Railroading in the World Marketplace
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(l-r) Jeff Heller, Wick Moorman, Don Seale, Clark Cheng |
Clark Cheng, senior manager operations research in NS’ Atlanta office of strategic planning, recently traveled to China with Chairman Wick Moorman, Chief Marketing Officer Don Seale and AVP Intermodal International Jeff Heller. It wasn’t a run of the mill business trip.
The purpose was to meet with China’s Ministry of Railway (MOR) and with China Railway Container Transport Company (CRCTC), an NS intermodal customer. First stop was
Diaoyutai State Guesthouse
for a banquet with CRCTC. Diaoyutai is the government facility where all foreign dignitaries and heads of state meet. As a youth, Cheng actually attended school nearby, but at the time it was a guarded location. Now China allows most anyone to enter the facility, though it serves mostly VIPs and corporate retreats.� The official meeting with MOR and reception was held at the
Great Hall of the People
, the equivalence of the Capitol.
After the Beijing meeting, the NS group took a non-stop 900-mile, 12 hour train trip to Shanghai. After boarding, Moorman found his picture on the front page of a national daily newspaper. The destination was the
Yangshan
deepwater port in Shanghai. On arrival, they traveled over an eight-lane bridge built 20 miles into the ocean to the Big and Little Yangshan Islands that serve as a port facility. The facility moves some eight million 20-foot (TEU) containers through its cranes and gates every year.
While in Shanghai, Cheng and company met with China Shipping Container Line representatives to talk about shipping options to the bottlenecked West Coast ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.� The delegation also had a joyride on the world’s fastest passenger train,
Shanghai’s flashy Maglev
(magnetic levitation) running from its financial district to the international airport in about 8 minutes with a top speed approaching 300 mph.
On his return, Cheng spoke with the NS Diversity Council:
How do you think Norfolk Southern is suited for business with the world
?
We have the best managed railroad and a real-time look at operations. We have superb technology and planning tools to help us provide great service to customers in new markets. We have port operations and rail and truck combinations through intermodal to bring the world’s freight to any destination in the U.S. or to take our products to other countries.
How is NS bringing the world to our rails?
People might think our tracks and business serve only our territory of 22 states and Canada and that our business is just to “run Norfolk Southern.” But we can go to the rest of the world to try to influence their business decisions and bring their business to our marketplace. We can also take our customer’s business to the rest of the world. It really is a global marketplace now.
What we are learning as we go global
?
That even though our cultures may be different and our languages different, railroading and moving products bring us together. People all around the world need to ship goods and move freight. And our people do it the best of any. You hear Mr. Moorman talk about that -- it’s all about service, technology and people.
How does your work tie into diversity in the workforce, workplace and marketplace?
A diverse cultural background helps give me the opportunity to be involved. I recently learned that in America,
16,000
students are currently learning Chinese. But in China,
100 million
people are learning English. Norfolk Southern wants people who can step into another country and raise the company profile. I am able to take my cultural heritage and my language skills and put them to use for my own growth experience and for my company. It is a tremendous opportunity. It is also a lot of fun. |
