hi, everyone. welcome to the "journal" on dw- tv. the top stories at this hour, heavy snow and freezing weather snarled european transport, leaving thousands stranded. student protests in london that turned violent as the british government approves a hike in tuition. about most people say corruption and business --- >> most people say corruption in business and politics is increasing according to a survey.

winter weather is taking europe by storm. more heavy snowfall has caused disruptions across the continent. snow and ice brought trouble to a virtual standstill. in germany, the situation is not much better, the highways filled with traffic jams and the airport officials say there are major delays. they say that the fluid used to deice airplanes is running in short supply. >> about a quarter of flights were canceled at frankfurt airport and others were delayed as the crews worked to clear the snow. some 2000 passengers were stranded overnight, and many others had to indoor long waits before continuing their travels. >> my flight was canceled, and out i am waiting to see if i have to be read booked. >> berlin airports are also

affected, with about one-third of flights cancelled or delayed. they are running low on the de- icing fluid. they also had to cope with mother nature on the highways, leading to backups stretching as much as 30 kilometers. many drivers were stuck several hours. in other european cities, the snow has stopped falling. some parisians took advantage of this for a different descent down the steps. british parliamentarians had narrowly passed through a measure to increase tuition at universities, which could see fees tripled to about 9,000 pounds, just about 10,000 euros. the vote came amid angry demonstrators from tens of thousands of students across the country. >> student protesters clashed with the police in the streets

of london, with injuries on both sides. critics say the police used excessive force. but there were also reports that protesters tried to break through barriers outside of the parliament. the plan to triple tuition has enriched this dude is across britain. >> what parliament does that we can undo, and our strength lies in the collective power of ordinary people. >> the governing conservative liberal democrat coalition refused to back down. the liberal democrats have upset many young supporters, who accuse the party of breaking an election campaign pledge to oppose any increase in fees. let's get more analysis on this story. for that, we go to our correspondent in london. there are reports coming in that protesters attacked the car of

prince charles and his wife, camilla. what more can you tell us about that? >> this has been reported by the british media. that happened in central london, and it seems as though protesters just kicked the prince of wales' car. he was in there with his wife, on their way to the theater. it is reported date -- it is reported that day arrived at the theater on time. the protests started off calmy to begin with, but they have turned more violent. the protesters are most agree with the liberal democrats. they say it was complete u-turn. it had promised to abolish the tuition fee raises, and now in some cases the tuition fees will be tripled. >> tell us more about what this vote means for the governing coalition. >> is a test of the coalition,

one of many tests in the future. it is because the girl democrat mp's are much -- is because the liberal democrat mp's, their instinct is to protect the weakest in society, but more austerity measures are planned in the u.k., so the big question is whether liberal democrats will vote for them in the future. >> thank you very much for that. a commission set out by the german interior minister has recommended merging the country's federal police force with the federal office of criminal investigation. the report said the increased threat posed by international terrorists requires a more effective, national policing structure. >> germany is still on high terrorism alert and the country's security forces are stretched. the operation involves the

federal police, the federal criminal office, and the country's many regional police forces. after looking at the coronation of the security institutions for eight months, a commission has concluded that too many departments are doubled up and less effective than they could be. now the chairman says the federal security efforts should be unified. >> we have identified double or parallel activities that could be avoided. the usual conflict on such cases will be a thing of the past. >> the commission would also like to see control of air freight, with a report saying that the federal police it should take over some custom checking duties. the interior minister who was in charge of the federal police will come to the proposals. -- welcomed the proposals.

am i am aiming to get a clear political mandate and a schedule by early next year. >> he pointed out it would take time to restructure the federal police, but he hoped the process would be completed by 2013. u.s. authorities have announced they will investigate cyber attacks attributed to supporters of the website wikileaks. computer hackers have disrupted a number of internet services, including paypal, amazon, and the websites of two major credit-card companies. mastercard and visa announced they would no longer pass along payment to wikileaks. the hackers cause -- the website caused havoc because of the lead cables. the founder of wikileaks remains in custody fighting extradition. the question is, how clean

is the business and political world? the finding of transparency international survey in more than 80 countries found most people think there is more corruption today than three years ago. >> transparency international told 90,000 people in their latest survey on corruption. -- polled 90,000 people and their latest survey. the study was not aimed at document proven cases of corruption, but finding out what people's perceptions of them are. worldwide, 56% believe that it has gotten worse. the mood in the european and -- european union and candidate countries is gloomy air. 7% say politicians are more corrupt. critics 70% say politicians are more correct.

