Zeaborn Ship Management & Alpha Navigation: Working Together as a Team

The Zeaborn Ship Management Ukrainian Crew Forum 2019 was held at the office of Alpha Navigation Crew Management. The meeting brought together many seafarers of Zeaborn Ship Management, top management of Alpha Navigation, and was supported by The Maritime Telegraph. The following topics were discussed at the forum: Leadership, MARPOL, Zeaborn Today and Tomorrow, and others. A special guest of the forum was Mr. Rob Grool, CEO of Zeaborn Ship Management.

Mr. Grool took over the leadership of Zeaborn about six months ago. He has excellent industry experience, knowledge, and skills in all spheres of ship management and operations. Having worked at sea himself, Mr. Grool is well familiar with all the intricacies of ship handling and communication with the shore office. His maritime career spans nearly 40 years, starting as a marine engineer and eventually holding executive positions as Managing Director of such well-known shipping companies as Vroon, Seaspan Ship Management, and Wallem Group.

Now, as CEO of Zeaborn Ship Management, Mr. Grool visited the forum and spoke to The Maritime Telegraph about the challenges and prospects for Zeaborn and Ukrainian seafarers within the company.

“Zeaborn is new, Zeaborn is young, Zeaborn is ambitious. Zeaborn brought together three well-known ship management companies, and our job today is to make them one,” he said.

The company manages container ships, bulk carriers, MPP vessels, and tankers – 146 vessels in total. That is a very wide range of ships, supported by an extensive global network of partners to keep this large system operating smoothly. Seafarers receive training in Hamburg, Singapore, Riga, Manila, and other locations. The company also cooperates with well-known crewing partners such as Alpha Navigation in Odesa. As Mr. Grool added, Zeaborn has a solid foundation to build upon and, more importantly, a willingness to invest in the Ship Management System they need. That was what attracted him most.

According to Mr. Grool, the growing shipping business cannot become stronger without a smooth Ship Management System.
Information provided by ship managers to owners quickly becomes outdated, while owners’ expectations and needs are constantly changing. They require up-to-date, real-time information about vessel performance and financial position – ideally on a daily basis or every time the vessel enters port.

“We simply need to present it in a much smarter way,” Mr. Grool explained. “For example, we now operate separate performance and accounting programs. We need these systems to communicate with each other – to extract the necessary data and present it in a way everyone wants to see it.”

He emphasized the importance of focusing on people. Mr. Grool initiated the implementation of Maritime Resource Management, a human factors training program. He noted that it had shown strong results in his previous companies and could achieve excellent outcomes at Zeaborn as well.

Let’s not forget that any company is, first of all, about the people who work there. The human factor is perhaps the most significant one. When growing such a large company as Zeaborn, it is important to take care of every person, whether a seafarer or an office employee.

Having started his career at sea, Mr. Grool knows firsthand how big the gap between ship and shore can be. He aims to bridge that divide and unite everyone as one team.

“The world is becoming more and more complex, and specialists are needed to make it work. But if you just gather specialists – it won’t work! People have to work together as a team. None of us have all the skills we have collectively. The crew needs to know the people in the office who support them from far away.”

Building one team was also the main goal of Mr. Grool’s visit to Odesa. He spent the evening talking with seafarers and crew managers, sharing news and collecting feedback.

Zeaborn’s managing partners Jan-Hendrik Tobbe and Ove Meyer stated that, together with Mr. Grool, they are working toward a strategic goal of expanding the managed fleet to over 250 vessels.
As the fleet grows, Zeaborn will need more Ukrainian officers. According to Mr. Grool, the combination of Ukrainian officers and, for instance, Filipino ratings works very well. It strengthens communication in English and fosters a multicultural environment.

“I think Ukrainian seafarers are highly educated, and (what I especially like) they know what to do in difficult or dangerous situations,” he said. “They can improvise. If you need people who only fill in forms and do paperwork – Ukrainians are probably not the best. But they speak their minds. For example, Dutch people are known for saying things as they are – Ukrainians are the same. They say what they think. I really like that.”

Another key aspect of any developing shipping business is retention – having seafarers who do not move from company to company, but stay loyal, know the company’s policy, and meet its standards. In other words, a cadet program. For years, Zeaborn has employed Ukrainian, European, and Filipino cadets. The main challenge, Mr. Grool noted, is the limited number of cabins on modern vessels, which restricts opportunities for new cadets.

“We want to grow our own officers, and employing cadets seems to me the best investment we can make. I never look at cadets as junior people who have a long way to go. I see them as future masters and chief engineers. Some people say not all cadets will stay with one company or even at sea for life. That’s fine. If these well-trained officers move ashore, we might meet them again in our offices.”

Based on his long experience, The Maritime Telegraph asked Mr. Grool to name three key aspects of a successful ship management company. According to him, a company must focus on people and environmental safety, delivering reliable service (which is what shipowners need) and customer focus. Customers must receive the best possible service, as this benefits everyone.

All of the above may sound simple, but in reality, it is incredibly difficult to achieve.
By following these three essential principles, Zeaborn Ship Management continues to grow and strengthen its position in the maritime industry.