Europe’s ash cloud is having a major impact on American businesses, from the small to the large.

“I’m hearing a lot about companies who rely on shipping by air, particularly companies that may not have insurance,” said Andrew Sherman, an attorney with global law firm Jones Day who is an expert on entrepreneurialism. In particular, he said he had heard of a company that ships flowers by air to Europe that is losing as much as $3 million a day.

But that’s not the only impact being felt by entrepreneurial companies.

The grounding of most air travel throughout northern Europe is also stranding the leaders of companies and key executives.

For a larger company with a deep bench, that may not be such a huge issue. But for smaller companies, having a key decision maker stuck in London or Berlin can be a real blow, said Sherman.

“In many entrepreneurial companies there’s a big drop off between the leader and the next person down,” Sherman said. “For those companies whose leaders are stuck abroad, they’re can be some real drop off.”

He said one of his clients has been stuck in Germany since the middle of last week, when a cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland spread across Northern Europe, and authorities there grounded air travel.

“He’s missing some key meetings,” Sherman said.

Sherman, who teaches classes on entrepreneurism at Georgetown University and the University of Maryland, had planned to have that entrepreneur speak to his Georgetown class this week.

At his own firm, which is one with a deep global bench, the ash cloud has meant the head of Jones Day’s Mexico office, Fernando de Ovando, has been stranded and has had to work from the firm’s London office for the past week.

“We’re not used to being stuck for five, six, seven days at a time,” Sherman said.

Pittsburgh’s two largest law firms both have international operations and were affected by the airways shutdown.

K&L Gates Chairman and Global Managing Partner Peter Kalis, traveling in Europe last week, is stuck in London and working from its offices there.

“I was scheduled on the Delta to Pittsburgh Friday flight, which was shut down along with all other flights in Northern Europe,” Kalis said via e-mail. “Nothing has flown since. I got one of the last available tickets on the EuroStar on Friday and came to London to wait it out.”

Kalis said there has been some disruption to K&L Gates’ business “which depends in part upon addressing our clients’ cross-border needs in Europe.” It has offices in Paris, Frankfurt, Berlin, Warsaw and Moscow, as well as London.

“ But we’re able to make maximum use of technology and achieve an acceptable level of virtual service under the circumstances,” Kalis said.

Kalis will miss a reception Monday afternoon showcasing the firm’s new offices at K&L Gates Center in Pittsburgh.

Reed Smith LLP’s Chief Information Officer Gary Becker arrived in London April 11 to work from its office there on various IT projects underway at its European offices, and expected to fly back to Pittsburgh last Friday. Then he learned of the delays.

“I am now trying to keep up with most of my work by simply working out of our London office until I can get back to Pittsburgh.,” Becker said via e-mail. “The biggest challenge is the 5 hour time difference, and I am unable to participate on the calls or meetings that occur each day in the U.S.”

Becker was able to extend his stay at the same hotel, but at a higher price.

“The rate went up due to the London Marathon race that is being run next weekend,” he said. “ The price increase was around 40 percent for this week over last week.

Becker counts himself fortunate that he’s been able to stay at the hotel and can continue to work out of Reed Smith’s London office, which is the firm’s largest.

“But it is hard to plan much from one day to the next without knowing when the airports are going to open back up,” he said. “It is also getting very difficult to get a seat assignment on any future flight within the next five days, due to the backlog of travelers trying to get home. As of today, the travel agent cannot get me on a flight until Friday, April 23rd, even if the airports open back up before then.”

Reed Smith Global Managing Partner Gregory Jordan was in Hong Kong last week and expected to be in London this week. Instead, Jordan came back to Pittsburgh.

“I think we have a dozen or so people affected,” Jordan said. “People who usually work in London are stranded in Malaysia and Singapore and the United States. Some people from the United States are stranded in London or continental Europe. People are still able to work, either remotely or in one of our other offices, but it’s creating conflicts with the calendar, scheduling and planning. And people get itchy to get moving.”