in real terms, more than one in four people are paid some sort of bribe. however, some experts say that websites such as wikileaks could help stem the tide of corruption. >> we asked transparency international if she thinks wikileaks is a positive or negative force when it comes to honor thing corruption. -- when it comes to uncovering corruption. >> the principals are of crucial importance. the idea of shedding light on the lack of transparency in many political and public areas is extremely important. we have to protect the people who are willing to speak out about misdeeds and corruption. at this point, we need to see to what extent wikileaks contributes to the uncovering of corruption. it is important not to shoot the

messenger but look beyond the responsibility of companies and the private sector and government to transparency. the burden has to be on transparency. they have to defend the secrecy. an italian court has sentenced the former head of parmalat to 18 years in prison for his role in the company's collapse in 2003. the collapse left debts of 14 billion euros and its demise wiped out the savings of tens of thousands of small investors. he was found guilty on charges of fraud and bankruptcy and criminal conspiracy. at his first trial, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for market rigging and obstructing market regulators. iceland has reached a deal with the u.k. and the netherlands over compensation for billions launched in iceland accounts. the have already compensated 300,000 investors.

iceland has agreed to pay back 5 billion euros of the cash that dutch and british sabres had deposited on accounts. an earlier agreement was thrown out after 90% rejected the referendum. prepayments will begin in 2015 and will be completed by 2046. the financial markets had a little bit of a rough day, investors worrying about the eurozone budget deficits. conrad paul has this report. >> every desire to buy stocks was driven out of investors this thursday when the rating agency fitch downgraded irish government bonds to triple b- plus, which means they are not recommended by fitch as a safe investment anymore. the reason is insecurity about how much money the average banking sector will finally cost the ira's tax payer.

the biggest dax losers this thursday with the shares of lufthansa. the weather paralyzed parts of the air traffic, especially lufthansa hubs. let's start with the blue- chip dax index in germany, 6964, slightly lower. the euro stoxx 50 slightly higher on the day. the dow industrials, also lower. and the euro at $1.3230. the world's biggest car market keeps getting bigger, a forecasting a record year for car sales. 18 million new cars sold this year, an increase of 30% over 2009. analysts say you should keep your seat belts fashioned. the middle class is growing,

meaning huge growth potential in the next decade. one of every five cars sold in the world is sold in china. bayer is planning to invest 1 billion euros to increase production of high great plastics at its shanghai plant. -- high-grade plastics at its the shanghai plant. it will relocate their entire polycarbonates unit from germany to china next year. they're used in cars, electronics, and construction. they expect sales in china alone to double in the next five years to 5 billion euros. time to talk about the climate talks in cancun. about word coming from cancun is hardly any progress has been made at this climate change talks on key issues like setting binding targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. many of the 194 participating states are concentrating on smaller issues like the accord

to fight deforestation, supported by the united nations secretary general. it is highly unlikely the delegates will agree on a follow-up to the kyoto protocol, which expires in 2012, and the summit finishes on friday. as norway gets ready to present the nobel prize on friday, the head of the award committee said the choice of the jailed chinese dissident was not aimed against beijing. at a press conference in oslo, he said the prize and to honor the people of china. beijing has refused to release xiabo from jail to receive the reward. he will be honored at the ceremony by an empty chair. >> oslo is preparing for the award ceremony without the recipient. he is not allowed to leave china. >> when such a powerful

government fears a person in jail to such an extent, this shows that the country is very weak and fearful. >> china has called on its allies not to attend the nobel prize ceremony. despite china's reaction, the nobel committee intends to go ahead with the award ceremony. >> we cannot look to serve national interests, in this country or other countries. we are only looking at the real nobel. about 18 countries have said it would not attend. -- >> at 18 countries have said they would not attend. >> we will not change because some anti-china plans interfere. >> instead, a defiant china has awarded its first peace prize, the confucius' award, to

