eSea 22 - One World, Many Cultures

eSeaM A R I T I M E / O I L & G A S / W I N D / C R A N E · N O . 2 2 / 2 0 1 5

EM AGA ZINE FROM M A ERSK TR A INING

22

ombord · a bordo · on board- one world, many cultures

Any Questions? > Eva-lution >Brightest Africa > ET Phone Home but what’s a phone? > The Cowboy and the Oilman >Poachers to Gamekeepers > Snap Happy >Simplicity is king >

3

2015 is the year of the vote – at every turn

there seems to be election fever, Nigeria, the

UK, Denmark shortly and then the razzmatazz

of the US Presidential. Even the election for

a global sporting post, the guy who decides,

only for the good of the game, to play football

in temperatures that would crisp pizzas, drew

world attention.

What’s different with all these elections is

that we have a growing awareness of their

significances – perhaps it is because we have

world news on our laptops that we take

more than a passing interest in the changing

fortunes of Goodluck Jonathan and that of

Sepp Blatter. People who couldn’t care if

never saw a soccer match were drawn into

the drama, forced to formulate an opinion.

Perhaps it is because we are so multicultural

today, in that we know someone for whom the

vote matters.

This eSea is even more multicultural than

normal, in its own small way it breaks

down some barriers so that faces, lifestyles

and stories from far away become part of

a local conversation. Multiculturalism is a

new science and we talk to a professor who

embodies the need to break down barriers

through international understanding. Sandi’s

an American married to a Portuguese,

teaching Brazilian and Portuguese studies to

Danes. In this issue she tells us about a field

study that took a lucky thirteen students to

Rio.

We hear why the election in Nigeria offers

even those who might be deemed opponents, a

chance of something completely different and

from the same country a story which causes

us to refocus on the availability of basics

like tap water and power. Chidozie recalls

the post-university year when he was sent

upcountry to teach physics to children who

had never seen a light bulb, about electricity.

At the other end of the scale Eva in the Danish

energy port of Esbjerg, is logging off from a

long career, one that has gone from heavy

clunky typewriters to sleek touchscreens.

In four decades she’s witnessed and enjoyed

more change than the remote Nigerian village

has experienced in four centuries. But with

multiculturalism this is where the next big

acceleration will come.

Technicians will roll out the most

unimaginable devices for this generation

of teenagers and that generation will be

more diverse than ever before. The need to

inform, educate and train has never been

so crucial - it is a good job that top teachers

and instructors don’t need to face the

interruptions of an election process. There’s

a lot to be said for consistency and constant

care.

editorialRichard [email protected]

Modern companies with global ambitions don’t have an export department, they export themselves.

Maersk Training is an

example of the today’s

business profile – a company

exporting not goods or

services but by establishing

in-situ facilities around the

world. These facilities need to

adapt to and blend in with the

local environment and that

naturally crosses many cultural

boundaries. It is these boundaries

that the university students were

striving to identify.

The training centre in Rio de

Janeiro was one of several

Danish companies in Brazil that

responded to a request from the

University of Copenhagen when

they launched a restructured

Alguma Pergunta Eventuelle spørgsmål

Any Questions?

4

5

B.A. programme within the

Department of Portuguese and

Brazilian Studies.

For the first time the department

wanted to get students out into

the field to examine at first hand

the issues that arise in multi-

cultural business ventures.

Thirteen Danes joined a group of

Brazilian students for two weeks

in order to gather background

to address the type of problems

you might encounter in an inter/

multicultural work environment.

They interviewed people

throughout organisations, from

the top to the bottom.

CLEAR HERE, CONFUSION THEREThe field trip to Rio in April was

part of a bigger programme, the

‘Problem-based Team Project’ and

the professors behind it, Sandi

Michele de Oliveira and Georg

Wink were on hand to guide and

observe this pilot course.

‘Bringing both the university

and business partners on board

and figuring out the logistics of

this pilot project was quite a job

for the two of us, but we were

very pleased with the students'

engagement at the companies,’

says Sandi. ‘We are now waiting

for the students’ business reports

with recommendations for the

partner companies.’

Professor Sandi and her

colleague Georg are perfect

examples of cultural diversity –

she’s an American married to a

Portuguese, teaching in a Danish

University. Georg is German

married to a Brazilian teaching

Portuguese in Denmark.

One of the issues to arise was

the team-building aspect –

how do you go about building

an international collaborative

team? It was something the

students themselves immediately

experienced since they had

quickly to find common ground

with their Brazilian counterparts

from the Rio de Janeiro State

University. As Sandi put it, ‘the

students were being trained to

take a multifaceted approach

to the analysis of issues in

multicultural communication?’

Another request that arose was

how best to construct a customer

survey aimed at different cultural

backgrounds. ‘This one company

wanted to see why questions that

worked well in one environment,

lead to potential confusion in

another,’ said Sandi.

