The day 'management by automated systems' experienced a 2 billion wake-up call

In the summer of 2017, Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company, became the victim of a major cyberattack. On June 27, without warning, every one of Maersk’s computer screens worldwide went black. To avoid further infection, the company shut down all its remaining systems, suspending contact with one-fifth of every active ship on earth.

Most employees, not knowing what to do, simply went home. Maersk CEO S?ren Skou issued a statement, asking all his employees in 121 countries to “do what you think is right to serve the customer — don’t wait for the HQ, we’ll accept the cost."

Technology and complex databases have always been at the heart of Maersk’s business. When the company’s computer servers suddenly stopped working, no one had any idea what to do. For the first time, the company fully realized its impact on the world — that as a result of a targeted cyberattack, one in five ships in the world was now standing absolutely still in the water.

In the face of a catastrophe, what was “right for the customers and the business”? Unfortunately, the answer couldn’t be found online.

As painful as the cyberattack was, something strange, unanticipated, and positive came out of it. Ulf Hahnemann, Maersk’s global human resources officer, later told me, “The hierarchy was momentarily suspended, and the organization immediately increased engagement, and moved faster, with a feeling of freedom, where employees felt trusted to do what they believed was right.”

Why?

Because the only option left for Maersk employees was to visit their clients. In person.

Door- to-door. Face- to-face. Louisa Loran, Maersk’s global head of business development and marketing recalls, “It was Maersk at its best. It didn’t matter what your title was. The mindset was, ‘If I have to stand in a terminal gate, and tell a trucker to stop at Slot 18, well, I’ll do whatever is necessary.” Overnight, and at great financial cost, a company hampered by complex processes, compliance laws, and legal restrictions was set free. That’s not to say it was easy. Having digitized everything that could be digitized to cut costs, Maersk employees were used to seeing their clients as mere numbers. It was a keyboard relationship — transactional, efficient, and rational. Never mind that Maersk employees were human, and their clients were too. At first clients were confused. Sorry, but who are these people who say they work for Maersk? Maersk employees were just as unused to dealing face- to-face with their customers. For both, the experience was transformative. Older employees, who dimly recalled a pretechnological time, adjusted to it faster than younger ones, who’d never known anything other than computer screens and keyboards. With those screens dark, they realized that different people in the company could end up making the biggest difference.

Inside Maersk, a group of employees mobilized a WhatsApp phone chain. Everyone was tasked to contact one person they knew in another country — and ask that person to do the same thing. Using her iPad and an external server, Louisa issued official Maersk communications to 2.1 million recipients every three hours for several days in a row. This return to a basic common- sense response and sense of empathy benefited everyone, especially the company’s customers.

Many of them experienced a profound shift in their mindsets. There was a collective adjustment. They could suddenly empathize with Maersk’s pain. Company- client relationships had never felt more genuine. A new cohesion and an improved spirit came over the company. With bosses now walking the floors twice a day, employees felt a sense of real purpose, some for the first time. Many of them told me that Maersk’s old entrepreneurial spirit had returned. Yes, the cyberattack was catastrophic for some of their clients and for the bottom line, but when the computers were up and running again, there were only upsides. Maersk and its clients actually began working together better.

What took place in the wake of the cyberattack brought into sharp focus the commonsensical principles I was trying to infuse in the company. As well as acknowledging the humanity of its own customers, Maersk was reminded that its customers had customers too. If Ford was late in receiving a shipment of cars, dealers and customers also suffered.

If Home Depot’s delivery got rolled, stores all across the United States would be out of stock. The truth is, this isn’t an issue that technology can address. Tech can create stunningly comprehensive lists on a screen. It can reveal names, dates, facts, figures, estimates, and projections. The right algorithms can be spectacular in their ability to free- associate, to predict how past habits create future behaviors. Then tech hits a wall. Lacking creativity and imagination, it can’t go any deeper than that. Here is where human beings need to step in. It’s common sense – sadly common sense isn’t that common.

Martin Lindstrom ( https://www.martinlindstrom.com/bio/ ) is the world’s #1 branding expert, the author of seven New York Times best-selling books, one of the world’s most influential people (according to TIME magazine), and one of Thinkers50’s top thinkers in the world. His latest book, The Ministry of Common Sense ( Amazon.com: The Ministry Of Common Sense: How to Eliminate Bureaucratic Red Tape, Bad Excuses, and Corporate BS eBook : Lindstrom, Martin, Goldsmith, Marshall: Kindle Store ) is out now.

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