Creating Global Opportunities : Maersk Line in Containerisation 1973-2013

Today's trade is global. A company can choose to have its headquarters in one part of the world, its production facilities in another and sell its brands in all markets. Since the first sea-borne container transport took place in 1956, the shipping industry has been one of the main facilitators of the globalisation of trade. This book traces the rise to prominence of Maersk Line - the world's leading container operator - and the internal decision-making processes that lay behind the firm's extraordinary expansion between 1973 and 2013. With unprecedented access to company archives, interviews with current and former employees, and extensive statistical information provided by The Economist Intelligence Unit, Containerisation International and Lloyd's Register, this is a valuable resource for students of logistics, shipping or international business. This first inside account of the challenges of building a global business will also appeal to industry specialists and the general business reader.

Chris Jephson was, until recently, Director of Learning at Maersk Line. Following graduation in the UK in 1969, he worked for Maersk Line in Taiwan, then in Copenhagen and the UK until 1990 when he became part of the global management team of Maersk Logistics before moving back to Maersk Line in Copenhagen in 2004. He has been a long-time member of the US-based Council of Supply Chain Professionals (CSCMP) as well as the Cranfield Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management Advisory Board (CLSCM).

Henning Morgen is General Manager in Group Relations at A. P. Moller–Maersk with responsibility for archives management and history documentation and communication. Henning was employed with A. P. Moller–Maersk in 1998 and is the author of several shorter accounts on the Maersk history, based on research in the Maersk archives. Henning is a member of archives and records management associations in Denmark, Germany and the United States and is a member of the Section of Business and Labour Archives in the International Council of Archives.