WHY MAERSK TRAINING? ‘Being a Danish university we

started with a list of Danish

companies with interests in

Portuguese speaking countries,

and Maersk Training in Rio were

the first to respond,’ says Sandi.

What the collaborative companies

can hope to gain is an additional

insight into how to best work

in a ‘foreign’ environment. Long

gone is the old colonial approach

of talking loudly in your own

language and storming ahead

doing things just the way you

want to do them.

‘What makes companies have

different levels of success is what

their language policy is when

they get to a foreign country. The

idea that you can just send a few

people from Brazil to Denmark

or wherever to get some training

and you don’t have someone in

the ‘home’ office knowing the

foreign language is a mistake. It’s

like marriage, everyone has to

give 100%,’ Sandi points out. ‘You

can’t delegate cultural knowledge

and understanding, both sides

need to fully embrace it.’

The pilot course and fieldwork

exercise now needs to be collated

and developed but Sandi is

already convinced that it is an

important part of the students’

4th semester and is looking to the

future. The students largely fund

themselves but backing is needed

for the whole project, so Sandi and

Georg are already looking for new

co-operations, new challenges. ●

Hamburgefintsiv

There’s a relic keep somewhere in the storerooms of the adult vocational training centre AMU Vest in Esbjerg, that they can’t afford to throw out along with other out-dated office equipment. It’s an old typewriter, but one which might be called into action when someone needs a replacement for the certificate they achieved sometime in the Eighties.

The problem is that there

are only a couple of people

within the organisation who

can operate it properly. The old

typewriter requires a deft touch

that is beyond the skills of today’s

workforce.

One of the two ‘typists’ has

recently hung up her ink ribbon

and we spent a coffee break with

her as she looked back on the last

four decades of office life as seen

through technical development.

Were the good old days really the

good old days?

CLUNK CLIP TO SLICKFor Eva Krarup the biggest

change in her working life was

the advent of the computer.

Retiring early at 59 she looks back

over a career which has gone

from the clunk click of the manual

Remington to the feather-light

touch of a wireless keyboard.

Change has been good she says

highlighting the arrival of the B2B

booking portal for courses.

‘Before B2B you had to go into so

many areas and check details, it

was easy to miss something or

for errors to creep in. With the

B2B portal it is all there on one

screen, the whole story and you

can instantly see if the person is

getting what they need,’ says Eva.

Eva had worked for the

government agency for the past

26 years and before that spent

12 years making sure that the

cooperative of 200 dairies got paid

for their butter and that Danish

butter was a global product. She

recalled her first job being so long

ago that everything was done

Eva-lution

6

Hamburgefintsiv 7

on a typewriter, in duplicate, and

then posted individually to each

of the farmers.

With AMU Vest too the process

of putting people of vocational

courses was ‘traditional’ and

buzzed about the relationship

with Maersk Training through

the introduction of the B2B portal.

‘For the first time I was with

people who were able to respond

instantly. If something was wrong

with the system, and there were

of course some teething problems,

they’d say “right let’s fix it” and

it was done,’ says Eva. ‘Because

the government sector is so big

it moves slowly, we are maybe

twenty institutions. Private

companies move differently.’

She celebrated her retirement

with ‘his and hers’ iPads for her

and her husband. Still trying to

get to grips with it she observed

the difference between today’s

office and the past.

EYES SHUT, OPEN MIND‘We learnt to type, ten fingers

with our eyes shut. Today few

touch-type, they flash their

finger across the keyboard – it is

quite impressive, but as you see

with SMS’s the message is often

riddled with mistakes. Because of

spellcheck people are encouraged

to be more expressive, this is

good, in the old day’s we kept

things simple because any

error meant you had to get the

correction fluid out.’

She remembered the moment an

electric typewriter arrived with a

selective memory – ‘you pressed

one key and it wrote a standard

line, we thought it was magic.’

Life in today’s office is afar

cry from the Eighties. Today

people click ‘print’ and out of

the machine comes whatever

you want, sorted and stapled.

Previously you had to type onto

a waxed page, stenciling in

the letters (O was a particular

nightmare since it could easily

become a hole), then lifting the

fragile sheet onto a drum before

lit revolved and that one single

sheet emerged to be dried and

sorted.

Eva admits that she has never

been IT astute, but thought the

introduction courses to B2B put

her on the right track.

‘I’m not on Facebook or LinkedIn,

I’m not keen on opening my life

to all, but I can see the need, so I

might have to go on Facebook, but

with a very low profile,’ she adds. ●

B2B Booking Portal

• Tool for course bookers

• 24/7 access

• Find available Maersk

Training courses world wide

• Quickly book multiple

employees on course

• Monitor employee training

historic

Hamburgefintsiv 8

Brightest AfricaNigeria is not for the faint-hearted. It is exciting, exhausting, intimidating, but above all rewarding. In terms of the economy Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country, is potentially Africa’s Texas; in terms of cultural make-up, Africa’s Germany.

8

9

From the moment you step off

the plane you are blasted by

the heat and taxed by relentless

unscrupulous characters, usually

disguised in official uniforms.

