BMO6508 Management: Commercial Management| GEARBULK and Hapag Lloyd

Introduction

The purpose of the following paper is to discuss about the commercial management in the shipping operations companies. The shipping companies are very much responsible for the transportation of goods from one country to another. There are certain things that could be very much important in the shipping industry as it is one of the chief modes of the freight transport. The chosen companies for this paper are Hapag Lloyd and Gear Bulk. These two companies work in the overseas market and they have a huge impact on the management of the shipping industry. There are various ways in which the shipping companies operate. The liner shipping industry has to handle several things around the world and these two companies are the examples how they can operate within this industry and deliver the goods across the industry.

Gear bulk and Hapag Lloyd are the two companies that can be considered as the pioneering industries in the linear shipping industry.  They have operated in this industry for sa long time period and they have been able to handle certain challenges within this industry. Of late, certain challenges have been faced by these companies that are very apparent in the industry. The problem is that their commercial management has not been competent enough to handle these challenges. So, these challenges have to be discussed along with the similarities and differences in the commercial management of these two companies.

Brief overview of the companies

Gear Bulk

Gear Bulk is an international shipping organization that has its headquarters at Hamilton in Bermuda. They have the largest fleet of the open hatch gantry craned vessels (Gearbulk.com 2017). The founder of this organization was Kristian Gerhard Jebsen of Norway. He founded this company in the year 1968. This organization has above 60 vessels in their fleet. They also operate with the open-hatch jib craned vessel (Gearbulk.com 2017). They also transport the unitised cargoes such as forest products, non-ferrous metals and steel. They also transport conventional bulk cargoes and operates in terminals.

Vision

‘Leading global supplier of innovative, sustainable and industrial shipping solutions’ (Gearbulk.com 2017)

Mission

Their mission is to create value for their customers and the other stakeholders by being a sustainable shipping company (Gearbulk.com 2017).

Values

The stakeholders of Gearbulk are committed to improve themselves personally and pursue the best balance between the cost competitiveness, economic, social and environmental needs and requirements (Gearbulk.com 2017). 

The management of Gearbulk and the stakeholders inspire each other to drive for creativity in trying to operate in the new businesses and searching for the best solutions (Gearbulk.com 2017).

They have utilized what are their limitations and have promised to listen to the views and consult others (Gearbulk.com 2017).

Hapag Lloyd

Hapag Lloyd is a German shipping organization that serves the worldwide area (Hapag-lloyd.com 2017). They transport several goods from one place to another through ships. They are considered as the world’s fifth largest container carrier if vessel capacity is considered. The organization was founded in the year 1970 and the headquarters of this organization is located at Hamburg in Germany. The CEO of the company is Rolf Habben Jansen (Hapag-lloyd.com 2017). They have many cruise ships under their disposal and chartered ships as well.

The Hapag Lloyd shows the activities of the company to highlight on their global shipping services, providing their customers with high quality products matching with the environmental standards and historical roots (Hapag-lloyd.com 2017). They are a global logistics company so they have a high level of corporate responsibility to their customers as well as to their employees. This sense of responsibility is also prevalent for the society and the environment in which they are operating as well. They have been committed to take care in both local and global arenas (Hapag-lloyd.com 2017). 

They have focused on protecting the environment as this is an essential need for them. They have outlined some points in their environmental policies (Hapag-lloyd.com 2017). They have to care for the health and safety of their coveted employees.

Commercial management in shipping industry

The commercial management of the ships or in other words, ship management is a very complex task that is done by the companies in various countries in various ways (Fayle 2013). The ship management companies have to manage the ships of the owners and they have to pay the annual amount to the owners. There are some very crucial things that can be considered as the basic things for the safe management of the ships when it is ashore and it is not as well (Jansson 2012).

Services provided by companies

Some of the services that are provided by the shipping companies are:-

• The company should be supervising the machinery maintenance and see if it is done properly.
• The companies should be arranging for the loading and unloading of the goods regularly (Jansson 2012).
• The shipping company should also be hiring the ship on behalf of the owners.
• It is the duty of the shipping company to provide the proper number of crew for managing the ships when it is ashore.
• The various issues like salvage, insurance of the employees are looked after by the shipping companies (Lirn, Lin and Shang 2014).
• The companies also pay the expenses on behalf the owners.

Gear bulk commercial management

Like all the other companies, Gear bulk also has some own ways to operate in the shipping management industry (Kristiansen 2013). They have undertaken some important steps in the industry that will cater to the benefits of their customers and employees and has to be aligned with the missions and values of the organization. Some of the matters that they have focused on with much intense are technical management, crewing, safety, environmental issues, assurance for quality, purchasing, vessel insurance, fleet accounting and other responsibilities (Kristiansen 2013). 

The ship management of Gearbulk provides project design, supervision on site for the programs of new buildings. They provide special projects like the vessel conversions that are done in-house (Caschili and Medda 2012). They have the project experience with the caustic soda, orange juice, liquid pitch and metal concentrates. They are very much committed to provide a high level of operating efficiency along with the goods safety and the health safety of their employees. They have developed certain strategies to improve their operations within the industry. They have integrated by the technical, operational and commercial management that will be best for their interests (Caschili and Medda 2012). 

