>> hello. a good man to know in the crisis. his cofounder, chairman and ceo, the world's leading risk services company. 11,000 employees in more than 10,000 clients, it is today's highflyer. ♪ >> he is in the business of saving lives. international sos has grown into

much more. two friends began an adventure 30 years ago and have journeyed to the top of the global industry they created. it is present in more than 90 countries. for decades, it has been a lifeline for people caught up in some of the world's most dramatic events. synonymy -- tsunami. tsunami. also a daily lifeline for the hundreds of millions of people who travel the world every year. ♪ >> welcome to highfliers. good to have you with us. 1985, two frenchmen, good friends, decided to set up a

business here. what prompted that move? valued.pore was already [inaudible] embassy decidedh to create a medical business in southeast asia. of course, singapore had to be the place to start it. of four, we decided to do it together and move from the u.s. i was working as a banker and thailand -- in thailand it came to singapore, which frank landed not know much about. [laughter] >> but this is the business of saving lives. it did not start out that way. it was a different idea. >> part of it was to save lives and part of it was to manage .edical records

>> that you had intended to make house calls initially. >> exactly right. we wanted to put together a house call system, which did exist in france and which we put together in chicago. i think it had success. businesswise, it was a complete failure. in indonesia and throughout asia, one doesn't think of calling a doctor to your place. room.es to the emergency where as in france, you call a doctor to your place. good concept, complete failure. we had to change it very quickly. stablished the emergency room and it started going. initially, you had to convince companies and corporations that they needed your service. how difficult was that? >> was difficult because we

changed the paradigm. corporations have insurance plans in place and the whole point was to convince corporations that the issue was not the financial protection they needed for the employees, it was to have the services available on the ground that it was a human resource issue. otection prevention issue. it took a little bit of people on the ground. they wanted the service. the job was to convince headquarters back home in the u.s. or europe that it was making sense to create a new program for their employees. >> once you convinced the likes of bp, that was it. >> that is exactly right. went to see you have business leaders -- once you have business leaders, ge for the u.s., we were able to have the

key customers. step, many others joined. >> was her first venture? -- what was your first venture, and what was the key takeaway? >> when you come from a large have many people that you work with. suddenly with a startup, you push a button and nothing happens. [laughter] >> you have to move it yourself. >> but what would i do differently? i might do it with more capital because we started small. >> $100,000. >> $100,000, around 20 people. it took a while.

the concept was the right one not have the resources to sell as much as we should or could. all, overo do it again i would start with more resources. if it had to be today, the ies need to be ablee abl to jump in with a great deal of firepower. quite the opposite. the early days of the start of, attracted extraordinary talent who has stayed with the company to this day. even though the company was small compared to them, the skill set was good -- we had a surgeon from australia.

they loved the adventure. think part of a small team and building up a completely new talent. attracted high curious, is a risky business? is it bulletproof? kennett ride the recession, the -- can it ride the recession, the business you are in? >> no business is bulletproof, including ours. we have gone through a complex cycle. are fromher clients the oil gas, mining, and energy companies, which have gone through a tremendous prices over the past four or five years. we are not bulletproof. ve been, i think we ha able to continuously adapt and innovate. innovation is really in our dna.

for example, when you have the issues and nobody could be transported anywhere. if you're a patient somewhere you were stuck. createdght weeks, we the first unit in order to be able to transfer a patient from one point to another. we need transportation to hong kong at the time. we had this creation from the doctors and engineers in australia. in thison is what to do is what our clients are expecting because it is a new industry. now it is an established industry. >> what has been the lowest point of your career? the most trying? question.n interest

we started in 1985. from 1985 to 1988, we were in asia. asia was booming. a complete them. crisis hit insian the crisis was massive. , overnight the financial markets were closed, financing was not available anymore. suddenly and a constrained in asia. the chance we had was we bought a competitor of hours the -- of ours the same year in the u.s. and the u.s. market was doing very well. ♪

most complicated in trying thing we have done has 4.en the tsunami in 200

>> it started in two offices and now you are in over 90 countries, 11,000 strong. but has been the most difficult part of starting the business? industry, ad a new new way of providing health care. nobody had any kind of experience in this. we had to convince the right people. beauty of the startup is you can find exceptional people to adventure.