In certain areas for certain

people, travelling without aid or

protection is extremely unwise

and advised against, yet despite

all these negatives, in the end you

get back on the plane happier for

having been there.

It’s long been a misnomer, the

Victorian expression Darkest

Africa, because here the sun not

only splits the sky but shines

out of the people. They approach

adversity with a smile. Yet they

are forceful when dealing within

themselves, so forceful that other

African nations see them as

arrogant, demanding and pushy,

hence the German connection.

NEW GOVERNMENT, NEW STARTLike Texas in the old days the rule

book here is yet to be written and

what few rules there are, people

seem to take a joy in getting round

them. Dominic Marizu has been

observing this manoeuvring

all his life and puts much of it

down to the way the society is

structured; it’s a void which

allows the rich to get richer and

the poor poorer. ‘There’s a huge

gap between the public and the

leadership, they are sacred cows

who create an empire.’

Dominic who is the Base and

Government Affairs Manager for

Indigo Drilling, thinks the recent

election is an opportunity, a true

transition point in the country’s

history. ‘There are a whole lot of

things to be fixed, it won’t happen

overnight. This country is easy to

fix, but it needs processes to be

put into place.’

He looks back twenty years to

a time when Port Harcourt was

much smaller, but still had trouble

with its infrastructure. ‘We have

millions more people living here

now, but the roads, the water,

the electricity, haven’t moved

with the times.’ Most people, and

large companies, have to rely on

9

Hamburgefintsiv

boreholes for water and back-up

generators to click into action so

frequently that conversations and

life don’t hesitate for a moment

when the lights go out.

To put Port Harcourt in

prospective, ask yourself where

is it? It’s a dot on the map of West

Africa, about half way along the

Nigerian coastline. It is a dot of

about five million people, the same

as the population of Denmark.

Currently Nigeria is growing by

a dot a year, five million people. It

is now is about 175 million, twice

the size of the second largest

African country.

THE BUCK, AND METRO, STOPS HEREAt one stage Port Harcourt had

a dream of moving ahead of the

times. The River’s State which

it dominates is the delta of the

Niger River and the gateway

to the Nigerian offshore oil

industry. Onshore there are only

three refineries and these are

pretty dysfunctional, so what

oil is brought up needs to be

transported to other countries

before being reimported. It is

a financial mis-match which

appears to be to no one’s benefit,

although you’ve got to expect

someone somewhere is syphoning

off a slice of the action.

In May a lack of petrol was

causing an acute shortage at the

pumps. People pushed their cars

to as close as they could to any

station rumoured to be a potential

source – Nigerians hot and noisy,

can be cool and patient.

Those wanting transportation are

going to have to be very patient

in waiting for the 21st Century

overhead monorail railway.

Currently it has spent 100% of its

budget but has only made 20%

of its journey. The rail stops at

Government House, and so does

the buck. With a new government

the white concrete line might now

be a white concrete elephant.

White is quite a sales point in the

fashion industry, but because of

the dust and dirt not in fabrics – to

10

Hamburgefintsiv 1111

Hamburgefintsiv 12

a man, and woman, the manikin

dummies on the steps of the

roadside stores are Caucasian, a

strange contrast to downtown

Svendborg where black is a la

mode. The other difference is that

at the end of the day you might

well see a tailor heading home.

You know his profession because

balanced on his head is his means

of livelihood, a hand-cranked

Singer sewing machine.

PISTOLS NOT PAC-MANBalance is important to Nigerians,

on one hand a fragile financial

existence on the other the

uncertainly of tomorrow. In one

camp they are Muslims and in

a smaller one, Christians, both

devout and wearing their faiths

openly. You’ll be wished ‘Happy

Sunday’ as if it were Christmas

and on their way to church they

are dressed as smart as any bridal

party. They are joyous to the point

where you think life must be

flawless, but no.

If Nigeria has one predominant

industry it is in security. From

hotel gatepost to bedroom

door you might pass six or

seven guards, some so youthful

that elsewhere they would

have Nintendo as a constant

companion, not a pistol. The

private security industry extends

to transportation, many foreign

companies insisting on armed

12

Hamburgefintsiv 13

protection for staff between

workplace and home, hotel and

airport. To cater for this you buy

a white Toyota pickup, stick a

highway patrol flashing sign on

the roof, install a siren, buy a

licence and then hire a handful

of policemen/soldiers. You can

then drive up the wrong side of

a dual carriageway, splitting the

oncoming traffic like filleting a

fish, without any fear.

What is most remarkable is the

manner in which the locals accept

this. They could quite justifiably

see this as an intrusion, an alien

culture steamrollering over their

own, but no. Like the two guys

we passed trying unaided to lift

their car out of a pothole, which

was more of a bottomless pit. Life

is what it is in Nigeria, so make

the best of it. They were laughing.

