Horizon Lines CEO Credits Technology For Defense Effort
Thursday, October 23, 2003
Charles G. (Chuck) Raymond, Chairman,
President and CEO of Horizon Lines, said today that the role of technology
"continues to drive much of the change in our business, allows the customer
to have so much more control, and allows us to concentrate on what we do
best."
Mr. Raymond, spoke on "Synchronized Global Distribution for the War
Fighter...The Way Ahead" at a meeting of the U. S. Army¹s Military Traffic
Management Command¹s 599th Transportation Group, U.S. Pacific Command.
Change is never easy ... I¹ve been through 35 years of change in this
business, and the only thing I¹ m sure of is that it will never stop," he
said. "I¹ve watched your progress and you¹ve done things that, frankly, we
in the private sector only hope to accomplish as well. I¹m talking about
streamlining your organization, reducing layers, cutting out costs, and
relocating parts of the organization while maintaining a high level of
service to your customers. That¹s like changing the spark plugs while the
car is still running down the road."
Mr. Raymond, noting other factors, said "..we¹re also being driven by the
geopolitical changes in our world. The pace of change has never been
greater, and continues to grow ... just look at what technology has done to
our world in the span of a few decades."
He recalled that during the Viet Nam war, news reporters used film to cover
the action, film had to be flown back to New York, developed, and put on the
air. "It took three days at best, usually longer, for news and pictures of
the war to reach our country. This year," he continued, "we saw fighting
live in our living rooms and watched infantry movements over breakfast." The
war, he said, "came home."
"Today, moms don¹t shout when they call the family to dinner ... they
instant message everyone. E-mail, on a large scale, didn¹t exist until the
early 1990s. Now, over 600 billion e-mail messages are sent each year. We¹re
drowning in information, but we¹re thirsty for knowledge, the ultimate
competitive advantage," said Raymond.
Recognizing MTMC¹s efforts