February 2012

PRESIDENT'S NOTES

Game Changer (noun) - "A person, an idea or event that completely changes the way a situation develops" according to the Oxford University Press Dictionary. However, to really bring the definition to life I think of the people who embody the noun: Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Richard Branson, J.K. Rowling, Reed Hastings, Robert Murdoch, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, to name just a few of the big ones. If not people to bring the definition to life, how about specific objects or creations like the personal computer, digital camera, IPod, IPad or imagine life without Google?

Game Changers are innovators and creative genius minds. Researcher Jeffrey Dyer and Hal Gregersen identified five skills that distinguish successful innovators:

1. Associating: seeing connections between disparate ideas
   
2. Questioning: asking "what if", "why" and "why not" that challenge the status quo and open up the bigger picture
   
3. Observation: an attention to details and people's behavior
   
4. Experiment: always trying new things
   
5. Networking: the ability to talk and learn from people they have nothing in common with.
   

I found a blog that listed the qualities of a creative genius mind: flexibility; possibility thinker; risk taker; focused; imaginative; dedicated; patient; proactive; courageous; independent; intuitive; persistent; and a curious and playful nature. Do you or people you know have these qualities?

Every industry has a game changer or two. I recently had a conversation over a cup of coffee with Kings Point classmate and CMA member, Jason Ward (RSR Partners). We pondered the inventions, people or events that changed the maritime industry: containerization; double hull tankers; the creation of the "pool"; the use of the SPAC as a ship finance instrument; piracy off the coast of Somalia; the Exxon Valdez, and since our conversation, sadly the Costa Concordia disaster. From technology, finance, and operations to environmental and safety, a person, idea or event can completely change the way a situation develops. CMA's annual conference and exhibition will continue to address the current topics and the innovations in our industry on March 19, 20 and 21 with Shipping 2012: GAME CHANGERS. I hope to see you there.

Along with the Shipping 2012 theme, my comments this month were inspired by the biography Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson which I recently finished reading. I can sum up the 571 pages in a single word, "WOW". I love a good book and the Steve Jobs biography was a fascinatingly, good book. If you've attended a CMA luncheon lately I have been giving a maritime themed book away at each luncheon since October. If you have recommendations or would like to donate a maritime book, fiction or non-fiction, for a luncheon please contact me. Our next luncheon is February 23 with guest speaker, Bart Lawrence (Compass Maritime). I also invite you to join me on February 29 at the Royal Green in Stamford when CMA will host a book discussion of the Shipping Man with author and CMA member Matt McCleery (Marine Money).

My closing thought is taken from Apple's "Think Different" commercial in 1997, "The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."

Best regards,
Beth Wilson-Jordan
President