Only a corrupt westerner would

think, ‘maybe it wasn’t their car.’ ●

Multi-mannequin

We’ve more than touched

on multiculturalism in this

issue, but here’s a strange

transposition. In Port Harcourt,

Nigeria the numerous roadside

clothes shops use, almost

exclusively, white, yet in

Svendborg, Denmark, the

models standing silently in the

high streets are mostly dark. Is

there some strange hidden logic

or mysterious marketing ploy?

What do you think? We’d love

to hear your view.

13

Graduates in Nigeria are required to do a year’s public service after their university careers are complete; spells in the army, police and welfare sections are a stark contrast to all the studying, but for engineering graduate Chidozie Uzoma Ukonu, the challenge was extra testing.

Chidozie had been assigned to

teach in a remote part of the

country, so remote that it was

without piped water, sanitization

or electricity. ‘One of my subjects

was physics and part of the

course was all about electricity.

But how do you explain electricity

to kids who’d never seen a light

bulb?’ he recalls.

His mother came up with the

answer - let them experience it

by hiring a generator. ‘Seeing is

believing,’ she said. Unfortunately

the hire charge was beyond the

budget of the country school so

Chidozie asked around and heard

of man in a village on the other

side of the mountain who not

only had a generator, but also a

television. This he generously

shared with the whole village by

having it face out to the street

from his veranda.

MOUNTAIN OF KNOWLEDGEThe class trekked over the

mountain for an introduction

to electricity. For them it was a

journey beyond the boundary of

their world, it was an ET moment

– a jump into another universe.

‘I could often show them things

but that wasn’t always the

answer, like when I talked about

my mobile phone saying that I

could talk to people around the

world, except here in the remote

village where there was no

signal,’ he says.

It was a bit of a ‘so what’ moment

but Chidozie marks that year

down as one of the best of his

life, even now when he heads

the new Maersk Training centre

in Port Harcourt. Here he was

struggling with electricity, not

as an educational concept, but

simply supply. Port Harcourt

doesn’t have power cuts, it has

blinks. Frequent and short, they

are so much a part of the daily

lives of everyone that they carry

on without flinching. Computers

need to have battery back-up to

avoid constantly losing work.

ONE COUNTRY, TWO WORLDSAnother aspect of daily life in Port

Harcourt is the traffic. Eight to ten

in the morning and late afternoon

are so busy that many roads grind

to a halt. Chidozie’s plan is to

start courses early and build in

breakfast and then get everyone

back to their hotels in the

afternoon. It’s a ploy that should

be particularly effective in the

rainy season when the roads are

dramatically reduced in width,

this is after all the Rivers State.

Nigeria is a country of two worlds,

Chidozie’s biggest role, along with

the rest of his fellow graduates, is

in merging them. What has taken

the western world centuries,

they must achieve in a working

lifetime. Chidozie smiles, ‘It’s a

challenge,’ but somehow you feel

he and his team are going to climb

over another mountain. ●

ET Phone Homebut what’s a phone?

14

Hamburgefintsiv 16

Above ground vs below ground, offshore vs onshore, cows vs horses, home vs away, IADC vs IWCF – they are all questions or situations that Cliff Wall has had to face in his working life.

An oilman for 35 years, the

cows verses horses scenario

is down to the fact that home to

Cliff is a ranch a little over 200

miles from Houston in Texas. ‘It’s

a small place, just 70 acres and we

have had, or do have, cows, sheep,

goats donkeys and presently one

pony,’ he tells us.

‘Right now livestock prices are

so high I can hardly afford to buy

cows, or feed them. I never could

make money at ranching, so I’m a

driller first.’

The conundrum for Cliff is that

high fodder prices and low oil

prices have created a totally

diverse market situation in both

industries. Seventy acres is small

in terms of Texan ranching, it’s no

South Fork. At 28 hectares Cliff’s

ranch would be seen as a medium

size farm within the European

Union - its 40 soccer fields.

MENDING FENCESOil and ranching mixed effectively

in the TV series Dallas, but much

as it was nice for Bobby Ewing

and Cliff Barnes to go out and ride

for two days to fix a fence, the real

money was created when he sat

behind a desk. The current barrel

price has resulted in rigs being

moth-balled, plans shelved and

Cliff Wall, temporally out of one of

his jobs.

‘My last position was rig

superintendent, basically a

floating superintendent for

Diamond Offshore. Diamond

The Cowboy and the OilmanCliff’s at home on the ranch and the rig

16

17The two latest additions to the Wall ranch, a lamb and a grandson

got hit hard down in Brazil and

Mexico and lost a lot of their

contracts. It is always a shock to

get laid off, but it wasn’t entirely

unexpected with what had

happened to Diamond,’ says Cliff.

Going where the work is, where

the oil may be, has always been

Cliff’s work pattern, he’s worked

in just about every drilling

theatre around the world since he

started as a 19 year old in 1980. It

has been three and a half decades

of change and no less in the area

of training.

