The Issue of Adaptation in Relation to Shipping Organizations - Case Study Example

 Maritime business Introduction The international trade started straight after the sea routes were discovered, and since then shipping organizations never suffered from the lack of work or popularity. Different shipping organizations started functioning all over the world and nowadays import and export took place everywhere. Shipping companies fulfill a very important function providing solutions for distributing goods all over the world and making the countries familiar with the goods produced in other states. Now such organizations held the responsibility for 90% of the world trade. They can offer different ways of your goods delivery and ship them securely. The international trade remains successful first of all because of the improvement in marine transportation (The Long History of Shipping Company). However, besides the advantages, recent global changes also brought some problems and changes shipping organizations have to solve and adapt to. The given paper will discuss the issue of adaptation in relation to shipping organizations. The main stress will be made on the necessity for such adaptation. These advices on success and adaptation might serve as a model for shipping organizations, which go through difficult times. Problems Overview Notwithstanding that shipping organizations sometimes have problems they are very successful in development and their business is thriving. The typical problems frequently met by the companies are delays in delivery, problems with documents, and problems with communication. Information technologies development made it possible for shipping companies to control the ships and provide the needed level of security.  Today the main task of shipping originations is to adapt to the developing of new technologies, especially in creating new systems of controlling and spreading the data. Modern shipping organization needs a modern database to track the information, and thus having correct information is the key element of the successful functioning of the company. The absence of a good database in any shipping organization might even indirectly lead to its closing, and much has already been said about it. Any organization needs the ability to adapt to the changing environment, as it is always influenced by the limited resources and increasing competition. Only a few organizations are able to develop a strong plan of adaptation looking for opportunities of modernizing their techniques and making marketing strategies work effectively. Shipping company should be was mainly concentrated on the issue of information technologies, and at present time there is no argument, that information technologies play major role in any business activity (The Long History of Shipping Company). Offered solutions       It is necessary to be able to provide the system of interactive planning, which implies, that the company’s activity is aimed at inner adaptation together with the adaptation to the external environment. Shipping organization should not ground its activity on the intuition of its financial and administrative managers, which had lead many companies towards their closing. The strategy should be created through the prism of “direction for internal resource allocation decisions as well as external awareness and promotional expense allocations” (The Big Feature: Company with Influence).       It is equally important for any successful shipping organization to envision the future, as the sphere of shipping delivery often goes through dramatic changes, being directed at satisfying the needs of customers, with giving them new solutions and thus making the company more profitable. This feature should be combined with the ability and readiness for innovation, which the company should show through creation of the abovementioned database (Talley, 2000). Having created this computer system, the company should constantly look for the new opportunities of adding new features and options to the existing software. This informational database was able to concentrate the whole inner activity of the company on the adapting it to the new demands of the customers and workers, having made their activity and cooperation harmonized. Simultaneously, the development of such systems is often complied with the needs of the modern environment, as it offers considerable assistance and cooperation with other shipping organizations in their search for better customer servicing (Maritime Company Sets Its Course for Far East).  Cost effectiveness of shipping companies in combination with its high quality of service has always been one of the main secrets of the success. On the other hand, the complex of costs availability and high quality of service needs to be maintained. The right way to maintain it in current market conditions is through a skillful human resource management of the company, which gives its personnel high incentives and career opportunities, thus getting higher response and profits of their work, with satisfactory but not too high salaries (Talley, 2000). According to Lii (2003), strategic human resource is “accepting the HR function as a strategic partner in the formulation of the company’s strategies as well as in the implementation of those strategies through HR activities such as recruiting, selecting, training and rewarding personnel” (Lii, 2003). It is often that the workers, who take higher positions, serve as an example for those who have just come to work at shipping company, thus stimulating them for better servicing the customers. In its turn, high level of servicing combines with the high quality of the service attracts more customers, allowing decreasing certain types of costs, which according to the basic economic laws decrease with the increasing production amounts.         On the other hand, one of the integral parts of the cost-effectiveness of shipping company is not directly connected with the low personnel turnover, but is rather hidden in the way shipping company works. Thus, being effective in satisfying the needs of every customer, the company is able to raise its profits. Actually, employee turnover of the shipping company is not high and it is stable in its quality, prices and costs, with the high level of servicing and attractive career offers for those who choose to work at shipping company. Lorange states:  Shipping companies needs people who possess a special initiative for commercial value creation – those who are willing to go extra mile, beyond the customer-oriented and commercially oriented organizational culture. Culture is, of course, important, but it is not enough. Research from other contexts has shown that the internal entrepreneur needs to possess, above all three interrelated characteristics (Lorange, 2005). The situations, when personnel are outlawed for expediting their customer's orders preparing needed documents should not occur. In the conflict situation, when workers suddenly get to know that they have been outlawed with