Can you share with us your Odfjell story?
I joined in Odfjell in 1996, after finishing my ten-year submarine service in the Navy. For 22 years, my entire career in Odfjell was with Odfjell Tankers on the operational side. I started as an Operation Trainee, which was a very good start to learn about shipping. From there I progressed to Operator, then Deputy Director for Hoyer Odfjell in Rotterdam (Tank Containers), and afterwards as Leader Fort MSG. I also held the VP Operation Support and VP Operation positions. In January 2018, I moved to Ship Management and became responsible for the externally-management ships, followed by the position I hold today: VP Ship Operations.
What do you consider to be the highlights of your career?
For me, succeeding in challenging tasks on a day-to-day basis is already a highlight. It can be everything from just a phone call to a huge undertaking. Accomplishing something that is good for our colleagues or for the company in general is what's important.
As VP Ship Operations, what are your primary roles? And what will be your highest priorities in the near future?
My primary role is to align Odfjell Tankers and Ship Management in a common business goal. It is my duty to make sure that we, together, understand the total concept of ship management and ship operations, that we are not in a silo anymore, and that we are focused on the bottom line of the company.
To achieve this, I explain to Ship Management why Tankers do what they do. I also sit in on all the joint meetings in Tankers and give them insights into how Ship Management works. I try to bridge whatever gap there nay be between these two main departments.
Of course, everyone understands that we are all looking after the bottom line. But when all are squeezed on the budget side, it is very easy to not think about the total picture. This is what we are trying to address.
I think we are much more integrated now since we have Harald Fotland as a common leader for both departments (Ship Management and Odfjell Tankers). Another factor that I see is that we have changed the organizational setup a lot so people are now more open to working together than they were before.
But it is a daily challenge, so if we should be at 100%, we are probably at 75% today. There is more to do, definitely. But we have come a long way.
We also do a lot of software development to try bridging these two environments, such as ORCA and the 12MAP concept, for example. We try to make our colleagues understand that we are all working for a common goal, and we try to facilitate this with various sets of software applications so we can have a better picture of how things relate to one another.
At the end of the day, I think we just need to remember that we have two frontrunners in this business: the ships that actually execute our transportation obligation; and the brokers that sell our services. These two are the ones who go out and meet our customers.
The rest of us, meanwhile, see to it that these roles are fulfilled flawlessly.
I also lead the recoating project of the MIPO/SLS class ships and the Clean Cargo project that covers the revision and simplification of cargo procedures. Right now, what we have as procedures are years and years of good experience written down on paper. Because these procedures were developed through many years, they have become extremely complex. We are now rewriting these into simple and short procedures, concrete down to the tasks. Hopefully, this initiative will make the cargo process easier to understand.
I am also responsible for competence development within Odfjell.
The most important thing in competence development now is to focus on the foundations: leadership and communication.
We have spent quite some work on this in the past years in the form of the ELITE courses, in the leadership courses that we introduced last year, and through the shipboard management conferences.
We think there is great potential in revising the competence matrix, both in content and in how we deliver competence building. There are a lot of opportunities, for example, in skill-building.
At the same time, we do not want people to feel that they waste their time when they join courses in Manila or in Bergen.
We are a little bit behind where we would like to be, but I think the development achieved so far is quite good.
How do you see Odfjell’s ship operations in the next five years?
Right now, there is a need for us to reduce the complexity in onboard administration and in port operation. We know that both the ships and ashore, and in particular those on the operation side, are very bogged down with enormous requirements for system updates. And we also know that the complexity in this aspect has increased in the past ten years. We have to allow people to have more time to deal with tasks that actually involve and harness their key competencies.
To address this, we are developing a one-time entry principle in all kinds of records from the ships. We try to simplify things and scale off what is not deemed necessary. This initiative to make everything simpler has added more requirements to the project managers, the various IT projects, and some processes on board.
In five years' time, I hope to see that we already have a more robust and simpler system both on board and ashore. This means that instead of using half their time entering data into all kinds of databases, our people concentrate more on the art of doing proper ship management, maintenance, cost control, port operation and port rotation. It also means that we use technology for the repetitive tasks, and allow our people to use and improve their critical thinking and decision-making skills, for example.
We are probably at 60% on this and have definitely become much better. But much still needs to be done, especially in simplifying systems so people don’t get frustrated.
How can the seafarers contribute to the achievement of these goals?
Our seafarers are already very supportive of us. We have good cooperation on various projects.
We just need our seafarers to continue to support us. We need you to be critical in the sense that you are not mere ‘yes persons’, but constructive in giving feedback and suggestions. We will always need engaged seafarers the same way we need a shore organization that actively supports constructive development in the company, both on systems and at the organizational level.
Apart from safety, I wish for our seafarers to actively participate in the company.
I would like you to reach out to us if you have any feedback or suggestions. And I hope that you will be interested in helping us in the various projects that we have. I will be happy to come on board again and take up the discussions.
Who is Svend outside Odfjell?
I have been married for 25 years, with two daughters aged 23 and 26.
I like sailing. I have a sailboat together with two friends so we sail quite a lot, for leisure. My family usually joins me in sailing.
I am into running and have finished a couple of half-marathons. My daughters run as well. I also like cross-country skiing, motorbiking and hunting — grouse hunting.
There are two sports that I don't really like, however. I am one of the few in the Bergen office who are not very keen on football. The other sport that I do not do is golf. My parents were so into golf that when I was a kid, they spent all the weekends playing golf. I promised myself I will never play golf.