‘Looking at safety and behavioural

performances in them days,

the company I was working for

actually budgeted for lost time

injuries! I think the behavioural-

based training came about when

the oil companies realised that

this was coming off the top, off

their profit, and that’s when we

started seeing a big change,’ he

observes.

One of the changes has been the

certification demands for Well

Control.

‘When I started my job search,

drilling superintendent, drilling

supervisors, tourpusher, the

majority of them required IWCF. I

could see that I’d have to pay for

this out of my own pocket, but

online I saw this opportunity from

Maersk Training,’ he says.

‘IWCF PLEASE!’The opportunity was to join a pilot

course at Maersk Training’s new

facility in Houston for IWCF. Cliff

took away from it more than the

treasured certificate which will

open job opportunities across

the world – ‘Kim (Kim Laursen,

chief instructor) really knew his

stuff. I’ve been in the industry

about as long as he’s been alive

but he taught me two things

about pressure and force that I’ve

never used before. They are great

takeaways.’

‘Completing the course opens

up opportunities, especially

in the North Sea, I’ve worked

there before – they are asking

specifically for IWCF. I’m open to

anything, but I want to finish out

my career with an independent

company as a supervisor or

superintendent. I’m going to work

til I die, if you get 100 days off a

year and they are paying you a

full year’s salary, that’s a good

win/win in my book.’

The oil business has taken Cliff

all around the world but for

wife Roberta the ex-pat lifestyle

was demanding and now back

in Texas her demands are

dominated by six grandchildren,

‘and taking care of me’, says Cliff.

The money earned will help

run the ranch and keep the six

grandchildren happy. As Cliff

mused, ‘You might as well spend

it; I’ve never seen an armoured

car following behind a hearse.’ ●

IADC vs IWCF

You like potato

and I like potahto

You like tomato

and I like tomahto

Potato, potahto,

Tomato, tomahto.

Let's call the whole thing off

IADC or IWCF, what does it

matter? They are the two

internationally recognised

standards for competency in

Well Control, one favoured by

American companies, the other

European.

So what exactly are the

differences. In truth the aim is

the same, to bring a high level

of safety behaviour and correct

action in preventing blowouts

and mitigating well control

problems.

17

Hamburgefintsiv 18

Poachers to Gamekeepers

They are an ocean apart and they have made the same transition, from poacher to gamekeeper, but crane

instructors Lasse and Ernest are united in an ambition to raise standards.

18

19

North Atlantic Tale

For Lasse Dam Rømhild

stepping out of the helicopter

onto the helideck of Maersk

Resolute was like coming home.

Eighteen months ago he would

have been getting read for a four-

week stint as a crane driver,

this time he was back to test

his former colleagues and prove

them competent, or otherwise, for

work.

‘On Resolute, my old rig, it was

quite professional, great to see

so many old faces and friends but

when the testing started it was

the sole focus,’ Lasse says. ‘It was

a really good experience. Luckily I

didn’t have to make any negative

decisions, they were all very

good.’

For Lasse the transition from

crane driver to instructor was

more than he’d anticipated. He’d

worked as a consultant at Maersk

Training in Svendborg, but the

full crossover involved a lot more

time.

‘It was quite difficult because even

although you think you know a lot

there are a large number of rules

and regulations you are aware of

but without knowing precisely. I

had to do a lot of studying up,’ he

says.

LIKE COMING HOMEHe developed the workload that

now sees him regularly flying out

to rigs and assessing operators

and on occasions conducting

training. He can assess two

people in a 12 hours shift but it

depends on the weather, since

there has to be a minimum of five

lifts on and off a vessel. Then there

is a written test, which takes an

hour. That is, for many the most

difficult part and it requires an

80% pass mark.

Going back offshore is ‘like coming

home’ Lasse says he’s lucky

because his wife understands

the importance of enjoying your

job. There is an added bonus he

says since his wife is currently

19

Hamburgefintsiv

studying, ‘so she gets peace and

quiet to get on with it.’

We caught up with Lasse when

he was on Maersk Resolve and

his timetable of assessing is so

full that he will be dropping in

on rigs all over the North Sea

for the foreseeable future. The

only downside is that life is now

dependent on the weather.

‘When I was on Resolute a fog

came down and the guys I was to

assess were stuck in Esbjerg, it

was an extra weekend away,’ he

noted.

South Atlantic Story

Ernest Wami’s workplace is

considerable, from the Ivory

Coast to southern Africa, a stretch

of coastline that would reach

from Stavanger to Gibraltar in

European terms.

His message is equally formidable.

Step off a plane virtually

anywhere in West Africa and

beyond the blast of warmth,

one common feeling is the lack

of regard for personal safety.

People travel holding on to taxi

doors - from the outside, ride

in the gap between truck and

wagon and transport a roomful

of possessions on the back of

a moped. Safety doesn’t come

naturally in West Africa so

Ernest’s job in spreading the word

is a daunting one.

‘My wife is also a safety instructor

so our home culture is one of

safety. Even if it is just for a game

of football, our children will come

to us first and we do a sort of risk

assessment. I look out to see how

big the other players are,’ says

Ernest.

