Media firestorms exposing poor treatment in for-profit nursing homes have occurred frequently over the last decade. Normally companies respond by chucking their CEOs or by sitting tight-lipped and threatening to sue. Not Sophie Boissard at Korian.

A UK high street banker told me the other day: “For us, care homes fall into the same reputational risk category as adult entertainment and gambling. We have a pole dancing chain on the books but I’m not sure we would want any more nursing homes.” That reflects the endemic nature of scandals in the sector. In 2011 Southern Cross, (Orchid View), in 2013 Carema in Sweden and Casa Reha in Germany were both accused of leaving the elderly in their faeces. Then we have Esperi in Finland in 2019.

The 2022 Orpea scandal has seen the abrupt departure of Yves Le Masne after 11 years. Meanwhile, rival Korian has also been accused of poor care and faces a class action from a Paris lawyer.

But Sophie Boissard, Korian’s CEO, hasn’t resigned. Instead, she has taken to the airwaves to discuss the problems and defend Korian. Her last outing was so successful that shares in both Korian and Orpea both leapt 10%!

Several things help. First Korian has not faced the same serious allegations as Orpea. Secondly, Boissard can point to many earlier reforms and a move to ISO 9000, that she made. It probably helps that she is a woman with an ENARC background – Ecole Normale Supérieure and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration plus roles in the civil service followed by the state-owned SNCF. And finally she just comes across really well.

Some of these attacks are fair but many are unfair because they pick out the for-profit sector with no comparisons to their public sector rivals. But we need more CEOs with the integrity to run good services and the courage to defend their record.