It is just over a year ago that Martin Bustarret left Insead, MBA in hand, to work for International SOS, the global healthcare company. At the time, the world economic meltdown barely cast a shadow over the recruitment process.

At International SOS's headquarters in Singapore, Mr Bustarret, a Frenchman, is in charge of developing large medical projects, often supporting oil or mining corporations when they move into a new region, supplying doctors, nurses and medicine. In the past year, he has spent about 25 per cent of his time travelling, as far afield as Indonesia, Ghana and Liberia.