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The shipping executive found himself at the top of the corporate ladder after answering an ad, but this was not before various overseas postings

WHEN THE ELEVATOR doors swing open on the 19th floor of Sunning Plaza in Causeway Bay, the first thing you see is a big welcome sign with your name on the top of the list beside the time of your appointment. Aside from feeling a twinge of importance, you are also reminded if you're late.

Beside the well-polished brass captain's bell and above the perfunctory model of a glass-encased baby blue and red Maersk Sealand container ship hangs the motto from the former owner and founder of the parent company, the A.P. M?ller Group.

'No loss should hit us which can be avoided with constant care.'

The 'M' in Maersk, some say, should stand for meticulous.

Claus Hemmingsen, managing director of the world's biggest shipping line in what is arguably its most important port of call, will never be mistaken for a sailor.

His tall, lanky frame would struggle to negotiate the shifting, space-constrained corridors of even the most modern  giant containerships. He is a dedicated family man but, if he rolled up the sleeves of his tailored shirts, you won't find a broken heart with 'Mum' adorning his forearm.

He wasn't born with the sea in his blood. If not for the storied reputation of the A.P. M?ller Group in Denmark he says he could just as easily have become a veterinarian after graduating from high school.

Explaining his rise to Maersk Sealand's top position in the world's biggest container port, he said: 'I answered an ad and I got lucky.'

It is a classically understated Maersk response from a company whose distaste for public marketing often obscures a culture of military operational precision and a meticulous execution of strategy.

Mr Hemmingsen spent his first eight years with the company at its headquarters in Copenhagen doing administration work for activities in the North Sea and the Middle East.

In 1988, he received a short posting on an oil rig off the eastern seaboard of Canada where he acquired a taste for working abroad.

'I asked to go into the liner business where there was a greater chance to go abroad on a permanent, long-term basis,'' he said.

His first posting under Maersk Sealand, the container shipping arm of the group, was to Hong Kong at the start of 1992.

He climbed the corporate ladder - operations manager, commercial manager and deputy-managing director - spent three years from 1997 in Singapore, and returned to front up the Hong Kong office in 2000.

While he is a Maersk success story, in some ways Mr Hemmingsen is not typical of the company. Aside from his stint in Singapore, he rose through the ranks solely in Hong Kong, an anomaly for a company very fond of moving its employees around the globe.

Mr Hemmingsen is also one of very few people outside Copenhagen who is allowed to speak on the record to the media.

He used that, and his position as the vice-chairman of the Hong Kong Liner Shipping Association (HKLSA), to rally the local logistics community earlier this year as new United States Customs regulations threatened to severely disrupt trade at the port.

With six weeks to the deadline for the new regulations, Mr Hemmingsen took the bold step of telling his customers in Hong Kong that they left 'a lot to be desired' in terms of their adherence to the new procedures and that a potential disaster awaited them.

'[The decision to sound the alarm] was a Maersk decision,' he said. 'The HKLSA also felt the need to carry that [message], but it was a Maersk decision in that we would have stood up anyway because we saw [non-adherence to the new regulations] as a potentially big risk. Fortunately it went well, much better than I predicted. But that was perhaps to a certain extent because we brought attention to the details.'

It is the attention to details that group founder Arnold Peter M?ller stressed, and it is attention to details that is perhaps his legacy's most enduring trait at the company. It has engendered a company-wide depth of industry-specific knowledge that sees Maersk executives topping the bill at many maritime conferences and seminars.

It may be an over-worked cliche but when Maersk Sealand talks, people tend to listen.

It was the first carrier to break the 6,000-box capacity ceiling for its cellular ships and the industry continues to watch where Maersk sets the level of its freight rates each year. One industry expert recently went as far as to say Maersk is to container shipping what Saudi Arabia is to OPEC.

When Port of Singapore executives scoffed at the possibility of Maersk abandoning the world's No2 container port in favour of a little-known Malaysian rival, the carrier shocked the industry and moved.

The PSA Corp is still recovering and has 'retrenched' many of its top executives since the exodus.

Maersk was one of the first carriers to call on the mainland. It was also one of the first to pay the price when it, a then US-based Sealand and American President Lines, were barred from Shanghai in 1996 over an apparent licensing dispute.

In reality, Beijing was reacting to the fact that foreign carriers were rapidly taking market share from their over-matched mainland rivals. '[The Maersk culture] is all about being at the forefront of events and making sure that any loss can be avoided through constant care. That is one of the cornerstones of our values,'' said Mr Hemmingsen. 'We try to be - I say try because it would be presumptuous to say we always are - but we try to be at the forefront of all situations, try to foresee anything coming towards us.

'That can be a big thing, but it can also be a small thing which effects quality and reliability. Flawless documentation, flawless customer service, going about your business with a high degree of integrity and always being a good citizen, both within your community and in terms of how you go about your business.'

The biggest change Mr Hemmingsen has seen in Hong Kong's business community during his tenure here was brought about by the emergence and liberalisation of the China market place.

'It has allowed companies to do business in China without having to be 100 per cent reliant on Hong Kong,' he said. 'Not a lot has changed in the way Hong Kong has gone about doing its business in the past decade, but maybe more should have. Maybe  a quicker adaptation to the changing winds in China should have been observed. But that is very easy to say, in hindsight.'

Hong Kong's trading community, and those who administer it, are increasingly concerned with what they perceive to be the territory's dwindling logistics hub status.

It seems few days go by without one level of Guangdong authority or another announcing yet another multi-billion yuan 'logistics' facility investment aimed at making their region, city, district or port the trading centre for south China.

With labour costs across the border a fraction of those in Hong Kong, questions constantly arise about what, if anything, can be done to secure the SAR's status as the region's premier conduit for trade.

'It is a well-founded concern. Hong Kong's position as a logistics hub is being challenged tremendously. One of the things it has to come to grips with is what kind of logistics hub it wants to be. Does it want to move the goods, or be the hub for the services which surround the trade?, he asked.

Mr Hemmingsen's tenure in Hong Kong comes to end on July 11. He is being transferred back to Copenhagen to head Maersk's new global service delivery initiative.

He says the most important thing he will take back with him is his daughter who was born during his time here.

But he will also leave with some professional assets. 'I will take away a real shipping education, which was gained through on-site exposure to one of the great shipping centres of the world. I have no doubt the people and innovativeness will prevail. I also have no doubt south China will continue to experience the rapid development and sophistication that will make Hong Kong a unique place for years to come. But most of all I will miss Hong Kong tremendously.'

Biography

Claus Hemmingsen is the managing director of Maersk Sealand. Mr Hemmingsen spent his first eight years with the group at its headquarters in Copenhagen doing administration work for activities in the North Sea and the Middle East. His first posting under Maersk Sealand, the container shipping arm of the group, was to Hong Kong at the start of 1992. He spent three years in Singapore from 1997 and returned to head the group's Hong Kong operations in 2000. He has held senior positions such as operations manager, commercial manager and deputy-managing director. Mr Hemmingsen's tenure in Hong Kong ends on July 11. He is being transferred back to Copenhagen to head Maersk's new global service delivery initiative. Mr Hemmingsen has a daughter, who was born during his tenure in Hong Kong.



Maersk helmsman steers with pride