taiwan's vice-president. the award honors his efforts at reconciliation with china. but alternative prices and rents will not prevent liu xiaobo from being awarded the prize in absentia tomorrow. spanish police have questioned a world steeplechase champion following several are rests in a major anti doping operation. the police searched several homes and businesses as part of the operation. the raids targeted athletes, coaches, and doctors. reports say he is suspected of supplying other athletes with drugs, but is not charged with taking any drugs himself. a sport physician was also implicated, accused of masterminding a vast blood doping network four years ago. state to end, i will be back after a short break with in

depth. we will be looking at metals and ores.

worldwide, the hunt is on for scarce raw materials used in high-tech products. the production of the cell phones, cars, and flat screen televisions requires certain metals. the imports of these materials became clear last month, when china drastically reduced exports of what are known as red earth elements, which are found in a wide range of gadgets and consumer goods -- rare earth elements. countries that possess these raw materials are in a position of strategic power. control of these resources can also be a source of conflict. >> this desert in chile is rich

in lithium. the element is an essential ingredient in it batteries from cell phones to laptops. the hope is it will also power millions of electric cars in the future. some 70% of global lithium deposits are located in the andean countries, chile, bolivia, and argentina. the deposits are processed in state of the art factories in europe, the u.s., and japan, where developers are trying to come up with more efficient ways of powering electric cars. if they are successful of the the next few decades, lithium supplies could soon start running low. one substance that is already in short supply is cold and or, found in the democratic republic of congo. it is extracted from small, often a legal minds by people working for a pittance.

those who profit are for the most part armed militias. many believe the struggle for the control of the metal has fuelled struggle in the region. it is essential for the production of small funds and small computers. it is just one of an increasing number of covered it raw materials needed for the manufacturer of high-tech products -- number of coveted raw materials. china is in a strong position as regards rare earth metals. open cast mines produced scandium, and other vital products necessary and the manufacture of solar panels. beijing was recently accused of limiting shipments. germany had to scale back production as a result. >> some countries are relatively poor in terms of mineral wealth, making recycling very important. a german company is extracting

silver from industrial waste, old knives and forks, n.d. and silver jewelry. last year alone they recovered 400 tons, mostly for the communications and automobile industry. if the company was ranked alongside silver producing countries, it would be in ninth place. 20% of the world's global silver demand is covered by reclaiming, which presents a great opportunity for countries with scarce mineral wealth. >> at first glance, this looks like an ordinary recycling yard, with stacks of scrap metal piled high. but one man's trash is another man's treasure. this plant recycles piles of industrial waste, old knives and forks, and even silver jewelry. these two men make it possible. they turned this scrap into pure silver.

>> our company processes about 400 tons of silver per year. that is a huge amount. if you do the math, that is 600 euros per kilogram of silver, that is a substantial amount of money. >> they begin by melting down all the metal objects. once they are liquid, a metal worker ladles out a small sample to test the silver content. the more silver in the mixture, the more the customer gets in return for the scrap metal. then the hot liquid is cast into ingots. the silver has not been purified yet. it is still a crude alloy that needs to be separated from the other metals by electrolysis. copper is the first medal to be reclaimed. after three weeks, it can be removed and reused.

another round of electrolysis is finally produces the desired metal, pure silver. it takes a full week before the silver fleece separates and materializes into miniature crystals -- before the silver fully separate and materializes into miniature crystals. that is a long process. >> the process costs and a lot of money and there are strict environmental guidelines to follow up, so you need a material that is worth at least five euros per kilo to make a profit. at today's rate, as long as it is 1% at silver, it is worth it. >> the company stores its daily production, about 1.5 tons of pure silver crystals, in this container. the crystals may not look very shiny, but the contents are still a glittering 1 million euros. the company takes the crystals and processes them further in its metal works. the silver is recast into these