their efforts to push the customer's orders along the line, the arguments may be provided for those who suppose they have become the victims of the unfair personnel policies such as the desire of the company to make fewer people fulfill more functions (Talley, 2000). As the sector is constantly developing it is necessary to make the decision to change the structure of the personnel obligations. In case the new structure proves to be unprofitable, the changes should be cancelled and the possible financial losses of each specific person should be compensated by the company in order to avoid conflicts and misunderstanding. The fact that the worker fulfills the obligations of two persons sometimes leads to the drawbacks in servicing, thus the obligations should be strictly divided between different segments of stuff for improving the customer servicing and speeding up order processing. Every worker must have his special task to fulfill and the company should still function as one whole system. In new market conditions the company should become customer-oriented. It must have one definite focus and several key executives who will maintain this focus. Lorange explains: For the shipping company it is important to be able to argue for solutions that have clear anticipated value for the client. In order to maintain the trust, it seems critical to keep a leveled sophistication that is “appropriate” for a given customer. Here, it is particularly important for the shipping organization to be humble, not arrogant – to work with the customer effectively, not in effect to belittle the customer (Lorange, 2005). It is essential to consider how business achievement can also result in difficulties. For example, division of labor can lead to the workers’ concentrating on their own department with no attention paid to the whole company achievement. The creation of the strict internal rules in its turn can make people ignore external realities. These possible consequences should be taken into account (Shipping Firm Sails into the Future of the Seas). A board of any shipping company should be able to overcome the difficulties. It should be able to bring theoretical plans to life. While it may seem not very difficult to state a purpose to be customer-oriented and successful theoretically, it may appear to be much more complicated to do that in practice. Every business deal should be analyzed thought the prism of this politics (Talley, 2000). Board should also implement efficient control and use of the companies’ resources. It is necessary to remember that brokers usually do not share shipping company’s views and sometimes it is necessary to be ready to reject their rules (Talley, 2000). Summary and Conclusion Today one sees shipping industry as a favorite option of the young for jobs and careers and having shipping companies of your own is a dream come true for many " we need to ensure that there are quality, well-paid and skilled jobs available for young people in the maritime industry” (Maritime Company Sets Its Course for Far East). Shipping companies fulfill a very important function providing solutions for distributing goods all over the world and making the countries familiar with the goods produced in other states. The international trade remains successful first of all because of the improvement in marine transportation. However, besides the advantages, recent global changes also brought some problems and changes shipping organizations have to solve and adapt to. The typical problems frequently met by the companies are delays in delivery, problems with documents, and problems with communication. Information technologies development made it possible for shipping companies to control the ships and provide the needed level of security (Shipping Firm Sails into the Future of the Seas).  Today the main task of shipping originations is to adapt to the developing of new technologies, especially in creating new systems of controlling and spreading the data. Modern shipping organization needs a modern database to track the information, and thus having correct information is the key element of the successful functioning of the company. The absence of a good database in any shipping organization might even indirectly lead to its closing, and much has already been said about it. Any organization needs the ability to adapt to the changing environment, as it is always influenced by the limited resources and increasing competition (Shipping Firm Sails into the Future of the Seas).    It is equally important for any successful shipping organization to envision the future, as the sphere of shipping delivery often goes through dramatic changes, being directed at satisfying the needs of customers, with giving them new solutions and thus making the company more profitable.  Cost effectiveness of shipping companies in combination with its high quality of service has always been one of the main secrets of the success. On the other hand, the complex of costs availability and high quality of service needs to be maintained. The right way to maintain it in current market conditions is through a skillful human resource management of the company, which gives its personnel high incentives and career opportunities, thus getting higher response and profits of their work, with satisfactory but not too high salaries. In new market conditions the company should become customer-oriented. It must have one definite focus and several key executives who will maintain this focus. A board of any shipping company should be able to overcome the difficulties. It should be able to bring theoretical plans to life (Shipping Firm Sails into the Future of the Seas). While it may seem not very difficult to state a purpose to be customer-oriented and successful theoretically, it may appear to be much more complicated to do that in practice. Every business deal should be analyzed thought the prism of this politics. WORKS CITED 1. The Big Feature: Company with Influence; Private Business. 2006. Daily Post (Liverpool, England 2. The Long History of Shipping Company. 2008. Evening Gazette (Middlesbrough, England) 3. Maritime Company Sets Its Course for Far East; in Association with RBS. 2007. The Journal (Newcastle, England). 4. Pinder, David and Brian Slack, eds. 2004. Shipping and Ports in the Twenty-First Century: Globalization, Technological Change and the Environment. New York: Routledge. 5. Shipping Company Faces [Pounds Sterling]100m 'Poisoning'action. 2006. The Evening Standard (London, England) 6. Shipping Firm Sails into the Future of the Seas. 2006. The Birmingham Post (England), 11 December, 28 7. Talley, Wayne K. 2000. Ocean Container Shipping: Impacts of a Technological Improvement. Journal of Economic Issues 8. Lorange, Peter. 2005. Shipping company strategies: global management under turbulent conditions‎.Emerald Group Publishing 9. Iii, Edward E. Lawler. 2003. Creating a Strategic Human Resources Organization: An Assessment of Trends and New Directions. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Read More