We Are Tribal
Most of yesterday (Friday) was spent on an 11+ hour flight
from Cape Town to Munich. Dead in the
middle of the work day crossing time zones in Europe and the USA. On a
Friday, no less, which would normally see multiple dramas and here I was stuck
without Wi-Fi access. In our hyper
connected world, it’s difficult enough to sit through a meeting or meal without
glancing at our phones. Eleven hours
feels like a life time. That was easily
the longest I’ve found myself unplugged from the world for anywhere near that
long midweek in probably five years. When
cut off from the world for this long, all matter of thought rattles around the
brain - ranging from family emergency to missed business opportunities to
losing an important client. The lousy
movie selection didn’t help calm the angst, as there was little to take the
mind off the myriad disasters that could await me upon return to the connected
world.
Running a small organization – one that has experienced a
lot of change over the past 24 months – forces one to wear a lot of hats and
spin a lot of plates. Even with an
out-of-office message warning the sender that I would be both traveling
internationally the past week and without service for gaps of time, I fully
expected to find dozens of messages addressed only to me and requiring my
immediate attention. I have a reputation
as a quick responder and have probably spoiled more than a few people over the
years who just assume I’m always on call.
Eleven hours later, on the ground in Munich and reconnected to
the world, my inbox quickly jumped from 22 unread messages to 573. Additionally, there were three voice mails,
five WhatsApp messages and two Slack messages.
No texts, so that means no family/home emergencies. That’s an immediate relief. The WhatsApp and Slack messages are mostly informational
(i.e., no action required) and are sorted during the taxing to the gate. The e-mails will take more time to scan for
anything requiring attention, but the number of messages is well within the
daily volume range – keeping in mind that when the plane arrived in Munich it
was 3pm back in Florida and therefore I could expect a couple of hundred more
mails to fill the box by the time my head hit the pillow five hours later.
Though there were a handful of minor dramas and urgent messages
requiring my direct attention/reply, the world did not end – at least not on
this day. This all serves as a bit of a
lengthy lead in to this week’s blog. The
separation anxiety faced during those 11 hours unplugged from the world
reinforces the fact that we are social animals. We desire connectivity. We are tribal, by the very same nature. It’s how we have survived as a species.
In the business world, the need to stay connected reaches beyond
your internal company/colleagues to the external network that includes the clients
and partner service providers – those who facilitate the flow of goods and
services. Beyond just servicing an
account and providing timely information, it’s important to learn as much as
possible about the specific industry segment and the players involved. This helps
build a broader and more diverse community or tribe who can assist each other
with information and problem solving.
My trip to South Africa was a chance to connect with old friends
and colleagues. South Africans are warm
and hospitable people who easily and eagerly welcome you into their homes and
their world. While these South African
farmers and exporters compete against each other in the marketplace, they work
as a team (or tribe) to safeguard that market access and to improve their collective
bargaining leverage. They look to trusted
partners as part of that tribe. While
always friendly, respect needs to be earned.
That comes via shared experience both socially and when it’s time to do
business.
As is wont when old friends get together, discussions turned
to reminiscing – a few brandy and Cokes and a few shots of Jager help to jog
the memories while building bonds.
Invariably those discussions circle back to seasons past and the colorful
characters who inhabited the world of shipping in years gone by - the good old
days.
Most of those old dogs are gone - forced out by age, but
also by heightened competition and over-capacity on the carrier side. While container shipping has allowed
international trade to explode globally over the past 30 years, it has also
created an arms race to the top in vessel size and at the same time to the
bottom on freight rates. This pressure
has forced consolidation and created the need to create new efficiencies that
has us rushing headlong into a fully automated shipping environment. This also means fewer people on the ground
who can take the time to understand what is actually being carried in those
boxes. There is a certain romance lost
to the industry and a disconnect on the part of those who sell the carrier
services or are responsible for moving the boxes. There is little sense of the forces that are
driving those specific volumes or lack thereof.
There is only a macro view of the market. There is only a need to fill slots.
While carriers continue to increase reefer container capacity
and investment in the kind of automated technologies they believe are necessary
to drive the volumes, they are often overlooking the basic understanding that
the fruit world is quite micro in its very nature.
Every single cavendish banana commercially shipped in the world
is genetically identical - originating from a clone - yet each growing region
faces its own production, political and commercial challenges. A problem in one production area can create
opportunity in another. Farmers must be
gamblers at heart, since they are often planting on speculation - on crops that
may take five years to produce market ready product. By that time, they could face an entirely new
marketplace full of new competition, changing consumer habits and dramatic currency
fluctuations.
Farmers and exporters go into each new season with certain expectations
on volumes, market and pricing. Best efforts
may often be thwarted by weather, competition and numerous other factors. Carriers gear up basis expectations. They position equipment, allocate space and may
even change rotation or port calls. It’s
a square peg in a round hole. Not a
perfect marriage, but one that each side is forced to accept. Working communally (tribally) would help to improve
results on both sides, but a commitment on the carrier side needs to come from
a senior management level – as it means an investment in staff invested in
becoming part of those tribal communities and making service decisions based on
that shared information resource.
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