Aug 04, 2011Necessity is the mother of all inventions, which loosely translates into difficult situations inspire
ingenious solutions. Dead people were left frozen onboard the Titanic and it introduced the concept of safety. James Cameron did a great service to the non-shipping community by forcing them to watch Di Caprio freeze, because there were not enough lifeboats available to save him. Dead birds forced us to have two layers of protection for our ships, and keep the stinking rust buckets at a safe distance from our pristine harbours. And so the story goes on about how similar incidents made ships bigger, stronger, safer and super.
Then came a greater threat to the world of container shipping, and the traditionalists who operated it. This threat, arose from a single factor that I have shortlisted, from about a million. To remain competitive in the face of growing dominance from anyone less worthy of carrying boxes around the world. To sum up my introduction to this new threat, the necessity here was remaining competitive. The inventions that mother necessity brought were regulations, and more regulations. Increasingly complex regulations, which would not only ensure the competitiveness of the established players/economies, but also force shipping to contribute in striving towards a greener world.
Here’s a short, fictitious story about a fictitious container line, called Revolution Container
Company which had its origins as far back as the World Wars. Revolution drew inspiration from the wars, and the deeds of the great nations with the power to punish the bad ones. To make the world a better place, bring revolutions, policing the world, showing the way forward and making things super complicated. And it did just that, bringing innovations to a stone-age like industry and forcing others to think like it.
The financial meltdown almost melted the container industry, but 2010 saw a strong return to
recovery and companies reported big profits. The Revolution container company saw this as an
opportune time to bring in Mr. Revolution from the cola industry who, in addition to bringing a few cans of cola, would revolutionise shipping once again. These ideas involved greener shipping and improving supply chain efficiency, something the cola industry had been doing since man walked the earth. The Revolution Container Company under the partial leadership of Mr. Revolution decided to break the size barrier and order the Quadruple Revolution vessels capable of carrying 1 million containers. The Quadruple Revolution class would force people’s thinking to change, once again, the way we conduct the business of shipping containers carrying goods; goods which bring revolutions to all.
Reducing the costs of moving a single container by 20-30% in the main trade lane was not the main purpose, rather to save the world from a ship’s harmful emissions, which is the single biggest evil known to mankind. The leader continued preaching by raising the bar and exerting a great deal of pressure on its competitors to follow and order bigger ships. Just as the lesser men took notice of Mr.Revolution, he reminded them they were not in a position to enjoy the economic benefits, and more importantly make the world green. For only a company such as Revolution Container Company, with a market share in excess of 100% was worthy was of making profitable sea voyages and eradicate emissions.
The Revolution company has not alone in its quest for revolutions. It has a couple of smaller sized competitors, who have contributed in their own ways by carrying arms shipments around the world, and running businesses with close, very close, family ties, closely guarded by a few Godfathers.
In the midst of these revolutions taking place in the container industry, necessity perished and gave way to greed as the mother of all inventions.
