What if the CEO Died of Swine Flu?

Schools are closing and the World Health Organization (WHO) raised its global flu pandemic level.  So far, the outbreak of swine flu has killed relatively few people and many experts feel the risk maybe overstated.   But just maybe, maybe one of those statistics could be the CEO of your company.

Does your company have a crisis communications plan in place specifically addressing a global pandemic?  Not likely.  The last scare was the Avian flu outbreak a couple of years ago.  According to a Deloitte & Touche survey of 100 companies in the U.S. last year, two-thirds of the companies had not planned adequately for the avian flu and there was no one in charge of such a plan.  By contrast, 80 per cent of corporate officials surveyed at a conference in Hong Kong had people and plans in place because of reported deaths in Asia.

So it may just take the death of a prominent CEO of a U.S. company to scare companies into finally putting a crisis communications plan in place that covers not only disasters in a manufacturing facility, or a rumor about a product recall, but also one for a possible global pandemic.