glowing bars. which can then be spun into wire, something that can be used later in the automobile industry or electronics. silver is an ideal conductor of electricity. >> every switch that you see, whether in a car or household appliance or light, could have a piece of our silver in it. wherever electricity flows, we may be part of the process. >> by recycling silver, they are capitalizing on a vital industry and proving it can be very lucrative. r average car contains dozens of substances extracted from the earth. with demand for hybrid cars increasing, the demand for rare earth metals is also on the rise. this means there is growing concerns the world may face a shortage of such materials unless new sources are developed. most of the world's rare earth supply is currently produced by china. some of these elements are used in the latest cars made by bolts

wagon. we visited the volkswagen plant to find more. >> this golf model is the most common car on german roads. it is made up of 10,000 individual parts and lots of raw materials and familiar to most people. for instance, in the catalytic converter. the cars internal combustion engine turns these carbon monoxide into soot particles. the catalytic converter detoxifies this with two rare metals. most modern cars have helpful features to keep inexperienced drivers from causing damage while parking. a rear view camera, distance sensors, and a display. to give the display the right contrast, three medals are needed. -- three metals are needed.

it used to be that you could make a car using just metal, water, and plastic. now you need it rare elements. there any -- they are meant to be more environmentally friendly and help safety. one rare metal is used as a lubricant and has replaced the highly toxic asbestos. and rare earths are put into the car from outside. just as with the catalytic converter, this is added to the diesel fuel to ensure cleaner combustion. speaking of clean, soap and water are too old fashioned for many. but here also, industrial chemists have come up with something new. a professional's clean their windscreens with syria and to ensure the extra shine. but these raw materials are expensive, so much so that the

automobile industry reclaims the scraps to use most of the rare earth. a >> rare metals and or, key strategic resources. -- rare metals and ore, key strategic resources. that doesn'40does it for us hert dw-tv. thank you for joining us. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org--

♪ - hi, this is bob scully, and welcome to another edition of the world show: entrepreneurs: the dobson series, where we're going to enjoy a special treat this week: a return visit from an entrepreneur who was riding

very high the first time he sat down in the chair. he's still riding high, but boy, did he sink at some point, and he nearly thought he'd go under, but he never planned to, and he stood up and withstood the storm, and has come out smiling, although he will mince no words about how difficult it was, and i think it's an important message for people going through the recession now who have companies, who have started them, and who may think, "boy, when is this going to end? am i ever going to find a way out?" he certainly faced the worst, and he did find a way out. his name is stéphan crétier. he's the president of garda, which he has built into one of the top ten security companies in the world, and as an added bonus--an added treat--for all you fans of international fun and games, you may recall if you saw the first interview that he has strong opinions about where osama bin laden is at, and he knows whereof he speaks, since he does a huge amount of business protecting ceos and heads of state of the middle east. so here, then, is stéphan crétier with a lot to say about the recession, and, more importantly, the recovery

and the way to the stéphan crétier, you were one of the first guests on entrepreneurs, on the dobson series. we sat, actually, in this very studio in '07, and you had one of the great entrepreneurial stories of your day. the share went a hundred- fold up in value over a decade. you started as an umpire in the southern us-- - a thousand-fold. - a thousand-fold! incredible. really? i forgot a zero. and you started as an umpire in professional baseball down in the southern us, mortgaged your house--i mean, you did everything, and lo and behold, you build one of the great security companies in the world, and it would seem that nothing could have gone wrong. but now we know, because we know the weather reports from '08, that everything went terribly wrong for everyone, but in a way even harder maybe for you. you got through it, but let's first look at that. in '07, we met in the middle of the year, and right away in that fall you started to have a bumpy ride. - correct. as you said, things

were going extraordinarily, and, you know, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, we say. and we announced our only bump in our history on september 15, the same day that merrill lynch and lehman were disappearing, so, you know, at the same time people said nothing can go wrong at garda, but definitely everything was tougher at that time, and really was an aspect of credit crisis. we've built this business through leverage. as we've said in the past, the first $500 million of revenue was made with only $2 million of capital invested in the business, so we've used a lot of leverage, and-- - bank leverage, not shareholding. - exactly. so, you know, one morning we get up, and we don't know if our lenders are going to survive, and any company that was leveraged or had any debt--and we had a tonne of debt at that time--were seen as not going to survive. so one morning we were