Returning unexpectedly to Pittsburgh had a personal benefit to Jordan, father of two teenaged daughters.

“It was prom night and I got home with two minutes to spare,” he said.

The travel services organization of Bayer Corp. has been rerouting travel plans for the German-based company the last few days. Bayer has seen employees stranded in Europe, said Bryan Iams, head of strategic and external communications, at the company’s North American headquarters in Robinson Township, Pennsylvania.

“A lot of the employees over the last 48 to 72 hours have begun to use alternate means of transport to get back home,” he said. He didn’t have numbers on how many North American employees were traveling in Europe last week, but he noted that employees are frequently traveling between Pittsburgh and Germany.

Most of the Plan B scenarios involve employees renting cars or taking trains to other European cities in order to fly out.

“Fortunately, the European rail system is pretty good,” Iams said. On Friday Bayer management sent a memo to staff suggesting that any planned trips to Europe be postponed until later this week.

Company executives were also being affected, he said, noting that an event at a Bayer facility in Berkeley, Calif. had stranded executives and even disrupted German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s travel plans. Merkel had been touring the Berkeley area including the Bayer pharmaceutical site to learn about the latest innovation in biotechnology.

Mohawk Global Logistics in Latham, N.Y., is working to reroute two shipments that are stranded in France and Germany.

Bob Boss, operations manager of the Syracuse-based logistics company’s Latham office, said both shipments belong to customers in the Capital Region and are “very urgent.” He declined to specify the contents of the shipments.

Boss on Monday was waiting for freight companies to provide quotes to truck the shipment in held up in France, south to adjoining Spain. The merchandise then would be flown to the Capital Region from Barcelona. Spain is outside the “no-fly” zone.

The customer waiting for the goods that are delayed in Germany also may consider trucking that shipment, Boss said.

“We’re offering them solutions to move their freight faster,” Boss said.

In either case, the customer would incur those additional transportation costs.

Boss estimates that 20 percent of Mohawk Global’s freight moves in and out of Europe by air. Most of the international goods handled by the company are shipped by water.

Sherman said that technologies such as Skype, video conferencing and Blackberries can ease the pain of separation for entrepreneurs stuck in Europe. But, “There’s still no substitute for face-to-face,” he said.

Even so, it seems many stranded entrepreneurs have been taking advantage of technologies to substitute for travel.

Cisco Systems Inc. executives said Monday that air traffic problems makes a good argument for its video conferencing products, the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal reports.

"We have seen a huge spike in usage," said Fredrik Halvorsen, the former Tandberg CEO who will now head Cisco Systems's TelePresence Technology Group. "The only evidence is anecdotal, but you will not get a demo room in any of the Cisco facilities."

But being stranded in Europe hasn’t been a complete disaster for all business people.

“We’ve come to a point where I don’t need to show up in my office,” said Elmira Bayrasli, of Endeavor, a nonprofit group that helps global entrepreneurs tap into networks to grow their business. Bayrasli said she has been able to do her work through use of her computer and iPhone.

For a group of entrepreneurs and thinkers stranded in London, Baysrali said, being together meant an opportunity to organize an impromptu conference. So they put together a group under the famed TED banner, called TEDxVolcano, and called on such speakers as Larry Brilliant, the former head of Google’s philanthropic arm, Google.org.

“We’re all trying to be innovative,” Baysrali said. Based in New York, Bayrasli has been stuck in London since last week, and attended the TEDxVolcano conference.

Also on the lighter side, for those who are in 13 European cities, The Lonely Planet is offering iPhone travel guides for free.

“Travelers stuck in unfamiliar places need access to practical information as well as suggestions on what to do while stranded”, said Tom Hall, Lonely Planet travel editor. “That’s why we’re giving away iPhone city guides to major affected destinations.”

And on this side of the pond, the Orlando Business Journal reports, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment is offering free one-day admission to any United Kingdom, Irish or continental European tourists stranded in Florida due to the interruption in international air travel caused by Icelandic volcanic ash.

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