Safety issue is one of the most vital issues for their strategies (Borgersen et al. 2014). They have developed some certain strategies for the safety of the employees and customers that the customers will feel to be dealing in a safe environment. They have put the central focus on the accident prevention. The seafarers of Gearbulk have to take on certain training so that they can maintain safe mannered environments in the vessels. The Officer Seminars take place all over the world during different times and the safety training strategies are mentioned there and the seafarers are chosen for this training (Cheng and Choy 2013). Another non mandatory training program is initiated by the organization authority where the best candidates take part voluntarily.

Another active training program takes place in this context, namely Cadet Training Program. They operate their vessels by managing them properly with affixing all the significant conventions (McLaughlin 2012). These conventions include SOLAS, ISM, ISPS, STCW, MARPOL and MLC 2006. These conventions are dictated by the industry legislators, International Maritime Organization (IMO) and International Labor Organization (ILO).  They want to abide by the standards that are set by IMO and ILO bu still they want to excel that by providing extra training like Bridge Team Management, Ship Handling, Engine Room Stimulator Training, Cargo Pre-Planning and MARPOL Compliance. They always desire to improve on their safety standards and set an example in the industry. They want to raise the awareness of their customers by their performance (McLaughlin 2012).

Hapag Lloyd commercial management

Hapag Lloyd management looks upon the better corporate governance of the employees and the customers as well. They look to provide their customers with the best services across the world. They have launched their sustainability policies that will cater to the betterment of the organizations and provide better services in the country (Lam and Lai 2015). This way the customers and the employees will be benefitted in a large way. Their future commitment is to protect the environment. They want to provide the best service quality to their customers and thus obtain the competitive advantage. They are considered as one of the most innovative companies in the global container liner industry. They give a high priority on the environmental issues while managing their business. They want to make sure the employee health and safety, satisfactory return on the capital (Ganster and Rosen 2013). They want to continue with their ways to invent new things that will be enough to secure the environment at large.

They have a range of high expectations from their customers so they have designed their management and their working procedures likewise. Besides the customers, their employees and stakeholders also keep high expectations from them as well. They make sure to the employees a safe and secure work place (Ganster and Rosen 2013). They have their employees as the heart of the organization that enables them to be the basic pillar of their organizational success. They have raised the importance of awareness in the whole world so that everybody can be able to know about their commitment to success. Their cooperation between the employees is a well known fact and they have attained that brilliance through the endeavor of the employees with a high amount of cooperation. Their services and products are well accepted by their customers, employees and the stakeholders.

The commercial management of the company has enforced some strategies that has put the essence of sustainability at the prior position. These sustainability measures include employee health and safety, environmental protection, profitability and others (Ganster and Rosen 2013). 

• The employees and the stakeholders must abide by all the rules and regulations (Fassin 2012).
• The company provides the customer satisfactions at all times by meeting their requirements.
• Their employees are well trained and qualified.
• They want to avoid their mistakes and build a perfect atmosphere. The accidents must be avoided.

Similarities and Differences

Similarities

• Gear bulk and Hapag Lloyd both aim to look at the environmental protection in the same ways. As it is extremely important to deal with pollution, the companies should always try to protect the environment (Bloor et al. 2013).
• Both of the organizations have tried to deal with the safety issues very intently. The safety of the employees, customers and stakeholders has been the major issues in this industry so the organizations have tried their best to deal with this problem by maintain impactful strategies.
• Quality management of the products and services has been another major concerning area for Gear Bulk and Hapag Lloyd. They both have wanted to provide the customers with the best goods across the countries (Shin and Thai 2015).

Differences

• Gear Bulk has been focusing on the project design properly and they have developed some designs that will positively impact on the organization. While, Hapag Lloyd has not been that much effective in developing the project designs (Shin and Thai 2015).
• Hapag Lloyd has always been keen on developing some strategies for the sustainability of the organization. On the contrary, Gear Bulk has been focusing on the other issues as they have not been that much keen on developing the new strategies for sustainability.

Challenges

There are some common challenges that both the companies Gear Bulk and Hapag Lloyd have been facing for a long time period (Andrikopoulos et al. 2013). As it is a part of the freight transport and is related with the well being of the customers and the protection of the environment along with the profitability of the organization and its sustainability.

• The consolidation and the number of mergers have been increasing on a regular basis in the shipping industry. Therefore, this has been an emerging challenge in case of Gearbulk and Hapag Lloyd as well (Fusillo 2013).Along with the auirline industry, the shipping industry is also following the trend of major companies buying the smaller ones. These challenges are really threatening ones for Gearbulk and Hapag Lloyd.
• The effect of globalization is suffering a setback at this moment as the relationship between the United States and China and the impact of Brexit has a large impact on the two companies discussed here (Fusillo 2013).
• The labor unions in the different countries and industries are really challenging things. Shipping industry is not an exception as well. Hapag Lloyd and Gearbulk will suffer from the wrath of the labor unions if they do not secure the benefits of their employees.
• The prices of the daily commodities are rising very regularly. The challenge of keeping the price of the commodities down has been a great problem since the shipping companies export many goods from one country to another (Meersman, Van De Voorde and Vanelslander 2014).The revenue charges will rise automatically. This is why the companies have to manage all these things.

Conclusion

The paper can be concluded by saying that the ship operation management is a very critical thing to be operated in this modern day business environment. Many things have to be kept in notice when managing the several things and facing the several challenges. In this paper, the comparisons have been made by discussing about how the operation department works in the shipping industry. There are several responsibilities for the management in the ship industry like protecting the environment, safety of the employees and the other people, providing the customers with the best services and products, designing the projects and many more. Both the companies have to tackle the challenges and overcome that they face for operating in the shipping industry.

References

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