Page 22 - ΝΑΥΤΙΚΑ ΧΡΟΝΙΚΑ - ΟΚΤΩΒΡΙΟΣ 2024

ΙNTERVIEW OF THE MONTH

❷ What are the reasons behind your fleet higher aspirations. The second generation does not
renewal strategy? Is it more cost effective, have the same ambition to make money. They are
or is it a requirement of the charterers? usually better educated but not daily ‘’streetfight-
You are talking to someone about to retire. The best ers’’ in the pursuit of success.
thing for me would be to sell everything and keep My philosophy is that if you are an entrepreneur
the money in the bank. But I have children, most in a volatile industry, as shipowing is, you should
of them are interested in the business. Obviously, never put more than 1/3 of your wealth at risk for
I cannot pass down to them the older reefers. The any business endeavour whatsoever.
reefer business has been purely a personal busi-
ness, upheld by my brother and me over the last ❻ And what about nepotism in respect to
45 years. So, we have to leave them newer vessels succession planning? Can it result in fail-
which operate in the more mainstream markets. I ure?
firmly believe that a big chunk of a shipping busi- Nepotism used to be a problem in the past, but
ness lies in its ships’ value. today, if you choose a member of your family or
a close friend for a managerial position, they tend
❸ Does diversification mean investing in to be highly educated and skilled. The corporate
parts of the entire supply chain? Would structures, responsibilities, and compliance proce-
you consider investing in terminals, ware- dures of contemporary shipping companies are not
houses, etc.? conducive to nepotism. Due to all these elements,
We have also invested in other sectors like real I think there are today fewer serious management
estate, entertainment and leisure facilities, and of failures in the shipping business than in the past.
course Aegean Airlines. These are sizeable invest- Today, you can choose your son or daughter to run
ments, and the good thing is that these companies the company, provided that they are skilled. In the
are listed with adequate liquidity, and you do not past, this was not always the case.
have to be personally involved. The only sector in
which we need to exercise daily and prudent judg- ❼ A recent study, funded by the Aikaterini
ment is shipping. In other sectors, your advisors Laskaridis Foundation, demonstrates the
present some macroeconomic data, and then you leading role of Greek-owned shipping on
have to make the final decision. a global scale. Are there any factors that
could challenge this dominance?
❹ Your group companies, Laskaridis Ship- First of all, we need to clarify the difference between
ping and Lavinia Corporation, recently shipping and shipowning. If you look at the relevant
agreed with the Chinese group Liaoyu rankings, you can see that the Greeks are the first in
to set up a joint venture. What were the the world in terms of shipowning. However, when it
reasons behind this decision? comes to shipping in general, we do not occupy the
As you may know, we have been doing business first place because, for decades, we have seriously
in the fishing industry for decades. The Chinese neglected the maritime cluster. That was a huge
fishing industry is the biggest in the world. The Chi- mistake on our side. Our view was that shipping
nese have the appropriate financial mechanisms to means only shipowning and that the other maritime
upgrade and renew their reefer fleet. Even though activities are of less importance. When I was in Brus-
the Chinese do not have the know-how to manage sels as the ECSA President, I came to understand
this type of ships, we feel we have to follow the the difference. There, I saw that Europeans meant
trend and demonstrate to our valued customers something else when they talked about shipping, as
that we are keeping pace with it. This investment a notion. They meant mostly the maritime cluster,
is sizeable but not very risky. which employs more people and has a greater polit-
ical influence and economic footprint. During my
❺ In your lifetime, you have seen a lot of four-year Presidency at ECSA, I tried to persuade my
fellow shipowners fail. What are some of colleagues that maritime clusters are very important
the reasons that can cause a family-run nowadays. Thankfully, the Greek shipping commu-
shipping company to fail? nity has started to embrace the idea that the mar-
I am an adamant believer that the result of your itime cluster is of great importance to the overall
prosperity or your failure is 70-75% dependent on economy, albeit with considerable delay.
pure luck. Education, abilities, and hard work are In terms of ship numbers, I think the Chinese are
also essential and necessary, but luck is the most already ahead of us Greeks, but in terms of capacity,
crucial factor for success. we are still in the first place. However, we cannot
I also strongly believe that the first generation of a assume that this will last forever. The good thing
family-run company always works harder and has is that China still lacks the commercial experience

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