A few days ago, probably through Twitter, I found an inter­esting site for auditors and other risk and compliance profes­sionals called Compliance Week. Based in Boston, they publish a monthly magazine, a weekly email newsletter, and host several blogs and forums on the web.

What led me to the site was a link to a blog post on the risk posed by the swine flu virus, and the obser­vation was made that companies are beginning to include this risk in their disclo­sures to regulators.

The outbreak is more likely to impact the disclo­sures of companies in certain indus­tries, such as those in the retail, hospi­tality, travel, restaurant, or gaming sectors, as well as cruise ship, theme park, and mall operators… For some companies, the pandemic could poten­tially affect customer traffic, while for others it could affect their ability to staff their own locations or their supply chain.

One of the most inter­esting projects I’ve worked on since leaving public accounting was a risk assessment, because it encom­passed not just the types of risks that I was comfortable with such as reporting and compliance risks, but also more opera­tional and strategic risks. The risk posed by a pandemic wasn’t one that I had thought of at the time, which is likely because my business isn’t in any of those indus­tries mentioned in the article.

footnoted.org recently posted on the topic as well, noting that Starwood Hotels & Resorts included pandemics and specif­i­cally swine flu in their first quarter 10-Q, and in doing so have joined other companies such as American Express and Expedia.

How would a pandemic affect your company’s business?