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Angad Banga, chief operating officer of The Caravel Group, was just 10 when his father, Harry, and firm friend Kishore Rajvanshy founded Fleet Management in Hong Kong back in 1994.
The Bangas and the Rajvanshys both had families of a similar age. “The shippies are getting together,” the younger Banga recounts, smiling, as he recalls ‘Uncle Kishore’ coming round regularly to his father’s house back in the 1990s.
“That has been the ethos of the Fleet I’ve grown to love,” the younger Banga tells Splash. “It’s a family-centric organisation. Yes, we might be working 24/7, but we want to spend time with families out of work hours. There’s a lot of nostalgia that we should not forget.”
As Fleet, now the world’s second-largest third-party shipmanager with more than 650 vessels on its books, turns 30 this month, Rajvanshy, 76, its founding managing director, is preparing to step down, providing further reason for reflection on the evolution of an extraordinary company.
Success is a byproduct of the work you perform
“When Fleet started it was not in my wildest dreams that 30 years hence the company would be where it is today,” Rajvanshy says, describing Fleet’s “humble” beginnings with a handful of ships and a staff composed of a secretary, an assistant and himself.
Business was very much driven by word of mouth in those early years with Fleet leaping from 10 vessels in year one to pass the 100 mark as it geared up to celebrate its 10th anniversary.
“Success is a byproduct of the work you perform,” Rajvanshy says.
Harry Banga, Caravel’s chairman, notes that among the big names in shipmanagement, Fleet stands out as the only one to have grown 100% organically.
“We had the balance sheet to buy others, but we were so particular about our ethos and culture and I am glad we did not dilute that,” the shipping and commodities veteran tells Splash.
The older Banga has had plenty of time to consider how the business of shipmanagement has – and has not – changed over the years. There are three principles, three Ps, he says, that remain as relevant today as they did back in 1994: people, partnership and performance.
The challenge today is to source the right people, the chairman says.
“Shipping was a better career option back in 1994,” he concedes. Young people in leading crew nations such as China, India and the Philippines have so many more career options today.
“We must address that. To get talent you have to pay and you have to grow,” Banga says.
Looking ahead, Angad Banga says that Fleet’s focus on people will not change. “At the end of the day we we are a human capital management business,” the COO says, admitting that the type of people Fleet will need in the years ahead will need to change. A superintendent, for instance, might need to become more of a manager of a vessel.
Nurturing talent, investing to make a smooth transition from ship to shore has always been – and will continue to be – a core tenet of the organisation, Banga says.
Turning to partnerships, the COO reckons that these previously one-dimensional relationships with owners have evolved. Adding value-added services is vital, as well as becoming a partner to a customer’s customer, Banga says, citing agricultural trading giants and oil majors as good examples. Partnerships also need to increasingly extend to regulators, he adds.
Last but not least, in terms of how the business of shipmanagement is changing, the COO touches on technology and the ability to manage assets better, and improve transparency with clients.
All of which brings the discussion to this month’s big news: the appointment of Malaysian national Captain Rajalingam Subramaniam to take over the day-to-day reins at Fleet.
Subramaniam, the former president and group CEO of Malaysian flagship MISC, becomes Fleet’s CEO elect today, reporting to Harry Banga.
Rajvanshy takes on the role of managing director emeritus and remains as a non-executive director in a senior advisory role.
“Kishore is irreplaceable as is my dad. They founded it from lightbulb to lightbulb,” says the younger Banga on the appointment process. “When we start with the premise that there is no way anyone can do the job the way our founders have done, then that actually makes the hunt for a replacement easier.”
The COO tells Splash that the two men in front of him – Fleet’s founders – were CEOs, COOs, CTOs – “frankly anything with a C in front of it.” This has been something the group has been changing over the last five years as the generational shift in leadership inexorably approached.
With Subramaniam in place, the aim, says the younger Banga, sounds simple. “Evolution not revolution. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
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