Posidonia 2022

Johan Gustafsson  

After some broad scene-setting, our CRO, Johan Gustafsson, outlined what he saw as the challenges and opportunities in front of us and what habits we need to break to move forward. He called for companies to adjust their thinking, to move on from old-fashioned procedures and business models, from doing things just because they have always been done that way, away from complicated multi-system connections with APIs, manual imports and exports, and manual input of the same data into three or four different systems, and to embrace the opportunities and benefits technology and new ways of working offer.  

He called for commercial shipping to move towards a no-blame culture. He outlined that this, along with other measures, will be critical to make the working in maritime an attractive prospect to the younger generation, a need that is ever-more important as our sector finds itself competing in less-traditional talent markets.  

Kristian R Andersen, Position Green Advisory 

Shifting tack slightly, but still with a sustainable future front and centre, Kristian picked up the batten to give us a taste of the role ESG will play in shaping shipping as we move forward. 

Building out his story around what he termed ‘forced opportunity’, where external pressure for increased transparency and working to sustainability frameworks will bring huge benefits to our industry, Kristian first clarified the differences and overlap of ESG and sustainability.  

In short, ESG is primarily concerned with data, in that it is the metrics by which you are judging your operations or the metrics by which external agencies are judging you.  

Sustainability, however, is looking at how those ESG metrics are managed and effected in a way that ensures your business is sustainable. Kristen was quick to point out that ‘sustainable’ does not only mean environmentally sustainable, but sustainable in terms of longevity of a business – is the business operating in a way which will ensure that it continues to operate many years into the future? 

Looking at the links between ESG and access to finance or capital, analysts are already judging companies by a set of predefined public and proprietary set of metrics when making investment decisions. Banks, as well as large charters such as Amazon and Ikea, are looking at what companies are putting into the public domain both in terms of commitments to ESG initiatives and the data they publish, to identify where best to invest their capital or place their business with.  

Panel 

Moving on to the panel discussion, Raal welcomed Julia Anastasiou of OSM Maritime Group, Dimitrios Fokas of Angelcoussis Group, Dmitris Harbis of MTM Maritime Group and George Gabriel of Golden Union Shipping to join him on stage.   

This panel was diverse, yet their voices were in perfect harmony. Each panellist, from their opening remarks to their closing statements, emphasised the importance of company culture and the need for continual communication of values through every level of an organisation. 

Much of the conversation centred on the challenge of retaining and attracting the talent needed to crew vessels today, and how to make the shipping industry attractive again. Once again, culture was seen as one of the most crucial elements of attracting, retaining, and motivating the seafarers of tomorrow. With the next generation putting higher weight on company values and working environment, sometimes ahead of financial compensation. 

Throughout this invaluable and, oftentimes, brutally honest discussion, each question or comment was always anchored to calls for building inclusive company culture and creating an environment that will protect our seafarers of today and attract our seafarers of tomorrow.