the success story, and the day after we were the company that probably was not going to survive. - and i recall sitting with donald trump--this was another decade. he had signed for a billion dollars--personal guarantee--and he mentioned trying to stare down bankers, and he had one advantage: his name was on the buildings, and he said, "get rid of me, and the buildings fall in value", and it seems to have worked--well, obviously it did work at that time. what was your argument to stare down... we see these meetings in the movies-- 30 bankers around a table. how do you stare them down? - well, it was exactly the same thing. everything happened, and at a certain time, a number of lenders were in front of the board of directors of garda and myself, and they said, "we want the keys of the company, because we think we can run it better than you, and we want to make sure that we can collect our money". and i started asking them questions. i said, "who's going to be speaking with the families of the kidnapped employees that we've got in iraq? who's going to be talking

with major ceos that we protect in the middle east? who's going to go and see your people? because, by the way, we're transporting all your money. you lenders, it's garda who's transporting your money". and i started going, you know, and pointing at every single lender, and saying, "who in the group is going to start doing that?" i said, "remember, this business is worth nothing if i'm not in there. and at the end of the day, if you want the keys, just take the keys, and i'll be back in 12 months, and i'll pick up the business for ten cents on the dollar". so it was, you know, a tough argument. i think they were tough, and i'll never say anything negative around lenders if i'm... you know, if i'm a wealthy individual today, it's because lenders have been good partners in the past. but i think this very candid conversation really turned around this business, because i said, "you're going to let me run this business. we're going to turn around this operation. we're all going to be patient. i'm going to sell some assets, but we're going to make this

business better, and i'm going to pay you back every single dime that i've taken from you". and we've done exactly that. in march of last year--in march of this year--we turned around and we refinanced completely the balance sheet. business has gone up during the crisis, despite having-- - yeah, you actually have a recession-friendly business in a way. - sure, but at the same time, what was our biggest risk? you know, our largest client was washington mutual. our second largest client was wachovia. - holy cow. - you know, two large banks that were just disappearing. i think that was more the stress that we were having than having the lenders in front of us and trying to muscle us up at that time. so we've taken this crisis and turned it around to make the business a better business. - but i think the argument that you've made too, then, is a very rational argument, and it's hard to counter, because, of course, if they're sitting there and you're dangling the keys, you sort of change the rapport. they suddenly say, "oh, do we want this?"

- yeah. - but bankers become irrational if there is a panic. they're like anybody else. and there was a panic when lehman went down and when bear stearns was barely salvaged. could you deal with irrational bankers? i mean, they could say, "yeah, yeah, yeah, we hear all that, but we don't care". you know what i mean? it must be harder to make that kind of... - i think you're right, but at the same time, they were extremely irrational, but when it came down to running day- to-day operations and asking key questions--you know, garda is involved in national security for a number of countries, and who's going to take care of this if it's not me? - it's a people business. - exactly. it's very, very much a people business, and a bit like trump said. you know, trump said, "you remove my name from there, it's worth nothing". so at the same time, if you remove stéphan crétier with the kind of key relationships that i've built in the past, the value of the business would be much worse, and the risk

of losing money would be much higher than leaving me there and maybe monitoring me in a different way. and that's exactly what happened, and i think they listened at that time. i think maybe they were quite surprised with the reaction that we had--a bit like donald trump, who told them, "hey, it's going to be my way, and you don't have a choice". and, finally, how it turned out two years later was quite positive. - no actor likes to read a bad review, no playwright likes to read a bad review, so i was reading the research on this and i thought, "what's the low point here?" and it's an analyst who has to, i guess, eat his words today, who said, "the end of garda is near". - yeah. - now, you in your office... we can smile today, but you must have been depressed as hell to read something like that. - it was rough. no, it was really, really, really rough. you know, you've got 45,000 employees, they all believe in you, you've built this business, you've got proud people around you--i'm a proud person--so you