‘It is something that comes from

22 years working for Transocean.

They put safety as a number one

priority and it is a culture that

doesn’t end at the gate, it is one

you take home with you,’ he says.

‘In general the Nigerian safety

culture is not good.’

THE FLYING INSTRUCTORFormerly a crane operator and

deck supervisor, Ernest is now

a flying instructor with Maersk

Training in Port Harcourt,

Nigeria; his destinations are

the rigs which dot the eastern

equatorial Atlantic. The aim

of his visits is to embed safety

into a broad range of personnel.

The rules that require the

employment 50% of the workforce

from local sources means that

the acceptance of company safety

values on board is not initially

universal.

‘From the Ivory Coast to Angola

the languages on rigs switch from

English to Portuguese to French.

I teach through a translator but I

often worry that the message isn’t

getting across, particularly with

Portuguese,’ he says.

However the training period on

board matches the shift pattern

so Ernest usually gets four weeks

to positively affect the culture.

During such visits it is up to

Mrs. Wami to solely assess the

opposition football team. ●

20

Hamburgefintsiv 22

There’s no such thing as a bad photograph. It’s a statement at which many will scream ‘rubbish’ – but it is true. Capturing a moment in time is precious no matter how dubious the content. It’s what you do with that captured moment that makes it precious.

22

23

No social media has

changed quite as much as

photography. Twenty years ago

you went on holiday and along

with the sun-creams you took,

two, three maybe four rolls of

film. These gave you up to 36

shots per roll and when you

returned you waited for a couple

of days to see the results. These

were then sorted and put into an

album. Precious moments stored,

sometimes forgotten, mislaid, but

rarely totally lost. They remain

mementos of a time when you

had a six-pack, when tanning was

deemed safe, when flares were

fashionable.

In those days the average family

owned 2.5 cameras brought

out for special events, classic

holiday photos required a dinner

scene, view for the balcony

and someone in the pool. You

could choose between photos

or slides depending on whether

you wanted to bore your friends

individually or en masse.

Today we probably each have

2.5 picture-taking pieces of

equipment constantly about our

person. What we capture is sent

up there somewhere onto an

iCloud, we save, but in truth we

don’t understand the process.

We click and click so often that

we have turned the camera on

ourselves to create the newest

word in the language ‘the selfie’

and not content with that ‘selfies’

have developed so that the

background is part of the story.

THE QUEEN AND ITake the photo of Søren (above)

– technically it’s not a selfie,

but it represents the current

culture. Ten years ago a chance

meeting with the Queen would

have resulted in several grabbed

snaps of her descending the steps,

exclusively of her. Today she is

demoted to the background story,

‘this is me, the day the Queen saw

my back.’

Let’s analyse this picture. A photo

of the Queen walking somewhere

is what fills the society magazines

every week, it is commonplace.

Sørens’s photo is not perfect in

framing or quality but it is unique,

precious. It is real and not posed.

In eSea we try to avoid using

photographs that are posed. But

23

Hamburgefintsiv

that’s not to say that those high

quality photos where you can

virtually hear the words ‘cheese

or appelsin’ have no value. They

are a potential useful historical

document, like a wedding group.

Nice but they don’t excite.

Recently Maersk Training

issued a challenge to all those

in its worldwide group, ‘send us

your snaps, ones that capture a

moment of your working life.’

Safety and Survival instructor

Kasper Erhardt Trager somehow

retrieved a working moment from

his iPhone, early morning training

on the sea outside Esbjerg. ‘I didn’t

quite see the meaning and story

in the photograph. I took out my

iPhone, I always wrap it in plastic

bags when working, and snapped.

It was only when I looked at it

later that the stillness of the frost

in the foreground became more

important because of the menace

of the weather on the horizon.’

PHOTO LIMITFamily man Kasper could have

written this article because

he has come through the

photographic development cycle

from precious individual clicks

to rattling off photos at every

moment. ‘I’ve put a limit on the

number we can take on holidays

otherwise it just becomes

unmanageable,’ he says.

If there’s one pass-on technique

that improves photography, it is,

like comedy, it is in the timing.

Because of Photoshop framing

is no longer so important, but

content is. Look at the scene and

try and work out what is about to

happen next. A bit like Søren and

the Queen. If the photographer

had allowed her majesty one more

step, her head would have been

obscured by the railing.

The other aspect is in what you

take the picture with. Phone

cameras are ever getting better,

but as you can see from the

illustration of the Four Men

of Esbjerg, they have their

limitations because the lens,

regardless of the megebytes, is

the size of a grain of rice. Keep

clicking. ●

24

Hamburgefintsiv 25

Hamburgefintsiv 26

We hope you got inspired

to take some cool offshore

pictures.

Enter the competition, and

maybe you will be featured in

the next eSea.

First prize is a gadget that

makes sure your camera is

never out of power.

