Agile and adept service to benefit pool partners

To Aditya Trehan, “service” and “solutions” are more than just buzzwords – they are the key to building fruitful and long-term relationships with Maersk Tankers’ pool partners.   

Aditya’s team handles the operations of all voyages for shipowners in the company’s pools. It is an important task in an industry where owners experience increasing pressure to boost the economic and environmental performance of their vessels.

The team’s job starts when the Chartering team has secured a cargo for a specific ship and it entails fulfilling the contractual requirements of the voyage, keeping cargo customers happy, while optimising across revenue and costs to maximise partner returns. The goal is clear: ensuring the most efficient commercial operation of each voyage to the benefit of the shipowner.

“By optimising the operational performance of each vessel and each voyage, we also help our partners’ vessels consume less fuel, which increases their revenue and lowers their vessels’ CO2 emissions,” says Aditya.

Maersk Tankers’ Commercial function, which includes Operations, is being reorganised as the company continues its transformation into a service company able to deliver cutting-edge shipping solutions to its partners. 

As part of this transformation, in June, the Operations team is “going agile”, embracing a flexible way of working that is new to shipping. An agile structure of small, empowered autonomous teams, says Aditya “will enable us to take decisions faster”. 

Each team is responsible for a specific vessel segment in three large geographical regions. New lead managers, responsible for strategic direction and people development in these regions, have been appointed for Copenhagen (Johan Esbensen), Mumbai (Sanjeev Ranjan) and Singapore (Venkatesh Dutt).

Aditya explains that the small size allows each team to have strong oversight over the fleet for which it is responsible: “This gives us the agility to optimise voyages and improve risk mitigation and service levels, which will help to build better, longer-lasting relationships with partners.”

Equally, agile working benefits employees, giving them new development opportunities and the option to rotate jobs. “Within an agile framework, our talented people will be able to collaborate and grow personally and professionally to reach their potential. It will also cultivate a new generation of leaders,” he says.

Outlining his own leadership principles, Maersk Tankers’ Global Head of Operations says: “I want to create an inclusive team culture where people have the space to express themselves and be the best they can. I don’t have all the answers, so the key is to collaborate and work together.”

Next month Aditya completes two years at Maersk Tankers, having previously worked for a decade at Scorpio, where he ran its tanker operations from Mumbai. “I went through a gamut of experiences there, which helped to prepare me for this job,” he says. 

“It always struck me that Maersk Tankers was a pioneer in the shipping industry, even before I came on board,” he continues. 

“We can take a lead in the shipping industry, joining hands with other likeminded companies. I believe we can have a positive impact on people, the environment and business, which is a great motivation for me.”

A lifetime in the shipping industry has allowed Aditya to fulfil a teenage dream “to see and explore the world, meeting new people”.

He pinpoints his time captaining ships as a pivotal experience: “If you sail as a captain you are in the hot seat, where, if something goes wrong, it’s your life and career on the line. It teaches you about decision-making.”

“Having been at sea, I wanted to find out what drove the business and to make it run better.”

Now, he adds, is “a super-exciting time in shipping. Across the industry you can see real transformation. There’s a lot of opportunity for change and Maersk Tankers is at the heart of it.”

“We are pioneering solutions that are making a real difference to the service we are able to offer to our partners. Our new agile way or working, which is just one of many innovations, will make us much quicker on our feet to the benefit of pool partners.”