become very humble. but at the same time, you know, we turned around and started thinking, "let's start, instead of being an impossibility thinker, let's work and become a possibility thinker. we know what's impossible, so what's possible?" and i sat down with my key executives and started discussing what is possible to do here, not thinking about what is impossible to do. and we've reorganized this business into a possible-thinker orientation, rather than "we can't do this, we can't do that". no, let's focus on what we can do and try to do it the best that we can. so, we've worked a lot, and i think it was, as you've said, really tough, but as a leader it was important for myself to keep my chin up. - yeah, of course. - because it would have been easy for me to just put the key

on the table and sell the business to someone, and here would be another canadian company that disappears and is sold to a european player or an asian player. but you turn around and try to become a leader, keep your chin up, and keep the passion of an entrepreneur and say, "how can we go through this crisis, and how can we act in there and make sure that, whatever time it takes, we're capable of coming out of this crisis better than we were before?" - and there was a lot of talk in the research--but i don't think it happened, or at least not as much as in the research-- of asset sales. and, of course, the paradox is always that it's the worst time to sell when everybody is panicking. you don't want to do asset sales, but you might have to. did you do some of them to meet your-- - yeah, we sold a very small asset, and it's interesting because what we did at that time when we made the announcement, saying that we're going through a strategic review--meaning that we're looking at potential sales

of assets--we were extremely patient, and i think that is really appreciated by everyone today. we're extremely patient with the sales of assets, and we sold our guarding operation in the us and mexico--you know, quite a small operation--but we sold it at the worst potential time--i think june '09--at ten times ebitda, which... - could have been lower. - ...which is, when you think about it, it is the highest multiple to date. - still? - highest multiple paid for a guarding business, and at that time, in the dealbook that is published in new york, it was the highest multiple paid for a transaction during the crisis. - now, if the guy who bought it is hearing this, what does he think? did he overpay you? how did you finesse that? - well, we started having calls for this... first, i think what we discovered from this crisis is that we work better than expected. we look at ourselves and we whip ourselves and say we can do better, and all that. i think the quality of operation

was really there, and after the press release saying that we were looking at a strategic review, we started receiving numerous phone calls for pieces of the business. and we got three phone calls for the same piece of business, and they started throwing me numbers. i was looking at the multiples, and i said, "okay, they're all throwing numbers, but there are three". so, we hired bankers, went through an auction, and the three finalists were the three finalists at exactly the same price. - and it's a sign that your business is a healthy sector in an unhealthy economy, because people need protection and they need secure disposal of cash, and so on. - exactly. - and i noticed also in the research--this was amusing--now and then when the wolf pack-- the analysts--were after you too much, you'd say, "uh! don't worry, i have a very solid offer for this business if it comest e it as a defensive strategy, right? because you never did sell the business. - correct. well, at the end of the day, i could have bought it. - yeah, right, exactly.

- you know, i could have turned it around. if nobody wants it, i'm going to buy it. - you have 25% of it. - exactly. so i could have-- - but you had to fend them off. it's like a bunch of wolves, really, at your door. - oh, yeah, yeah. and really, you know, at a certain time what really happened, when we're talking about being possibility thinkers, is saying--you know, shareholders, they don't care. our share price was under a dollar--it went from twelve something to a dollar-- so shareholders don't want to talk to you. so forget the shareholders. lenders? well, you've spoken to them, so they'll leave you alone for a certain time. so, you know, what's left? your clients. so we turned around and we said, "we've got a good success story". i think you did a good introduction, saying we've got a good success story. we've built a north american leader--a canadian champion in security--number six or seven in the world. let's start promoting this to our employees--again, keeping our chins up. and we started road

shows with our clients, meeting executives and visiting our lenders, who are also our clients, and getting in front of them and discussing and saying, "listen, you've got the entrepreneur in front of you. here's the garda story. here's how we've built this business, and here's how we're going to go around this crisis, and what we're going to do for you, and what you can do for us". and this probably was the most positive thing that has happened to us, because we've built incredible relationships with financial institutions, so that today we've become number two in north american in the cash logistics business, because banks saw us go through the crisis, saw us become a better company, and after that... - they turn to you as clients. - they turn to us and they say, "wow, this is a clear success story. the management team is extremely solid. let's give them more business". and in the last few months, we've been winning a tonne of business from banks in the us because of that.

