Taylor El Hage, Security Risk Manager, International SOS tells SJUK that resilience stems not from preparing for a single event, but from maintaining vigilance toward subtle indicators.
It’s early on a drizzly Thursday in West London. Taylor El Hage, a Security Risk Manager at International SOS, has just sat down at his desk when an alert flashes on his screen.
He learns that a youth-led protest movement in Madagascar is gathering pace: Calls for the president’s removal are spreading on social media and government buildings have been set ablaze.
Hundreds of International SOS clients – local staff, expatriates and their families – are suddenly at risk. El Hage and his team now face a series of critical decisions to safeguard their wellbeing.
This scene is far from unique. El Hage is one of a multitude of security operatives across 28 International SOS Assistance Centres worldwide, providing round-the-clock medical and security support to clients ranging from tech firms and mining conglomerates to NGOs and universities.
These Assistance teams form the front line of risk mitigation and crisis management.
Before the unrest in Madagascar, they were advising clients during riots in Nepal; in June, they helped evacuate people caught in the hostilities between Israel and Iran.
In an age of constant disruption, operational planning and the ability to manage crises have evolved from defensive functions into core pillars of business resilience – both tactical and strategic.
By 11 a.m., El Hage’s team has ring-fenced some of his team into a cell focused on Madagascar, working closely with colleagues in our clinic in the capital, Antananarivo.
Although most of the calls they receive are from concerned clients seeking information, for a few clients the situation warrants the full evacuation of their staff or travellers.
They have identified who and where these clients are verified the capabilities of local security partners, secured evacuation assets and agreed on a plan of action.
In any escalation, he says, information is the currency of decision-making: “Accurate information is what allows us to provide our clients with actionable intelligence, rather than just breaking news.”
Two teams handle the bulk of the response: The Assistance team, delivering real-time security advice and coordinating evacuations on the ground; and the Information & Analysis team, monitoring multiple open-source intelligence feeds to stay ahead of developments and publish security alerts.
Although evacuation operations dominate the morning, much of the team’s usual work is preventative, aiming to reduce a client’s exposure to risks before they evolve into threats.
“If you haven’t considered risks before they degrade into threats, you’re going to suffer,” El Hage says.
“The most complex cases we receive often come from clients who don’t know how exposed they are and who haven’t prepared their employees for the risks they face.”
By midday, El Hage checks in with the rest of his team handling business-as-usual requests, where incoming queries cover everything from drone incursions into European airspace to upcoming travel to high-risk regions in West Africa.
His team offers targeted risk-mitigation advice to help clients prepare for travel and of course, possible future escalations.
With Madagascar stabilised by early afternoon, attention shifts to more complex cases on the team’s radar, including some clients who are seeking advice for longer-term assignments.
Operational planning – turning strategy into actionable steps – sits at the core of effective risk management, ensuring that potential threats are anticipated, mitigated and managed.
This work – evident in how the team have responded to the escalation in Madagascar – involves deploying to high-risk environments across the Middle East and Africa
Earlier this year, El Hage swapped Chiswick for Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic, to gather information and re-assess local security partners ahead of December’s elections.
Reviewing his reports from that trip, he joins a call with a client planning to deploy staff there next year.
The discussion ranges from the country’s political outlook to the potential ripple effects of global conflicts as far away as Ukraine.
The intelligence gathered in Bangui will underpin the client’s planning, covering risks from armed conflict and civil unrest to crime and political instability.
But the call also serves a broader purpose: Building strategic resilience.
El Hage is a strong advocate of scenario planning as a way to think beyond immediate threats.
“So much of effective risk and crisis management comes down to people, culture and communication,” he says.
“Scenario planning encourages organisations to think beyond what’s probable and explore what’s plausible.
“It’s a way to challenge assumptions and avoid blind spots or groupthink, both examples of cognitive bias that elevate a risk profile.”
Building resilience today is less about preparing for one specific risk or crisis and more about staying alert to weak signals, imagining different futures and adapting as things change.
The pace and overlap of modern crises have made rigid response plans obsolete.
“In addition to a fragmenting global order, organisations now face shocks from pandemics, technology failures, the social media accounts of prominent leaders and climate change,” El Hage says.
“Even the fragility of essential digital systems has direct operational consequences – we fielded hundreds of calls during last year’s CrowdStrike outage, which took down millions of Windows terminals across the globe.
“These disruptions force-multiply each other. No matter where a company operates, most people today are exposed to some degree of risk.”
As the day winds down, El Hage debriefs with his team before handing over to the International SOS team in Sydney.
Across the world, his colleagues pick up where he and his team left off.
In a disruptive age, organisations that are nimble, adaptable and able to harness human capital and innovation will thrive, while those that fail to anticipate and respond to emerging risks will be exposed.
Building both tactical and strategic resilience through effective risk management is essential to navigating uncertainty and ensuring long-term stability.
This article was originally published in the December edition of Security Journal UK. To read your FREE digital edition, clickhere.
