Ever Given: Crisis Leadership in Suez Canal

Why, given current state of innovation in AI and technology in logistics, would Ever Given get stuck and why could such a situation only be resolved using dredgers and tugboats reminiscent of bygone ages?

The sighting of a huge vessel sailing in high seas is common in a container-driven global economy. The sighting of a huge – really huge 400m (1300ft) long – vessel stuck in Suez Canal, one of world’s busiest and most vital waterways is not.

For a week, global media, driven by increasing anxiety over impact, has put Ever Given under unrelenting spotlight. The avalanche of new reports on Ever Given has (still is) focused on mechanics of dredging and tugging. [1] For everyday during what has been called a crisis putting at risk global trade worth billions of dollars, everyone from local Egyptians to industry experts has watched closely – and waited.

In what is perhaps yet another example of Mother Nature’s mockery of human folly in recent months (first is COVID-19), Ever Given’s blockage of Suez Canal lays bare many weaknesses in “modern” and “sophisticated” human innovations. So far, so much has been written and broadcasted on Ever Given’s blockage incident in areas largely covering immediate dredging and tugging efforts and only sparingly some coverage on Egyptian and international community’s crisis leadership ability. Less, if at all, has been said about why, given current state of innovation in AI ad IoT in logistics, would Ever Given get stuck that way and, even more surreally, could such a situation only be resolved using dredgers and tugboats reminiscent of bygone ages?

 The Ever Green incident is, clearly, a leadership problem. The equipment and logistics are only a matter of details. To understand how and why Ever Given is offering a valuable case study on crisis management, leadership practices shown during such incident are important to explain.

Timelines are particularly important in leadership styles and practice analysis. If anything, timelines offer what amounts to immutable timestamps where a unique incident occurs. To identify one single bottleneck, along a Theory of Constraints (ToCs) model [2], is, from a leadership practice analysis, to pinpoint a vulnerability which needs to be, or should have been, fixed to keep a (complex) system up and running.

In Ever Given’s case, one possible starting point is when weather conditions were against ideal navigation in Suez Canal. This point has been consistently emphasised by Suez Canal Authority (SCA) as one “most probable” reason for why Ever Given went aground. Prior to and after such point, not much is mentioned about why Ever Given, huge as is and having similar “blockage” incidents, was allowed to go ahead, though.?

Also a few critical hours appear to vanish from all reporting shortly before Ever Green went aground. This is indeed important, perhaps the most important point in a long chain of small incidents leading up to a week-long blockage of Suez Canal. Still at helm, SCA did not show any practical action of leadership during a huge crisis beyond some perhaps cosmetic “mechanical work” for all to see that, “Yes, We’re working on it! We’re in control.”

The blockage incident had to drag on for days until external assistance rushed in and, ultimately, break Ever Given loose. The failure to provide a clear and succinct account of possible bottlenecks and not only emphasising one could have eased so much anxiety, pain and of course minimised daily financial loss.

Steering Ever Given away from Suez Canal is, ultimately, a matter of leading under crisis before matters spiral out of control. The Ever Given Incident sounds alarms to so many who place orders at one far global end and might not be aware of a long supply chain at some other point. Indeed global logistics should not be left under a constant risk of blockage for incidents similar to Ever Given’s.

 End Notes

1.  Reality Check & Visual Journalism, “Suez Canal: How did they move the Ever Given?” https://www.bbc.com/news/56523659

2.  Vorne, “Theory of Constraints,” https://www.leanproduction.com/theory-of-constraints.html