>> what is the recruitment process like? they have to deal with stress and intense situations. a doctor is a doctor but you need more than that. uable need doctors, val doctors. the doctors interested in living outside the usual setting of a doctor, which is either private practice or hospital. doctors who want to travel, experience the world, change their lives. most doctors who want an international job will come to us. >> you have been in this business for more than 30 years. you receive about 4 million calls a year. what has been the most complicated case you have had to deal with? the most tryingy, case has been the tsunami in

2004. it was unprecedented, it was massive. was involvindonesia ed. we had to deal with a multitude to take care of. many people were missing and so forth. within 12 months, we were working -- more than 12 months, we're working to find the missing individuals. it was complicated resource wise. stretched. it was emotionally draining. >> you are also involved in the terrorist attack in mumbai. tell us what happened and what your involvement entails. mumbai, who recalled during the terrorist attack. we were security personnel in

several of our assistance centers. we were on our phone with the members during the terrorist attack telling them what to do, of to take the best caarre themselves in an extraordinarily dangerous situation. and handling the situation from the beginning to end. working with the security forces to let them know we have members of hours involved. >> you received 3000 calls for the incident itself. >> yes, not 3000 from the people involved. hour-long conversation with the members involved in the hostage city. >> have you had a failed mission before? >> we had missions that didn't go as well as they should have. altogether, i think we had that missions go

as they should. arehy do you think we seeing more and more cases of crisis? more people are traveling? mobility? is your observation? >> the obvious answer is the globalization.everyone is going everywhere , with more people on the planet, and corporations are now -- employers of any kind are sending people everywhere. when example is the education world. universities are now the institutions with the largest number of mobile people. at any one time, a large university is going to have thousands of flowing students sendings well as hundreds of thousands of students. strangely enough, large

universities have more people traveling and being out of the country of origin then most businesses -- than most businesses. >> technology plays a huge role in it. has technology changed the way you operate, and has you expected to change 15 years on the road? >> technology has been extraordinary. the key link for us has been the telephone. since we started with the assistance centers, the centers that function 20 47 with doctors, security people, all kinds of experts. network of providers around the world. >> what could you do today due what could you do today due

to technology? >> when we started we were using beepers. and then a huge mobile phone for you had to carry a suitcase to make a phone call. what is extreme. is extraordinary today is we can do things we could not do before. today, when we deal with a york, we cann new fully assess the crew and see whether the crew member can or cannot board the plane at a low cost. ast a year ago, it was foreign half hour -- four and a see the crewk to member. you see the kind of change.

we can now communicate and treat the world. around they can chat with us and send emergency messages. we have become immediate because we send them permission to our members. ♪ view risk in your own personal lives? >> to sleep well. >> do you sleep well? >> i do sleep well.

>> it does seem like expectations from the company have expanded. what do these corporations want from international sos? >> with those corporations wanted in the first place were ways to protect the lives of their employees. today goes far beyond the. they really want to show -- goes far beyond that. they want to show that employees

will feel comfortable and safe while traveling or being international. one in eightw employees in any corporation is traveling internationally. it has become 1/12 of the workforce, and international traveler. >> tracy told, it was not some -- truth be told, it was not something you wanted to do as a young boy. you wanted to be what your father was. what happened? >> he was a surgeon. i went to medical school and i didn't like it. >> why not? >> i realized the hospital environment and the subject matter was not really what i wanted to do. what i was really interested in was politics and business. into political studies and business school. >> talking about politics, you're passionate about it. how does that translate to realize? -- real life? overspent a lot of time

the past 18 months in charge of the economy's platform for the conservative candidate in france for the presidential election. involved in a number of issues in the paris region we are tryinghat to manage. london is brexiting and it's attracting a lot of interest. >> how are you managing a lot of responsibilities? your running and 11,000 strong company, you're involved in politics. had you manage that? -- how do you manage that? >> it is a question of the organization. the larger the organization is, the more resources you have.

now i'm working with a lot of colleagues who can operate without me, actually a lot better. [laughter] the business is benefiting from the other activities. change one's circle. if you only do with the people you meet in your business environment -- >> on a personal level, your stress pressure must be really, really high. what would it take to rattle you ? how do you view risk in your personal life? to slee>> to sleep well. >> do you sleep well? >> i do. i think it is fundamental. have an advantage to

strong relation to stress because you have far more bad news than good news. to be fairly eb -- i tend to be freely even from a mood standpoint. >> what is one time you are stressed out? >> we had a cybersecurity attack three years ago. i think we coped with it extremely well but it was of high concern/ comn. it was not an easy thing. building up the system and capabilities for that so the chance of it repeating it is lower. very stressful. i feel cybersecurity will be stressful going forward. >> what do you think will be the

biggest risk for the world? >> cybersecurity is one. german political situation, just becoming far more characteristic rate now, is another 1 -- characteristic right now, is another one. critical people go back to a system where one does not say openly what one thinks and keeps some reserve. the world is more dangerous today in terms of terrorism. are completely interdependent. it is going to be even more so going forward. >> you succeeded building this company.

would you like to leave behind? what legacy would you like to leave behind? >> legacy is a big word. - what i really want to leave behind is the fact that we created this industry around employees lives around the world. convincing operations it is good for their bottom line and good for their goodwill. spending money on their employees in the form of prevention. everyone. for is reallyis industry starting to be recognized and i want the industry to grow. beingnk you so much for here. it has been a pleasure.

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