Making a Case for Investing in Pandemic Preparedness
Dr. Amin Mawani of The Schulich School of Business at York University has released what it claims is the first study to assess the impact of an influenza pandemic on individual companies. The study “Making a case for investing in pandemic preparedness” was Presented at the World Conference on Disaster Management in Toronto.
It explains how companies can justify investing in pandemic planning using standard business performance metrics. The study highlights that an investment now far outweighs the potential impact that a pandemic could have on individual businesses.
http://www.schulich.yorku.ca/pandemic
If you are concerned with pandemic preparedness, Pandemic Preparation and Response Plan Template for Business on CD-ROM, by Douglas M. Henderson, FSA, CBCP Douglas M. Henderson, FSA, CBCP, is a good place to start.
“This study identifies some of the specific costs such as employee absenteeism that a corporation may incur in the event of an influenza pandemic, and ways of mitigating them with appropriate planning, personal protective equipment, and stockpiles of antiviral medications. Pandemic illnesses are major events that are likely to cause significant business disruption and therefore require careful consideration similar to the investments made in the array of fire prevention and fire fighting measures, including building codes, sprinkler systems, fire exits and fire fighting equipment. The costs of pandemic preparedness and the benefits in the form of revenues and profits not foregone are quantified or estimated for a single corporation. These costs and benefits are then analyzed and evaluated at a firm-specific level using metrics that corporations generally use to signal or report their financial performance to their stakeholders. These capital budgeting metrics include cost-benefit analysis, net present value, internal rate of return, and payback, all of which are used by corporations to justify investments in projects ranging from purchase of new machinery, to expansion into new markets, to investments made by a firm in employees, processes and equipment to ensure product quality so that no harm comes to customers who use the product. All the metrics applied to a specific case indicate that investments in pandemic preparedness can be economically and financially viable, with benefits in the form of contributions to the corporation’s bottom-line and shareholder value. Quantifying the costs and benefits for the example in the study demonstrates that planning for a pandemic and justifying the investment for it need not be as overwhelming. Lack of recent experience with a pandemic may contribute to the significant perceived uncertainty in estimating or quantifying the costs and benefits. However, such uncertainty should increase, and not decrease, the resolve to plan. Planning, after all, is not necessary under perfect certainty, while most essential under extreme uncertainty. Pandemic preparedness can be evaluated and justified using the standard performance metrics used by corporations to justify all its other investments, even if not all factors are easily quantifiable. After all, corporations make many investments where not all costs and benefits are easily quantifiable.”
Some additional Pandemic Preparedness Links:
Continuity Central: UK Pandemic Planning Resources
Continuity Central News and Articles on Pandemic Planning
Tags: "pandemic"
