Does the adage, another day, another dollar, still ring true? The slowdown in the economy has seen many companies, in and outside the maritime community struggle to stay afloat (no pun intended) during these tough times. This can be both good and bad. Clearly, on the downside is the fact that many companies cannot continue to operate and many individuals have been displaced from their jobs and are dealing with the financial and emotional insecurity of being unemployed.

Although I have never been unemployed myself, I came close to it and actually left a former job in 1987 before the dreaded pink slip arrived on my desk as was the trend every payday for less fortunate employees at that company. In hindsight, my preemptive move was a fortuitous event as I took a leap of faith on a new career path working for a ship brokerage firm in the parcel tanker trade, and have never looked back.

I find that the shipping community is very tight knit, the work is dynamic, and the omnipresent challenges exercise critical thinking skills—never a dull moment. That is when I first became aware of the true meaning of following my bliss and by doing so, never working a day in my life!

Enough about my good fortune, Haugen Consulting (HC) has resumes of some extremely talented individuals that are currently looking for work opportunities in tanker chartering, ship operations, laytime and demurrage claims processing, ship management, and physical commodity trading, to name a few. Just give us a call if your company is interested in exploring the talent that is waiting in our wings. These folks have lots to offer.

The upside to the sluggish economy is that is has brought about a heightened awareness of creating efficiencies in the workplace forcing companies to operate more effectively on less revenue and oftentimes less personnel. Companies have to be leaner whilst simultaneously providing better services in order to compete on the global playing field.

Although HC’s offices have become more productive over the years, we are always looking for ways to improve our processes and grow our business. To that end, within the next few weeks we are bringing onboard a fresh young business talent, Mr. Campbell Palfry, who is finishing up his first year at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. With one more year to go, he will graduate with an M.A. in International Relations, with Concentrations in International Economics and International Policy. In the meantime, some of his objectives at HC this summer will be to provide new insight into streamlining our demurrage claims handling; improve the database tracking of voyages, laytime calculations, and key performance indicators; as well as, bring fresh marketing ideas to the table.

I have learned that there’s only one certainty in life: change. And, through change we can stretch to reach our higher potential. No one can promise that change is easy, but one thing for sure is that one can make the best of any situation by keeping a positive attitude: there’s always hope on the horizon!