The interesting bit here: this is a company that has a full-time Director of Emergency Preparedness. They've had plans for dealing with a pandemic flu outbreak on the books since the bird flu outbreak of 2005. So when it actually happened, they could just pick up those plans and run with them.
This is remarkable because it's hard to imagine most American companies, which are always looking to squeeze out a little more profit to juice the quarterly report, keeping someone on staff whose full-time job is to plan for what seem in good times like extremely remote contingencies. H-E-B, notably, is privately held.
It probably doesn't hurt that the Texas coast regularly gets hit by hurricanes, so they deal with emergencies (albeit on a smaller scale than this) somewhat frequently.
Another thing worth noting: HEB is privately (family, I believe) owned. The difference is night and day between their stores/employees and those of the competing grocer in my area that is owned by private equity.
Which could explain the lack of interest in squeezing every bit of profit out of it. For them their name is literally on the business so being prepared to do the right thing is important to them.
> This is remarkable because it's hard to imagine most American companies, which are always looking to squeeze out a little more profit to juice the quarterly report
HEB is privately owned and run by the owners. Those are very different incentives than public or VC-backed ventures.
You're still guided by a number. But you've got a different cost of capital, risk profile, and time horizon, as well as room for more stuff in your utility curve. So you will behave differently.
I dig this. If I were ever blessed with the opportunity to run a private, profitable company these are the types of people I would want to hire and retain. Building a company with a slice of my citizens. My local food distribution company had the volunteer fire chief on payroll in a town that couldn't afford to pay a salary for a full time chief. I think it was a great civic service to let him leave work when we had calls during the day.
Everyone operating at scale in the food supply chain needs an executive with medical/scientific expertise. The risks from foodborne illnesses are real.
It feels like an eternity ago but there were several major food scares, recalls, and deaths, from contaminated vegetables last year.
I don't think contingency planning is actually that unusual for large companies. I did Google searches for "$groceryChain director of contingency planning" and found that many major chains have them (via LinkedIn). Also found some for hotel chains, etc.
Emergency preparedness is a tiny subset of contingency planning since real emergencies are so rare compared to mundane day to day problems like a truck breaking down or too many people in operations calling in sick during flu season. The less glamorous parts of the job mostly include calling alternative vendors in a rush trying to get something or someone replaced without making it appear like they're desperate.
This is remarkable because it's hard to imagine most American companies, which are always looking to squeeze out a little more profit to juice the quarterly report, keeping someone on staff whose full-time job is to plan for what seem in good times like extremely remote contingencies. H-E-B, notably, is privately held.