Source: The Wall Street Journal Asia                      Date: 06 April, 2011

For international companies, the health and safety of overseas employees can be a significant cost and worry. International SOS is a Singapore-based firm that operates medical clinics and alarm centers in 70 countries, including Mongolia, and also provides clients with security and logistical services, including evacuation assistance.

The firm was founded in Singapore in 1985 by Mr. Arnaud Vaissié, now 56 and International SOS chairman and CEO, and his childhood friend, Pascal Rey-Herme, a doctor. Then known as AEA International, the firm had 15 employees. The privately held company, renamed International SOS in 1999, now has 7,000 employees including 1,000 doctors, and said it had sales of USD1 billion in 2010.

Asked what executives and doctors can learn from each other, Mr. Vaissié said the training of a physician is to meet with a patient, to do an instant analysis and execute instantly. It's a one-on-one relationship, whereas business is all about group decision. The diagnosis is slow and the execution is even slower. “Physicians are absolutely convinced that executives are incompetent because where a physician sees a problem, he finds a solution, instantly proposes a solution, and executes a solution. Whereas an executive...three months later it's still not fixed and it's a very complex dynamic. It explains why you have such antagonism between executives and physicians and also such waste in health care,” he said.

Mr. Vaissié said there are certain qualities they look for in potential employees. “For physicians, what we're asking them to do is much more complicated than the usual practice because they are outside their home environment, or even in a hostile environment. We recruit people with at least five to 10 years of experience because of the complexity of the job,” he said.

Mr. Vaissié feels the challenge in Asia is “to create strong and stable partnerships”. They have realized that in Asia, “if you make the wrong choice of partner, you can never go back—you're doomed. There's no way to fix it.” He feels the cost of hiring expatriates is their most expensive component in developing countries, whereas the cost of expertise is higher in developed countries.