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Global care

By Bao Wanxian (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-01 07:49

Editor's note: When you are a stranger in a foreign land, network of emergency management always provides an essential social lifelines to you.

Every day, millions of members from International SOS, a professional medical and emergency-management solutions provider, ensure the health and security for travelers and employees all around the world.

For example in February 2008, International SOS staff brought 188 Chinese employees of an oil and gas company from Chad to Beijing after their safety was threatened due to civil strife in the African country.

With over 20 years of experiences, International SOS has been growing globally and has fast expansion in China's market to provide emergency management to local consumers. To date, on the Chinese mainland, it has expanded to one SOS Alarm Center-Health clinics in Beijing, health clinics in Nanjing and Tianjin and sales offices in Guangzhou and Shanghai. During his recent visit to China, Nigel Pool, group chief financial officer (CFO) and chief information officer (CIO) of International SOS Group, talked with China Business Weekly reporter Bao Wanxian about the need for risk-management on the path to business globalization, and the company's development in China in the past 20 years.

Q: As early as 1989, when you established the first SOS Alarm Center in Beijing, global economic communications were not highly developed. At the time China's market did not show a demand for crisis management services. How did you lead China's customers to recognize the needs for managing global risks, emergencies, threats and issues?

A: Yes, (in 1985), when we established the first SOS Alarm Center in Singapore and built up the first SOS clinic in Indonesia, most people didn't recognize that it was necessary to manage risks, emergencies and some unexpected issues. Most Chinese people also could not imagine that one day, they would play such important role in the global economy.

So, from 1989, the greatest challenge for us was to show our Chinese customers that emergency management should be a part of their business strategy, especially for local manufacturing companies, oil and gas developing companies and travel agencies.

They have to be prepared for any unexpected circumstances. That means they need to understand the local implications and the security risks.

Chinese companies have been increasingly expanding their business to other countries all around the world. So we should help them quickly adopt to the foreign environments and better manage emergencies. But they also need to adopt self-management practices for risks so that they can respond quickly to minimize the impact of the risk, better ensure their business operation.

That is also we can push to local consumers in the coming years, especially when the global economic slow-down is having an increasing impact in international market.

Q: Would you like to share your experience in leading your business expansion in China's market?

A: Our first customer in China was a multinational corporation with operations in China. It selected SOS for ensuring their employees' health and wellness, as well as for crisis management.

In the past 19 years, by better serving local consumers, we bring familiarity into the unfamiliar environments through our global reach and local expertise. We insist on providing the highest level of service to China's customers.

We implemented occupational health programs, health and safety assessments, fit-for work health checks for their employees. And we also made better use of our global medical specialists' network to manage emergencies and unexpected issues for our customers.

So far, SOS provides services for over 88 percent of Fortune Global 100 companies and 64 percent of the Fortune Global 500 companies. And these practices will help us better adopt for Chinese consumers' fast growing business expansions.

Q: How will International SOS perceive your business potential when the global economy is facing a big downturn?

A: I think International SOS' service is obviously helpful for enhancing leaders' awareness of managing emergencies, crisis and unexpected issues. So I believe our services will provide strong support to corporations and will be seen as increasingly necessary in the future.

In recent years we have also witnessed the development of economic globalization. Moving forward under the global economic turmoil, our services will be expected to be more independent and will play bigger role in quickly responding to the crisis in the international markets.

I, together with my team, have been regulating our business strategy. And we have successfully developed a non-stop online patient information and management system, in which our 28 emergency service centers share same data and facilitate worldwide medical evacuations.

Q: What is your blueprint for International SOS' further expansion in China in the coming years? And what do you think of the potential of the Chinese market in the future?

A: In the past 19 years, we are proud of providing strong support and successfully operating the risk-management to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, 2005 World Fortune Forum, 2003 SARS Rescuing Program and the May 12 Sichuan Earthquake Rescuing Program this year.

Moving forward, I think the challenge for us is to deliver the view of risk-management to more local leaders, which can promote our services reach in a larger range - 24 hours, 365 days.

And I think the growing number of travelers will help us expand more potential markets in China.