- and you never had... they say it's like a population, really. if you've got 30 lenders, let's say, a syndicate or whatever-- i don't know how many you had-- you'll get some nice guys and some real meanies. you never had a real meanie or short sellers, i don't think, that really whipped you down. or did you? - oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. - yeah? - of course. in the group. i think one of the problems we had with the lenders--and that's one of the things we've understood-- there were 15 lenders, and when they did the syndication of the bank, we had our lead banker, and we didn't get involved in the group--who's going to be in the group. so what happened is, as soon as we hit a hurdle, people that didn't know us--had no personal relationship with us and didn't know our business at all--went crazy, and started putting pressure on the main lender, and unfortunately the main lender didn't have the leadership to calm them down and say, "hey, we've got a good relationship with them. they're good operators, and they're going to go through the crisis". and when we changed our group

in march of this year, and we cleaned up the group, we went to a more select group, but we sat with every single one to explain our business and to make sure there was a fit in terms of personality, and understand that, you know... - just in case, right? - yeah. we've learned a lot, but at the same time, you never know what can happen. nobody thought that on september 15 the world would come to a stop, and if it happens again, we want to make sure that we have a different kind of relationship with our lenders. - and the short money--when you're in that situation and the tempest is tossing you, you can talk to lenders, and you convince some, and go through the process you've just described. but your short money, your overnight money, is the hardest to place--your short paper. you need a really nice guy there, or who asks for a premium. how did you deal with that? - i think the good news about our business is it's a simple business. it's a cash flow business, so the need for a bank was not really there. they own

the debt, but if i respect my covenant, i respect everything. i was close on my covenant, so i was okay. and what we've done in the business--again, speaking of possibility thinkers--we changed also the way that we manage the business. our business has always been a free cash flow. it's all about the cash that we generate. it's payroll--45,000 employees. - like insurance in a way. - yeah, exactly. it's 45,000 employees. it's cash. and we changed the way that we were paying our senior management. instead ofaying them on just the profit that they would generate, it was on the cash they would generate. so they would get incentive to collect clients at net ten days instead of at net 30 days. even though it would affect a bit of the profitability, it would bring more cash generation. more cash generation means you don't need the bank, so we became a cash machine. - so you have a float, just like an insurance company, and you're allowed to use that float. - yeah, you can say that.

you can say that. it's really an aspect of payroll where you pay your employees after 15 or 21 days. if you're capable of collecting between 15 and 21 days, you're generating a tonne of cash, when usually you would collect at 45 or 60 days, which is the average for companies. so we've become a cash machine where we're generating so much cash that lenders were looking at us and saying, "wow, they're paying down their debt sooner than what we had expected". but we've changed our mentality with how we've become very laser-focused on cash. - and we have to go back to something we discussed the first time, which is far from the economic data. it's all this fun stuff--cloak and dagger stuff, i call it--because you do a lot of protection of ceos, but also heads of state and stuff like that, and especially in the middle east. so how is that evolving? that must be a booming business. - oh, the business is just incredible there. i've been

the past six weeks in the middle east--now i own a place in dubai to get a bit closer to our operation--and one of the things that came out of the crisis is where our decision-making should be--where our decision-makers should be. and one of them is to move our operations--we're both in london and in washington-- to dubai, to be closer to our middle east clientele where we do, what you call, "the sexy stuff", which is very high-end protection in high-threat environments. and since that time, we've picked up one of the most prestigious contracts in the world, which is the diplomatic protection for the british foreign commonwealth office, where we protect all diplomats travelling in the middle east, which includes the protection of certain embassies in the middle east, including the one in baghdad. so this has given us quite an oomph in the operation and a lot of recognition around this kind of business, so we're looking

at this business in an extremely positive way. - do you get a daily intelligence brief, like the whitehouse, on your desk in the morning? because threats occur, and they can affect your business. if you don't do your job well, there's a kidnapping. so how does it work? do they send you a... your people, do they send you a little sheet every morning with... - yeah, i get what i call the intelligence report. it's quite interesting to see what's going on, and you need that. and we do very precise intelligence reports for our clients in a number of places in the world. do i read them all? of course not, because, you know, maybe i won't sleep at night, so at a certain time you need to keep it on the side and make sure you focus on the right things. - and in the middle east, since you travel there a lot and you see a lot of the... well, obviously the people who hire you as a supplier, but others as well... one thing that fascinates me is there's