Send your picture to [email protected]

Helle fully charged with the

first prize – a car power bank

and torch

eSea Photo Competition

26

27eSea library

eSeaM A R I T I M E /O I L & G A S/ W I N D/C R A N E · JA N UA RY 2013

macondo – a lesson unlearnt? the worlds most advanced offshore simulation complex >�

the most socially isolated person on planet earth? >

training to avoid skyfall >

captaining a floating town >

combating stress with underwater rugby >

11



EM AGA ZINE FROM M A ERSK TR A INING 19

Hello GoodbyeWhat’s that...? >Moustache Or Madness? >Runway to Slipway >Lady in Black > RIGMAROLE* you don’t need >Rolling Back the Years >Floating Like Butterflies Stinging Like Bees >SCOTS land on MARS >Umbrella Fella >Sund of Silence >Friendly Fred & Frugal Friend >



20

On the move

From Diverse to Dynamic >New Day, New Horizon >Working for Transition >The Duke of Hazzard >Caso do Constant Care >Karoline’s Tartan Diary >2000 Light Years From Home >



21

RELAXATIONEXPECTATION

INNOVATIONDEDICATION

Remote Well Control Tower > Core Education >

Moving Forward at the Speed of Light Sockets > Taking Your Passion Into The Office >

‘Bad Day At The Office’ Curling Career Turner > Sync On Skis >Leif ends at 18 >

Houston I’ve Got No Problems >The Adventures of Katwoman >

The Seagull Has Landed >Barrels of fun – not! >

Thinking Inside The Box >


wind powerWindmills - never ending or beginning >�Poul la Cour. Father of Wind Power >Olsen band crack safe operation >The Floating Table >Bridge and Engine in Sync >Door Knobs to Safety >The North Sea Glory Story > 12


eSeaM A R I T I M E / O I L & G A S / W I N D / C R A N E · N O . 14 / 2 0 1 3

food


Don’t blame the cook >Eat meet and leave >

Triple E = 3M’s >Brazil’s oil and gender revolution >Funny Tummy

So what is the MLC 2006 all about? >Food for Thought >Blade Runners >

Playing the name game >

The Story of Ngoc



15

Gulf Lessons >Keep taking the tablets > What exactly is Performance Enhancement? >When BP means Better Prepared > Nintendo boys, game on >Puffed, but the magic drags on >No bang Bang >Girls Out Loud >Every Boat Tells a Story >Science - stronger than steel >All fired up >Space, the final frontier >

performance enhancement

Piracy – Søren’s Somali Story

Ngoc's Fourth Bar >Colony of hope >

Farewell Favela, So Long Shanty >Starbuster >

All Sorts Have One Aim >Knowledge Seekers >

Helsingborg to Prague, via Svendborg >Surely not >



16

Carload of Hopes >Revolving door >

Caught Flagging >Logomotions >

Hard Drive for Soft Skills >Perfect Pressure Performance >

Marstal - port of passion and ferry tales >Rockall - All Rock or Oil Rock? >

eSeaM A R I T I M E / O I L & G A S / W I N D / C R A N E · N O . 17/ 2 0 1 4


17

The Great Bag of China- what's the secret of good branding?

Oceans Seven >Bonus Points >'Tracy's Screen Test' >What’s a Flag State? > She’s Leaving Home >Stonehaven, home of ... >SiberianOnSafety >Recalculating... >



18

Jonny’s $10,000 Gamble

eSea 1 Instructors’ back to sea programme - Sea Time Reduction announced - Vetting for Supply - New Deepwater Horizons open up

eSea 2New Towmasters’ course gets full simulation treatment - Deepwater course piloted - Wind industry - Drill instructor gets back to the well head

eSea 3MOSAIC II announced - Offshore wind, the new challenges - West African pilots use simulator to deal with the ‘big boys’ - CraneSIM in Vietnam - Piracy through the ages

eSea 4MT launches new website - Chinese in big safety push - Rig crane put in a box - Safety and People Skills build platform emergency course - how to communicate across cultures

eSea 5Maersk Training pennant raised in Dubai - Platform crews pilot Emergency Response course - How to be best in Vetting class - Danger of computer over reliance

eSea 6MOSAIC II, the ground is broken - Rig participants up to elbows in some very special mud - Semi-sub crew learns anchor handling - West African pilots start payback

eSea 7Chinese Container crews look to safety - Rig crane simulator tested - Esbjerg’s new facilities - MOSAIC II update - DP sea-time reduction - Coffee Break with Bent Nielsen

eSea 8Titanic Edition looking back at 100 years of increased safety and improved training - the lifeboat revolution - man overboard - spreading knowledge - tomorrow’s seafarers

eLibrary

eSea 9$15million Phone call - Wrappers off MOSAIC II - 5 Year drilling package - Tomorrow’s leaders today - Family comes too - Learning in luxury - Danish Olympians teambuild

eSea 10Breaking the ice, a new route in navigation - crane simulation arrives - Newcastle’s drop in course for the high life - the silent disease, loneliness - Chinese catch safety bug

To go back in time and access articles from previous issues, simply click on the photo of the edition or use the QR code.









eLibrary












eLibrary












eLibrary












eLibrary












eLibrary












eLibrary












eLibrary












eLibrary












eLibrary




Hamburgefintsiv

“A soft and sweet touch of Scandinavian simplicity.

