French outsourcing giant brings agility and new business model

Started from a joint venture with Bangkok Dusit Medical Services in 2004 to provide catering to Samitivej Sukhumvit hospital, Sodexo has grown to have a strong workforce of 2,000 in Thailand.
As a relative newcomer, the French company is still smaller than market leader Property Care Services (Thailand), or PCS, which has been in the local market for more than 40 years and employs about 23,000 people.
However, on a global scale, Sodexo is a Fortune 500 company with annual revenue of 16 billion euros (Bt620 billion), and is the 21st-largest employer in the world with a workforce of nearly 400,000.
“We’re No 1 in all mature markers, the US and Europe included, as well as [most of] the BRICs, Brazil, Russia and India. Because we are very big, we have a lot of expertise and we can bring resources from anywhere in the world,” said Bialecki in an exclusive interview with The Nation.
Bialecki, who before joining Sodexo in January was the managing director of PCS International, overseeing seven markets outside the Kingdom, said that apart from its relatively brief history here, Sodexo is still not well known in the Thai market because it has initially been focused on offering high-value-added on-site services such as technical facilities management, energy management, and clinical technology management solutions.
Moreover, Sodexo has provided cleaning and laundry services to hospitals, hotels and schools but not yet to many office buildings. Nevertheless, it will start to offer security-guard services for the first time in Thailand within the next few weeks, beginning at the Impact Exhibition and Convention Centre, where it has already provided energy-management, auditing and facility-management solutions, he said.
“Our challenge is to make clients realise that we have these expertise and proven successes. Although few people know us, we already have success stories.
“I don’t have to send our sales staff to make PowerPoint presentations to customers, we can bring them to Samitivej, AIT [Asian Institute of Technology] and Impact to see how our outsourcing model works,” said the Sodexo COO.

INNOVATION PAYS
Thriving on an innovative business model, the recently opened Holiday Inn Express Bangkok Siam Hotel has outsourced staff for most functions to Sodexo, including housekeeping, food and beverage services, and facility maintenance. While being able to keep its payroll at a minimum, the hotel is able to operate at full flexibility regardless of occupancy, Bialecki said.
The hotel represents Holiday Inn Express’ first foray into the Southeast Asian market. The InterContinental Hotels Group has announced a plan to open 12 additional Holiday Inn Express properties in the region in the next two years.
Bialecki said Sodexo’s outsourcing services worked very well with clients that have seasonal or fluctuating staffing needs, such as hotels, schools and exhibition centres. For example, during a semester break, Sodexo will bring its staff who provide catering to Le Lycee Francais International de Bangkok to work at the United Nations instead.
“And so we don’t need to charge the client. That’s the beauty of this model: You only pay for what you need,” he said.
Similarly, when AIT was submerged under 2 metres of water during the flooding last year, Sodexo did not terminate any of its 300 staff working at the Pathum Thani campus because it could send them to work at Bangkok Hospital and Impact, Bialecki said.
Sodexo is also a leading provider of “remote-site management” service. The company offers catering to oil men at some offshore facilities in the Gulf of Thailand, as well as running a camp that provides food and fitness facilities to staff at a mine in Laos.
Early this year, the company acquired GLS, a local firm that provided urology equipment to hospitals. The deal has helped Sodexo expand into a new business of leasing medical equipment to hospitals. It also plans to acquire more companies in the field, he said.
Bialecki said Sodexo, which is poised to achieve more than 10-per-cent growth in Thailand when it closes its financial books at the end of next month, foresees a lot of potential to expand further in the country.
Just back from Myanmar, Bialecki said he thought it was still too early for Sodexo to enter that market, which currently has only one international hotel and not many high-end hospitals, international schools or shopping centres.
“There is potential, but it may be another five to 10 years,” he said. The only exception is the offshore petroleum platforms where Sodexo can offer catering services.
Meanwhile, Bialecki said one senior staff member from Thailand was dispatched to join Sodexo’s team in London to provide catering to an expected 4 million Olympic and Paralympic spectators at the 2012 London Olympics that was officially inaugurated on Friday.

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