7th Hydra Shipping Conference - Saturday September 17th 2016

“Today’s shipping business has limited technical depth, especially in the ICT area, and its customers have little incentive to pay more than they have, for a better service. Shipowners with slim staffing levels, confronted by shippers who "won't pay for quality" are trapped. They want instant payback or nothing. But the Fourth Wave business model is not an "off-the-peg" solution. Management and organization take time and resources to develop. Of course companies do not have to do it all at once. Change is not inevitable, but we must remember Aristotle Onassis’s sage words: ”We must learn that the sea never rests. When there’s a real gap and the technology to fill it, someone must step in to do the job”. 

Dr. Martin Stopford, non executive President, Clarkson Research Services Ltd.

“On a ship, we make it very well without zero tolerance, because a problem can be fixed while on sea. On the contrary, on airplanes we have zero tolerance, because when something happens, we have nothing less than disaster. If we want to increase our ability to the level of an airplane, this could lead to a very expensive solution”. 

Dr. John Coustas, President & CEO, Danaos Corp.