MAY 2013 MAY THE AFRICA CONNECTION 01 AFRICA PERSONAL ACCESSIBLE RELIABLE 03 Executive Letter 02 by Jan Willem de Braal 04 The NileDutch Story Steering their own course - NileDutch powers through the current economic crisis by continuing to innovate 06 Feet on the Street Singapore: a Cultural Melting Pot 08 The Essentials of NileDutch Everything you need to know about the NileDutch survey, Brand Key and Brand Essentials 10 Customer Story Lancaster, Belgium 12 New Containers NileDutch passed 100,000 TEU milestone Advanced reefer technology at NileDutch 14 Our New Build Vessels Coming soon: four new build vessels for NileDutch 16 Person in the Picture Practical, personal and philosophical: Introducing Ms Moon Wang 18 Regional News NileDutch opens 5th office in Angola Bringing the World together in Dubai NileDutch Congo opens new office Expansion of NileDutch Antwerp Branch Office 21 South Africa Event Annual cocktail party 22 Guest Story Connecting Angola and the Netherlands 24 Agent Contact Details 26 Sneak Peek at Issue 2 27 Colophon 03 JAN WILLEM DE BRAAL ! Dear Friends, Here it is: our first magazine! I suggest you reserve some As well as this magazine, we also have a new website, new space close to you in your office as there will not only be corporate identity and new range of brochures and we will many more issues, but they all contain interesting and enter- use more media than ever before to keep you updated and taining information about NileDutch, NileDutchers and how informed. This is the result of the survey we did last year, and we are all connected with Africa! it shows that some people actually (try to) do something with the input they receive from stakeholders. Therefore I would This first issue provides a good insight into the development appreciate hearing your comments about our magazine after of NileDutch. We have used our strong, informal, no-nonsense the next issue. cultural base and ties with both Africa and Rotterdam, to grow into a global professional operator (with new vessels Unfortunately The Dutch did not conquer the whole world (as and a large fleet of equipment), which has kept a positive they were supposed to do), so now we have to learn English, style as we find pleasure in everything that we do! French, Mandarin, Spanish, Swahili, Portuguese, German, Russian, Arabic, Japanese, Singlish and a whole lot of other I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who languages that I haven’t heard of (yet). For next issue we aim has contributed to the magazine, including Susanna Terstal, to print in more than just English, but I hope you are okay the Dutch Ambassador to Angola (page 22), Steven Laenen, with English for the first one. CEO of Lancaster Forwarding and Logistics (page 10), Ed van Leeuwen and Bart Henau (pages 4 and 8) and my fellow Please enjoy reading The Africa Connection! NileDutchers: Bert Zondervan, Patrick Mertens, Geert van Ijserloo, Moon Wang, Marc Smulders, Joseph Loulendo, Yolanda de Groot and Costa Vlassis. 04 Steering their own course NileDutch powers through the current economic crisis by continuing to innovate During times of crisis, companies tend to respond by reducing costs and tightening budgets, hoping that this will be enough to get them through the difficult times. NileDutch has purposely steered a different route: innovating their service line, increasing sailing frequencies and investing in new vessels. This route might be unexpected, but it has been a successful one. The NileDutch 05 STORY ED VAN LEEUWEN ! And it’s by taking the unexpected approach that they have Some ‘AND-AND’ exAMPLES ARE: grown and evolved from being a small operator fascinated by • Standardise the service AND remain sensitive to specific West Africa into a mature container liner services company that customer requirements; is proud to be considered a West Africa specialist. With their • Incorporate organisational structures AND stay entrepre- Head Office in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and a worldwide neurial; network of agents, they have proved themselves more than • Use ICT to streamline business processes AND be personally capable of holding their own among the major players. accessible; • Recruit new staff AND keep their traditional business values SETTING THEIR COURSE alive; Naturally, they keep an eye on the global markets, including • Keep a sharp eye on costs AND continue to invest in innova- current and forecasted trends and changes in cargo flows. tion. However, their dedicated network also follows the potential promised by Africa. The quality of the information collected by Looking at the last example, NileDutch is simultaneously rolling their network can be summarised by two slogans: out a cost reduction programme and making a large ‘anti- • Feet on the street cyclical’ investment. While the international container trade is • Quick on their feet going through a difficult time, NileDutch is looking forward to launching four new top-of-the-range vessels in 2014. To NileDutchers, ‘feet on the street’ refers to the personal con- nection that NileDutchers have with their customers and other