CEO of International SOS Arnaud Vaissié explains to IMD President Jean-François Manzoni how the business has survived 40 years by overcoming obstacles like COVID-19 and navigating financial crises....
In a world where the average lifespan of a company on the S&P 500 has dwindled to 21 years and even the mightiest firms can go under, International SOS stands out for three things: its remarkable growth, its steadfast resilience, and its commitment to remaining privately held.
The company’s journey began around a humble dining table, where childhood friends Pascal Rey-Herme and Arnaud Vaissié envisioned a safer future. As a doctor at the French embassy in Jakarta, Rey-Herme recognized the urgent need for international standards of healthcare and emergency medical assistance for expats. Drawing on Vaissié’s business experience, they founded AEA International, which would later become International SOS.
Today, the organization has grown to become the global leader in helping multinational firms plan for and mitigate health and security risks, with more than 10,000 clients paying a yearly subscription fee for their employees, generating annual revenue of $1.7bn.
Yet it hasn’t all been smooth sailing. “Resilience is critical because business is made of ups and downs,” explained Vaissié in a recent CEO Dialogue. “We always look at the stories of companies which grow in a linear way. This is not the story of business.”
A major challenge for International SOS was the 1997-1998 Asian financial and associated credit crunch. “At the time, the company was growing extremely rapidly, and we went into a very serious cash squeeze because we could not access new working capital,” he recalled. “Eventually, we were helped by JP Morgan, and we refinanced ourselves on the US market.”
More recently, its mobility business came under pressure when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down global travel. “Suddenly you wake up in the morning and you say, “Well, let’s look at it and see what we can do.” Eventually, we became I think one of the key providers to help companies manage the pandemic, but we had to pivot in terms of services very quickly.”
Vaissié, a soft-spoken Frenchman, believes having a calm leader is crucial if an organization is to thrive in the face of adversity.
“Resilience is all about being able to be very agile, not to panic, to absorb stress. The job of the CEO is to be a stress absorber because if you do, you will diffuse anxiety. You need to show a road that is going to be successful. People want to be reassured all the time, so to me, resilience is a critical quality.”
Due to the nature of International SOS’s work, it tends to attract physicians and security professionals who are naturally calm and conduct their business no matter what. This helps weave resilience into the fabric of the organization.
The fact that the company remains privately held also reduces the pressure to cut costs, even when times are tough. The firm did not lay off any staff during the pandemic, which paid dividends down the line since its experts have specific skills that are hard to find in the market.
A challenge for many incumbents who dominate an industry is that they often become too comfortable with a certain business model or way of operating. Vaissié says International SOS’s structure, which he describes as “a federation of SMEs,” has helped it maintain its agility while benefiting from its global scale. The company now operates in 90 countries and employs 12,000 staff.
“Globally we’ve become a large company, but individually every business unit is of a size where innovation is still relatively easy to develop,” explains Vaissié.
For example, in its Swiss business, it has developed workforce resilience programs which it is now hoping to spread around the world. In Asia, it has an innovation lab where it launches new digitally driven innovations in healthcare.
At the same time, it has implemented standard operating procedures and IT systems to improve collaboration and offer an integrated service across the different business units. “The interdependency of one unit versus the other is very strong,” he said. “You need to be at the same time good in your market, but also very good at cooperating with the rest of the organization.”
Say, for example, a Swiss client has an accident in Bali. International SOS needs to involve four centers (Bali, Jakarta, Singapore, and Geneva) and three medical teams. To avoid disagreement among the different physicians, they have one designated senior physician in charge worldwide who can be called to make the final decision.
We all know that when you can call on someone directly, you, in three minutes, have more info than reading an entire book- Arnaud Vaissié, CEO of International SOS
Alongside his day job, Vaissié, who studied at the Institute of Political Studies in Paris, spends one day a week on non-business-related activities. He is co-founder and co-chair of the think-tank Le Cercle d’outre-Manche in London and he is the President of CCI France International, the network that gathers 125 French Chambers of Commerce and Industry outside of France. He also managed to find time to found two international schools in London: Collège Français Bilingue de Londres (CFBL) and the Lycée International de Londres Winston Churchill. Having this vast external network, says Vaissié, has helped him tap knowledge when he needs it. “We all know that when you can call on someone directly, you, in three minutes, have more info than reading an entire book.”
At 69, he remains motivated by the day job but is nevertheless preparing a new generation of leaders to take over when the time comes and ensure the company remains independent and successful in the future.
The challenge for International SOS is that they have no direct competitors, meaning they can’t poach someone from a rival firm for the top job. “We need to find people who understand what we do from within or externally, but they have to be groomed inside the company. We are such a specific company with a unique set of services and this global reach. I would say we might be the most international company for a company of our size.”
The backbone of International SOS’s success is the friendship between Rey-Herme and Vaissié, which they have managed to maintain over four decades. Having clear roles and responsibilities has been crucial. Rey-Herme, a physician by training, focuses on the medical side while Vaissié handles management.
“We see so many companies and so many startups failing because the key partners don’t get along,” said Vaissié. “In our case, it was easy because we know each other very, very well, and we like each other. But also, we have different skill sets.”
Trust is also essential. In the early days, a French banker and family friend warned Rey-Herme that Vaissié was “mad” and would drive the company into catastrophe. “We had a good time relating this conversation,” he laughs. “The trust level has been very high. We’ve gone through divergence of opinion, but no crisis.”
Watch the full CEO Dialogue to hear more from Arnaud Vaissié about how International SOS pivoted from its original business idea and remains guided by its strong sense of purpose.
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