fallback plans for coping without them? Starting points are: Your premises, your key staff, your frontline staff, internet connection, telecoms, transport networks, key suppliers and so on.

In the event of pandemic one of the biggest impacts on business is predicted to be absenteeism. Some of this may be due to actual illness, some may be due to caring for dependents who are ill, and some may be simply through fear of catching the virus. But also it's expected that schools will be closed very early on in any crisis - so parents may have to stay at home to look after children, even if they're not ill. Perhaps 30%-50% of your staff could be absent at the peak of any pandemic. How would this impact your business? How can you mitigate that effect? What HR policies would you have for dealing with unauthorised absenteeism in such a situation?

Maybe a home-working backup plan is a good idea? What kind of internet connections do staff have? How will you keep in contact with each other? How will you manage the team?

The stay at home response will also have a knock-on effect for companies that rely on internet connectivity for themselves, or to actually deliver their service to customers. A concern is that with all the schools being closed, and parents not being keen to let kids out to play, they'll instead be at the computer downloading videos, watching the iPlayer, playing online games and putting a huge strain on the network infrastructure. The US Dept. of Homeland Security has identified this as a serious threat and actually developed a special report on the issue. Many of the questions raised in it have not yet been answered - will ISPs be instructed to ration connectivity for example.

You need a plan for the internet becoming incredibly slow, or unavailable to you or your customers because of the strain on internet service povider's infrastructure. It may be worth looking for business-focused ISPs with low contention ratios, getting a leased line if you can afford one, or otherwise making your internet access more resilient - and having back up plans.

Don't Panic

So, in conclusion, my message is simple. Don't panic, just prepare. Taking some time to think and plan now will help you to respond better in any emergency situation.

• Steve Parks's blog