A Best-Case Scenario for Pandemic Planning

When a power outage struck part of Silicon Valley on a Thursday morning in early October this year, Andrew Peterson, director of finance and accounting at Cartridge World North America, sent his accounting staff home with succinct instructions. "We're still completing our month-end close, as scheduled, by noon tomorrow," he announced. "If you need anything, call me."

The power failure gave the Emeryville, Calif.-based global franchiser of printer-cartridge refilling stores a good opportunity to test its business continuity and pandemic preparedness procedures. "In the event of a pandemic, we would send as many employees responsible for key processes home as possible," Peterson explains. "We would also activate other processes, including scanning and e-mailing critical mail to them ... An important part of business continuity and pandemic preparedness is having employees who are willing and able to work from home. We've given them the tools to do that."

Cartridge World's response to the power outage may have served as valuable preparation. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describes the occurrence of a pandemic as "highly likely, if not inevitable." A similar description comes from epidemiologists with the World Health Organization (WHO), who declare that the occurrence of a human pandemic influenza is a matter of "when" rather than "if." A pandemic will likely disrupt organizations on a much longer and more widespread basis than a Category 5 hurricane, a terrorist attack or most other kinds of natural or man-made disasters.