Leadership

The Art of the Deal

When it comes to port negotiations, what turns ‘maybe’ into ‘yes’? Sometimes, a seemingly insignificant driver can bring a deal to the tipping point. For ports, a single agreement can represent hundreds of thousands of dollars: So what makes the difference between deal or no deal? * By Sarah B. Hood * What makes a person dec­ide to sign a ...

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The Changing Faces of Leadership

Ports are embracing diversity in gender and background experience, creating new opportunities and outlooks, especially at the port leadership level. Many of these new executives share one more thing: they happen to be women. * By Sandy Smith * Accountants. Business strategists. Environmentalists. Real estate experts. These are just some of the non-traditional routes to port leadership that recent appointments have ...

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Tracking Excellence

For port directors and administrators, pursuing excellence is heavy lifting. Tracking progress is even more difficult. * By Lori Musser * Excellence starts with establishing a clear vision of a goal, and relentlessly pursuing it. Excellence requires a bias for action, doing things well and constantly digging for information and refining solutions as you go. Excellence is about accepting only ...

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Strong Safety Practices Require Holistic Approach

Ensuring a safe work environment means far more than creating a plan and practicing it once in a while. It means taking a holistic approach that encompasses everyone.  * By Sandy Smith * Natural disasters. Chemical releases. Transport accidents. Most ports have plans in place to deal with these situations. But ensuring a safe work environment means far more than ...

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Ship Shape: Ports Navigate Their Niches to Find Their Areas of Expertise

When it comes to handling a certain type of cargo, some ports immediately spring to mind as industry leaders. It may be the luck of location, years of honing expertise or a willingness to support shippers as they expand. By Sandy Smith—  When it comes to handling a certain type of cargo, some ports immediately spring to mind as industry ...

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Finding the Right Mix – A Latin American Port’s Perspective

Located on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, the Port of Cartagena has grown substantially by developing relationships and earning expertise as a major transshipment hub. By Tom Hranac—  As container trade volumes and ship sizes have grown, so too has the importance of transshipment hubs in container shipping networks, including those in Latin America. But it takes much more than location or ...

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Latin American Ports Debate Globalization and Protectionism

The 26th edition of the AAPA Latin American Congress of Ports strengthened its status as the premier port conference in Latin America by gathering more than 350 participants from over 30 countries and four continents from November 6-9 in Punta del Este, Uruguay, under the theme “Latin American Ports, between Globalization and Protectionism.” By Tom Hranac Forty-four speakers from 15 ...

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Preparing for Growth Through Multiple Modes

Ports are continually increasing and improving their intermodal and multimodal capacities and connections to prepare for the increases in freight traffic predicted. By Mary Lou Jay  The U.S. Department of Transportation predicts that the country’s freight traffic will increase by 45 percent by 2045. In anticipation of that growth, U.S. ports are continually increasing and improving their intermodal and multimodal ...

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Find Your Niche

It has become increasingly challenging to be ‘all things to all people.’ Ports need to identify their strengths to pinpoint the areas where they can grow and excel. Finding your port’s niche is a matter of matching your strengths with the opportunities out there – then being realistic in your expectations. By Sandy Smith Back in the 1950s, the Port ...

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The Power of One, Collaboration by Many

API Puerto Vallarta caters solely to cruise ships and tourists, but manages to make it work – partially due to its relationships with other ports on the cruise ship routes. By Tom Hranac As a port that completely relies on tourism, Administración Portuaria Integral de Puerto Vallarta´s business model seems to run contrary to the old saying “Don’t put all ...

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