Horizon Lines CEO Credits Technology For Defense Effort

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