a middle class there, highly- educated, generally pro-western, and certainly very western in its habits. and then there's, of course, what we call the "arab street", which is an awful cliché, but we have to use some term for it, where, of course, things are very different. there's a lot of unrest. will those two ever meet? it gives me the impression that there's a disconnect--that in arab countries and in the middle eastern countries, the middle class thinks one way and we could probably make a deal with them and get along with them and not have trouble with them, but underneath, it's boiling. is that your impression? - isn't it the same here in north america? [bob laughs] - sometimes. in some ways. - unfortunately, i think you're still seeing the big separation, and i think, unfortunately, you're seeing it more on the north american market or even the european markets, where you're seeing a big difference between the middle class and the poorest people, and i think-- - but i'm thinking of islamic fundamentalism. that's a factor

that's very special. - i understand. i understand. yeah, but at the same time, you look at certain countries, and you can see that they're still fundamentalist in every single region, but i think of the middle east sometimes as countries that are x number of years behind us. and there is still a lot of evolution and a lot of education that needs to be done, and i look at that in an extremely positive way. i've travelled a lot in the middle east, and i see excellent evolution with the economic development that's happening in some of those countries. i see this as very positive. - and one question that we touched on last time--we'll get back to the economy in a second--but osama bin laden. what gives? are we going to get him? is he in a cave? i mean, we hear so many things. - i told you this story last time. i'm sure he's dead. - you told me that, yes. and i thought that you wouldn't

say this again, but you're saying it again. - oh, yeah. it's not because they haven't found the body that's he's-- - so they have a way to imitate his voiceprint. - well, you know, sometimes you need a story to make sure that everyone is focused on the same thing, but it's quite clear, in my view, that this person has been killed, and if he wasn't killed, he was so sick x numbers of years ago, and unless they've built hospitals in certain parts of pakistan where supposedly he's in caves, you know, he wouldn't have survived. so at the end of the day, some government secret services have certain agendas around having osama bin laden as a kind of image there. - a boogeyman. - exactly, but in my view, i don't think serious people think that he's still alive. - very interesting. you got my

attention there. but let's end, stéphan, on entrepreneurship. what would you say to entrepreneurs out there? not everybody is in the same situation, but if you had to give kind of a précis--you know, ten commandments--what to do if they're still in trouble, what would you tell them? - well, i think the first thing, the aspect of being possibility thinkers is number one. the second one, i think, is what i call becoming a "q4 leader". you know, when you're a public company, q4 is always the "must get done" kind of quarter, and i think today, everyone needs to be a q4 leader every single quarter, and all your team needs to be very focused on that. three, the passion. i think passion as an entrepreneur is remembering why we started this business as entrepreneurs, why we went through so many crises when each time we were told it was impossible--that we would stumble, that we would fall. and yet we've become successful entrepreneurs, and it's not

another crisis that should stop us at that. and i think this aspect of passion is extremely important. and, finally, i think it's focus--focusing on the right thing, and not focusing on things around us. when i say "possibility thinker", it's exactly that--making sure you're focused on the right stuff. focus on your business. what makes you tick in the business, and what makes this business work? we started focusing on a free cash flow nature of the business, and that saved us and today has made us a much better business, being in front of our clients, telling our success story, meeting--you know, i met jimmy diamond at jp morgan chase, which is today a very large client of ours. why? because i've solicited meetings and made sure that we were in front of clients explaining openly what the situation was and how we were going to go and fix it. and i think at the end of the day, it's delivery. if you promise something, you sit in front of your lenders,

you sit in front of clients, you need to deliver. and i think what entrepreneurs are extremely good at doing when they have their passion is delivering results. - stéphan crétier, i can see how you got through it and why you got through it. long life and good luck to you and to garda. - thanks very much. - from the recession to the recovery. stéphan crétier was our guest this week on entrepreneurs: the dobson series of the world show, and that's our program for this week. i'm bob scully. thanks. closed captioning by sette inc.