Angela Chao Says it is Time to return to our Roots
Time to Return to what has Always Worked
Deputy Chair of Foremost Group Angela Chao delivered the keynote speech at the Annual Conference of the Association of Ship Brokers and Agents (ASBA). She used the opportunity to hone in on best practices in the current day shipping industry, and warned against the often appealing speculations expressed by financial players looking to make a quick profit. Angela encouraged her audience to commit to the long-term and back the commitment up with strong performance. In today's unpredictable shipping market, she explained, the keys to success are long term ownership and hands on management. She emphasized the importance of returning to companies and people with real shipping knowledge and know-how and rebuilding its value and strength from within.
Learning from Dr James Chao
To further substantiate her message and its validity, Chao shared the story of Foremost Group's foundation. The family shipping company was founded by her father, Dr James Chao, who came to America in 1958 as a young captain. He had to deal with many adversities, his English was heavily accented, he had no contacts and little, other than grit, with which to build what would become a successful international shipping company. Her father, she said, understood the concept of staying the course. By observing and learning the industry environment, and investing effort and time, he was able to steadily build a business based on reliability, integrity, and client satisfaction.
Back to the Roots
Angela acknowledged the evident paradigm shift and the effects of the rapidly evolving global economy on the shipping sector. She referred to the 2003-2009 commodities boom as a crucial era in which a certain euphoria grew around a seemingly steady revenue growth, only to be shattered by the economic crisis. This period, she explained, led to the commodification of the shipping industry and set it back significantly. However, Ms Chao has not lost hope. She sees a future for the industry, and believes this future can indeed be a good one if industry leaders return to traditional shipping values and practices instead of staffing up with investor relations experts. Our time calls for the implementation of long-term steady strategies, reliable methods and careful work that ensures high quality, trustworthiness and integrity.
Foremost Group Leads the Way
Chao shared the strategies of Foremost Group as examples of this traditional approach. Foremost, she said, has always maintained one of the youngest, most modern and environmentally friendly dry bulk carrier fleets. It does not buy second-hand vessels, turning instead to trusted shipbuilding yards and ordering ships to Foremost's higher specifications and standards. Foremost has maintained an average aged fleet of five years or less for the last 30 years. Foremost keeps management in-house, they closely supervise the entire shipbuilding construction process and make sure to deliver on their word. At Foremost, success is based on traditional values that have proved themselves time and again: your word is your bond, hard work, and reliable performance.
While stating that the winds are blowing positively at the moment, giving hints of a dry-bulk recovery, Ms Chao cautioned that the process is just beginning. When pressed to give her opinion as to whether the recovery can be counted on to continue, she expressed hope, but quickly went on to remind her listeners that the positive trend is fragile and could be affected by any number of factors, not least of which is the danger of newbuilding ordering.
While stating that the winds are blowing positively at the moment, giving hints of a dry-bulk recovery, Ms Chao cautioned that the process is just beginning. When pressed to give her opinion as to whether the recovery can be counted on to continue, she expressed hope, but quickly went on to remind her listeners that the positive trend is fragile and could be affected by any number of factors, not least of which is the danger of newbuilding ordering.
The original article was published on TradeWinds