STEAMING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION stakeholders. This gives them a unique insight and knowledge Even with their treasure map, the core element of their business into future possibilities and opportunities for themselves, as well is their entrepreneurial nature. It’s an added bonus that their as for their customers. vision, concepts and approach are also contained in a business plan. The NileDutch strategic plan points them in the right di- It’s a fact: they are quick on their feet. Even as they grow, they rection, but doesn’t give step-by-step directions. NileDutchers remain flexible and fast in both thinking and doing. Their structure know and understand that the way from A to B is not a straight keeps them close to the action, wherever it might be taking line and that the journey is often as important - and interesting place. - as the destination. Maintaining this core competence while growing at such a high As a Management Consultant, I appreciate the refreshing no- rate has required both a continuous streamlining of work pro- nonsense attitude I find at NileDutch. Bureaucracy, unnecessary cesses and an increase in regionalisation. Their Regional Office overheads and complications are quickly shown the door. in Singapore has recently opened. This doesn’t add layers of Simplicity is welcomed. bureaucracy; it’s putting the decision makers closer to their customers, closer to the business and closer to the action. They’re ready for the future. READING THE NILEDUTCH MAP Being able to grow while still remaining ‘small’ is a treasure that many companies have searched for. Luckily, NileDutch has the ED VAN LEEUWEN treasure map. The secret hidden in the map lies in being able Ed van Leeuwen is an Independent Man- to incorporate ‘and-and’ situations into their work processes. agement Consultant aligning strategy and organisation (‘make it work’). Combining the ‘hard and soft’ aspects he is an expert in change management. He works for both profit and not-for-profit organisations. At NileDutch Ed supports the strategy process and the organisational development process. 06 Singapore: a Cultural Melting Pot Challenging is one way to explain the process of expanding a company into new locations and regions, es- pecially if those new regions are half way around the world. Differences in culture, language and working meth- ods can make or break expansion plans, so it makes sense to talk to someone with experience, both on a personal and a professional level. › Singapore local market Feet on 07 THE STREET Dutchman Bert Zondervan and his family relocated from NileDutch Head Office in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, to busy Singapore in 2008. Moving to the other side of the world isn’t an easy decision to make, especially with two teenage children to consider. Luckily, Bert has only positive things to say about his experience, from the high quality of healthcare to the good standard of living. His children almost immediately saw the benefits of the international school system and his wife quickly settled into her new life. Professionally it was the right choice for Bert. He had spent the previous 11 years building up cross-trade traffic for NileDutch from all destinations outside Europe to West Africa and was Bert Zondervan involved with the Far-East trade on a daily basis. The next step was to move to Singapore to set up and run the NileDutch regional office. The Port of Singapore is the other major reason for NileDutch Bert and his family were not alone in their move to Singapore. choosing Singapore as their regional base. Its strategic geo- The numerous international companies in Singapore, includ- graphical location explains why the Port of Singapore handles ing NileDutch, mean that a constant flow of expats arrive all the most shipping tonnage each year. It is also the world’s the time. In fact, 1.5 million residents, from a current total of busiest transhipment hub, with 15% of the world’s total con- 5.3 million, are foreigners, placing it sixth worldwide for the tainer transhipment throughput and 5% of global container proportion of foreigners. Foreigners in Singapore include not throughput. And it is the second busiest container port world- only expats, but also foreign workers from countries such as wide, after Shanghai. For these reasons, as well as its extensive the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh. This has resulted feeder network, the Port of Singapore was the logical choice in a culture best described as a melting pot of Chinese, Indian, to become NileDutch’s regional transhipment hub for all traffic British and Malay cultures, reflecting its immigrant history. from the area. Even though Singapore is currently the third most densely Bert has found that being on the ground in the region has given populated country in the world, after Macau and Monaco, the him a good insight into the services that companies in the Singaporean government expects the population to increase area require and the ways that NileDutch can fulfil these to 7 million by 2030, including at least 2.5 million foreigners.