Dont be daft, it ain’t disruption

By Craig Eason, Editorial Director, Fathom World

THERE’S a lot of talk about disruption, but is this really what’s happening in an industry that relies on heavy multi-million dollar assets, trust and technology? I think it’s more about transformation than disruptionIt’s not disruption, at least not yet. And in fact, it may never be.

The three days of talks I moderated in the disruptive sustainability hall at Nor-Shipping this year showed me one thing very clearly.

While data and information sharing are part of an explosion in business efficiency tools, they mostly revolve around doing the established things the shipping industry does, better. None of it is disruptive, although I also think one expert’s definition of disruption varies from another.

Now I am no expert, but I am an industry journalist and writer that has been involved in one way or another in this sector since the 1980’s.

It is not being disrupted, but it is changing, and changing quite quickly. Even the promise (or threat: Choose your perspective) of autonomous unmanned shipping will not be disruptive, more transformative.

I take the Kongsberg/Yara announcement recently where the Norwegian manufacturer will build a vessel that will initially have a manned bridge for operations, then hopefully switch to unmanned operations(meaning there is continual oversight by experts) until the autonomous algorithms can be trusted.

This will happen solely in Norwegian national waters, not in international seas. This is as much a test case as it is a business case. This is an evolution of the industry, and a transformation that will take a few years to be fully realised. Disruption is about the hear and now.

Look also at the small start-ups using data platforms to provide information to the cargo owners.

The so-called uberisation (a phrase that is growing tired and frankly inaccurate given Uber’s problems) of the industry is not around the corner. These platforms act as much as a middleman as the middlemen they are disrupting, but do so because they offer cost effectiveness and speed. They also offer a growing element of accountability or oversight to a business when called upon (i.e. a multi-billion dollar trade shipper will increasingly need to show shareholders that the shipping element of its business is above board and not done through an old-school network.)

It is this drive for efficiency, accountability, linked with growing interest in transparency and sharing of information that is transforming the maritime and shipping sectors.

Fathom continues to cover the transformation of shipping, regardless of what you call it.

Fathom.World

The f-word blog aims to offer a personal opinion, from the Fathom Editorial team, of events and trends in the developing transformation of the shipping industry.

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