Experience style with a timeless elegance that represents freedom and a natural curiosity to explore.

A breath of fresh air for your everyday adventures.”

Some days you have to ask

yourself what are some

marketing people on? The above

text is from a single product; can

you instantly see what it might

be? If I hadn’t been part of the

buying process I would never

have guessed.

The first line might hint towards

a piece of furniture, or at the

very least a cushion. It’s not.

Is it a basic human need that

some products, no matter how

simple, require the comfort factor

of knowing its exact place of

creation? Take pillows. I can’t

quite grasp why they need to have

a little label with a flag on them,

stating Danish Design. What is

there to the design in a pillow?

Two bits of cloth sewn together

and then stuffed with something

Simplicityis king

28

29

Simplicityis king

that doesn’t hurt. Also if you want

the whole story, why is there no

Chinese flag to denote who did

the sewing and stuffing before

heading off to school? When she’s

older she can make computers

thinking what does ‘Designed in

California’ mean?

Then there’s the second line.

Perhaps it’s a diver’s watch, or

maybe a jacket with bulbous

pockets to carry maps and water

bottles. No. We’re still a long way

off.

‘LET’S BRAINSTORM’It’s at this point you start to

imagine the marketing office

and the brainstorming session

to generate the blurb. Large flip

charts everywhere with someone

bouncing about full of energy

and something else, felt marker

in hand, scribbling ‘timeless,

natural, style’ and posting it on

the wall shouting ‘experience,

elegance, explore, I love all the E’s.

This is going so well!’

There’s a fantastic book on the

art of innovation, so fantastic

and direct and focused that the

name is The Art of Innovation.

The author Tom Kelley nails the

right way to brainstorm, rule

number one, ‘don’t let the boss run

the session.’ The book details the

growth of probably the world’s

most innovative company, it’s not

Apple, Microsoft or Lego even, it

is IDEO – never heard of them?

That’s because they are always

in the background, but genius

background boys and girls. They

take problems and situations and

re-think them through from a

totally different standpoint.

They created the first Apple

mouse; they improved dental

hygiene twice over, firstly by

making tooth brushing for

kids easier with a fat easy-to-

hold handle. This dramatically

improved the young teeth and cut

down visits to dentist. Then they

worked on the toothpaste itself. A

small brand Crest wanted a new

approach, one that avoided the

contents splurging over the sink

for the next twelve hours.

IDEO came up with a flip-top and

a simple valve. The diaphragm

that stops the paste continually

coming out is now commonplace

in sauce bottles and the water

bottles of bikers. So simple, but

do you read on the side of the

ketchup? - ‘A life enhancing

moment of blissful elegance to

support and enrich your chips.’ I

think not.

A BREATH OF FRESH AIR?We’re down to the third phrase,

and I expect you are nudging your

thoughts towards an in-car air-

freshener that isn’t in the shape of

a pine tree. Wrong again.

The photograph may have given

it away at the start; all that over-

sweetened blurb, every word of

it, was for a plastic cover for an

iPhone. Yes really. Knowing this,

read the whole blurb again and

try to connect.

The really annoying thing is that

they obviously based the cost of

the item on the fees charged for

the brainstorming, not the item

itself. For 200 dkk, that’s nearly

$30, you get a bit of olive green

plastic, designed in Finland so

that if you drop your phone onto

the right surface, it might not

break. Like snow.

There remained one issue. In all

the marketing and designing they

missed out one basic function -

the plastic partially covered the

re-charging socket. This meant

that you had to remove it every

time it needed refreshing with

power.

To the company’s credit they

responded to my wife’s complaint

by immediately sending her a

different, even more expensive

cover and for free. With it came

apologies clearly not written by

the team who came up with the

marketing blurb. It read, ‘We are

sorry, thank you for pointing this

out.’

Simplicity is king. ●

Hamburgefintsiv 30

ContactEditorial issues and suggestions:Richard Lightbody - [email protected]

Names and emails of those able and eager to help with specific enquiries arising out of this issue

Sales enquiries Aberdeen (UK): [email protected]

Sales enquiries Brazil:[email protected]

Sales enquiries Esbjerg (DK): [email protected]

Sales enquiries India:[email protected]

Sales enquiries Middle East:[email protected]

Sales enquiries Newcastle (UK):[email protected]

Sales enquiries [email protected]

Sales enquiries Norway: [email protected]

Sales enquiries Svendborg (DK):[email protected]

Sales enquiries United [email protected]

Or visit our website www.maersktraining.com

eSea 22 - One World, Many Cultures

Documents

Transcript of eSea 22 - One World, Many Cultures