Mr. Herbert Lin: Maneuver of Yangming from Highest Wind and Waves

——Interviews with Mr. Herbert Lin, Executive Vice President of Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation

Herbert Lin, a wise shipping manager, a knowledgeable scholar and an elegant gentleman…

Herbert Lin, as the Executive Vice President & Executive Officer of Taiwan Operations Group of Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation (Yang Ming), stands at the ship bow and deviate Yangming from highest waves, submerged rocks, icebergs and dangerous shallows.

As a knowledgeable scholar majored in cooperate management, university is another frequent destination for Herbert Lin to share his deep insights, rich experience and living cases on cooperate management with students. 
In daily life, Herbert Lin tries to keep himself far away from hustles and bustles and always maintain composure. Whether on the Golf playground or in the meditation room, what he displays is always elegance.     

Herbert Lin, committed himself to Yangming consistently for 29 years, witnesses growing up of Yangming career and serves as a maneuver to lead Yangming to fight against wind and storm and maintain on tide.

Journalist: In recent years, many ship owners are keen on investing on ports. What did Yangming do in this regard? What China ports did Yangming invest? What are the criteria for Yangming when investing a port?

Mr. Lin: Indeed, Yangming has invested to build terminals in many ports worldwide, such as Los Angeles Port, Tacoma port, Port of Antwerp, Port of Rotterdam and so on. We have rich experience and expertise skills in berth allocation, loading and warehouse. And we also are equipped with the advanced software system to guarantee the optimum operation efficiency. 
Yangming also cooperates with a lot of China mainland ports and logistics parks. Currently, Yangming joined hand with some local enterprises in Chongqing to invest in building a logistic park in Chongqing. By now, the stage-1 project has been accomplished and the stage-2 process is under planning. This logistics park will be the first logistics park of Yangming in China mainland. 

In addition, Yangming will set up three logistics parks, respectively in South China, Middle China and North China. In South China, we will find a location in West Shenzhen. Our Middle China location will be in Shanghai and we have made plan to build a logistics park in Shanghai suburb and the project will be started recently. In Northern China, now we are making research on Tianjin Dongjiang bonded seaport. 

As to criteria, we usually evaluate a port in terms of geographical location, economy hinterland, cargo throughput, local policy and service development. Taking Tianjin as an example, this city is a key item in China’s “11th five-year plan” and its economy hinterland can be extended to NorthWest China with full cargo supply, it boasts a wide region to be developed. With these criteria, we take Tianjin as one of our investment targets.

Journalist: As one of the top 20 liner companies in the world, Yangming is a pioneer in the world shipping industry. What are the key factors in the successful Yangming career? What is the competitive edge for Yangming?
　　
 Mr. Lin: In the past 35 years since the establishment of Yangming, Yangming attaches great importance to personnel quality. Yangming set a very high threshold for entering Yangming. Only passing several highly competitive tests can a college student enter Yangming. The employment ratio of Yangming is 200:1 on average.   

Yangming boasts a complete and systematic training mechanism. A new graduate will be given 5-6 years of system training before being appointed to be a manager. For Yangming’s success, one key weapon is personnel strategy.

Yangming enjoys plenty of competitive edges. For example, Yangming’s finance transparency level is very high. In 2004, Yangming was the only Taiwan company to be awarded by the magazine Euromoney as “Cooperate governance Model” in the newly emerging market. Yangming also takes the first place in 2004 Taiwan Enterprise Appraisal. All these awards show that Yangming does have good performance in service quality, innovation, operation efficiency and training.     
　
Journalist: As we know, Yangming has achieved privatization. What’s the background for Yangming’s privatization? What leaps has Yangming made? 
　　
 Mr. Lin: Yangming began its privatization reform in 1990 and the reform is accomplished in 1996. Taiwan enjoyed a booming economy in 1990, resulting in a high demand of export. However, Yangming suffered from bureaucracy due to its state-owned mechanism. For example, when building a ship, we will submit the application to the board of directors as well as plenty of government agencies for approval. It took more than one year before the final accomplishment. The suspension and delay not only increased the cost of building ships but also made a lot of opportunities missed.
　　
Yangming’s sales revenue in 1990 only amounted to 25.7 billion Taiwan Dollar while this number was increased to be 111 billion Taiwan dollars. Yangming has been ranked as top 10 service enterprises for several consecutive years. The reformed Yangming will reap more development after getting more energy and power. 
　　
Journalist: What is the strategic goal of Yangming in future? Are you satisfied with Yangming’s rank in the current international liner company list?

Mr. Lin: Yangming ranked 16 in the current international liner company list. And our goal is to be ranked within the top 10. We are confident and are capable of realizing this in future. 

Journalist: What measures will Yangming take in realizing this strategic goal?
　
 Mr. Lin: To realize this strategic goal, Yangming will provide more sophisticated service to customers. We make our plans in the following four aspects.

Firstly, we will keep improving the information system to reduce the time cost and economy cost for both shippers and us so as to improve economy efficient and social efficiency. .

Secondly, we will expand our shipping liners worldwide. Currently Yangming’s shipping liners covers the whole world. We have 17 shipping liners to US, among which 6 reaches east bank of US and 11 to west US bank. We will allocate more shipping liners via CKYH alliance.

Thirdly, we will expand our logistics services and continue to develop logistics parks. Thus, our maritime service can be expanded to the continent to cover the total logistics link. As a result, Yangming’s comprehensive competence will be enhanced.

Fourthly, we will pay more attention to our bulk carrier fleet. Although we have couple of years’ experience in bulk carrier transport, we did not form a scale. Now 6 bulk carriers are being built and will be put into operation in 2011.     

Journalist: The impression you leave to us is being a wise manager to coordinate all aspects of Yangming, but few know that you have worked in Yangming for 29 years and contribute to Yangming your diligence and perseverance in such a long period. You have experienced Yangming’s many reforms. Can you share with us your experience in Yangming?  

Mr. Lin: I joined Yangming early in Year 1980 and witness so many changes of Yangming in the past 29 years. I win my position out of 13 competitors and I work here for 27 years, the best period in my life. I am still ready to make commitment to Yangming’s development in my later life.   

In the first 12 years, I was mainly engaged in the basic shipping liner service, laying a sound base for my current work as a cooperate manager. With the social economy development and internationalization, we more and more feel the bottleneck of a state-owned enterprise, so we began our privatization process in 1990. I enrolled the two-year cooperate governance course to help Yangming in setting up core value, objective, strategy planning, ISO service, routine management, personnel management, etc. Finally Yangming’s privatization was accomplished in 1996 and Yangming becomes one of the most successful private-owned companies in Taiwan.

The personnel issue is the most difficult to handle in the process of privatization. How to persuade Yangming personnel to change their traditional idea and values and how to optimize the personnel structure are very crucial. I was in charge of the human resource issue of Yangming in the first period of privatization and made all my efforts to guarantee an excellent human resource for Yangming development and to provide a good platform for Yangming’s globalization.

After this, I worked on the global operation service of Yangming and made endeavors to lower the cost and improve efficiency. As far as we know, even the smoothest ocean surface may hide storms and icebergs. I will always be ready to overcome the upcoming storms and waves.