Ladies and Gentlemen,
This is a historic Global Meeting for us.
12 years ago, on 6 Dec 2008, we bravely hosted the first C P World Group “Global Meeting” here in Dubai. For those who have attended that first meeting, I’m sure you will agree with me that we have come a long way. It was not in a posh 5 stars hotel, but rather a local down to earth hotel call Ramada here in Dubai.
Our first tagline was : TOGETHER, BETTER, STRONGER.
We were all much younger and inexperience but with a “Can Do Attitude” approach, we seek every opportunity with a high spirit.
Together we create huge value to our individual business, otherwise we wouldn’t have a full network participations every year.
5 years of hard work later, we got BETTER! We were back here again on the 6th Global Meeting, on 7th to 9th Nov 2013.
A lot of trust were build up over the years, and there were plenty of new trade lanes and ideas and co-operation happening all within the network.
However, the world and C P World Group have changed significantly since then. Who would have thought at the time that a pocket sized device could combine all the functions of a phone, email, camera and social Apps all into a single digital device?
We call it a mobile device.
The quick technological advances that have been made in recent years are changing our everyday life. Often so smoothly and quickly that we don’t always notice it immediately. All in all, these developments are bringing with them tremendous disruption and raising cost.
Affecting and disrupting how our freight industry perform. Often, faster than how we can respond.
However, we cannot allow these developments to stop our Group development as well as the continuing growth of the network.
In fact, quite the opposite is happening in C P World...
We are actively shaping this change, for the benefit of all. Over the past few years, we have been trying to transform ourselves firstly into a digital technology platform. Transforming our workflow towards the trend of digital applications.
While it comes with a costly tab, I strongly believe digitalization is a key element of our future group strategy.
We are not quite there yet, however we are working towards equipping devices and systems with software and interfaces that ensure smooth, uninterrupted operations.
Today, more than 75 percent of our related shipping portfolio is already software-based and this proportion will increase further in the coming years.
We have invested heavily in this area, an area we cannot ignore for the future. That is the future, we are heading.
Ladies and gentlemen, before we look into the future, I would first like to review the year 2019 together with you. It was a year of transition for many reasons; I would like to highlight three in particular:
First, 2019 was a transition year in consolidation business within our various offices. In many important markets, we have seen depressing freight rates. Resulting in loss of earning.
In order to ensure that we are able to continue to support all trade lanes. Origin ports are told to keep a tight view of operating costs of consolidation.
Second, 2019 was a transition year for the Group as well. For the first time since the creation of CPW Group with a core business of NVOCC consolidations business, we were force to look outside our Group consolidation business to ensure sustainability of the Group.
Third, 2019 was a year of technological transition: Singapore office used to be the forefront that drove I/T innovation. This year see many of the offices enhancing and developing solution to meet their own market demands.
In retrospect it may well have been one of the most important years in our Group’s history.
As C P World Group enters the maturity period of our business life cycle, I have set that we focus our business even more strongly on growth and reduced risk. Today, we are leaner, more efficient and more focused.
With our solid foundation and focused and strengthened portfolio, I would to believe C P World is well positioned to continue to develop positively in the coming year.
The transition motion demonstrates our confidence in the future.
In short, our foundation for growth has been laid. We can and will build on it in the coming years.
But 2019 was also a year in which we put things to the test and learned the hard way that we cannot plan for every eventuality.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have also learned in the past that one or other decision may not always be understandable to you. You made this criticism clear to us at our last Global Meeting in Mumbai.
Most calling on us to support volume at the expense of huge operations cost.
We take your concern and feedback very seriously and have thought hard about the conclusions we should draw from it.
The strategy of volume against cost can only be successfully implemented if we all continue to focus strongly on performance. Keeping the result within this network and not diluting the result outside this network.
We would like to thank you, dear network partners, for your trust.
Ladies and gentlemen, while other competitors have only just begun to reorganize their companies or are in the midst of major restructuring, C P World Group has already undergone, as demonstrated a transformation period. We are convinced that this development will create added value for this network and for all of our stakeholders, for customers, employees and, of course, for you, dear network partners.
Let me conclude by summarizing once again why we can all look to the coming years with confidence:
First, because C P World network has the capability through our experience to continue to drive the NVOCC program.
Second, because C P World has a new, leaner and even more customer-focused structure. With our expanded branches, we operate much more closely to rapidly changing markets.
Third, because C P World takes the view that we don’t always have to do everything by ourselves. Together with innovative partners like yourselves, we can continue to offer freight solutions that no single company is able to offer by itself.
And finally, because CPW listens to our partner’s and customers’ needs.
Despite, the market correction and weaken LCL volumes, there are still increasing demand for our core products and solutions in these areas. We just have to make sure that we are not under-pricing our service.
In an uncertain market, the departure of some competitions have instead given us a stronger market presence than ever.
You have supported our direction for many years. We appreciate your trust in our services.
On behalf of C P World Group, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks.
Together, let’s continue to shape the future and set our sight to get STRONGER.
Thank you
and
POWER TO ALL.
Ken Chiang
Group CEO
