A sailor at heart , making a difference in Marine Management – Anil Agarawal

1. Explain the background of you and the company in detail.

Seaspeed Marine is 15 years old company based out of Sharjah and has gone through various changes since its inspection in 2007.

We initially started as an offshore vessel-owning company and operated a few bulk carriers. In 2015, with the induction of new management, we brought our focus to offshore shipping and operating offshore vessels including supply vessels, anchor handlers, DP vessels, PSVs, tugs and barges, and other types of offshore units.

We slowly expanded our operations to tanker vessel broking and chartering, vessel technical management services, and Marine and technical consultancy services the recent addition to our service portfolio is the Dry bulk chartering and broking desk.

Our company has kept our main focus on commercial shipping where we have dedicated teams for Tankers, Offshore vessels, and dry bulk vessels.

Our Fujairah office focuses on carrying out our audits, inspections, and surveys as a part of Marine and technical consultancy services.

Our clients are mainly ship owners, charterers, managers, and underwriters whom we can serve through our diverse service portfolio.

 2. What are your goals?

Our goal is to become a company of preferred choice for all our customers. As we are in the service industry, customer satisfaction is our topmost priority. We are serving a few segments of the shipping industry and our goals for each of our offered service segments are as follows:

• Commercial shipping: To be one of the top 3 shipping brokers in UAE for offshore ships, tankers, and bulk carriers by 2025.
• Marine and technical Consultancy: To have a pool of highly competent and professional in-house surveyors and increase our service level to the top
•  Technical Management of Ships: To become the extended arm of our ship owners for the management of their vessels and have a sizable number of vessels under our technical management.

3. What is your and your company’s biggest strength?

We can define our core strength in the following words:

• High professional and competent team
• Lean operations to pass on the cost benefits to our customers
• Agility in our response
• Complete Transparency
• No compromise on business ethics

 4. What was the path you took to get to where you are today?

We always followed the basic rules and never took shortcuts. Our firm belief that we are here to serve our customers in the best possible ways has propelled us forward.

As we put our customers at the canter stage, our team automatically does what is best to serve and safeguard our customer’s interests.

5. Why did you start this company?

It was always my dream to have my own business. You may be surprised that this dream was not driven by the ambition of having lavish houses or swanky cars or a fat bank balance but by a craving to have added value to whatever line of business I choose. You may wonder and ask that such a dream can be fulfilled by working for someone else as well which is quite true. However, being in a chair and having complete creative freedom to chart a path for yourself can only be possible when you are on your own. Such desires may end up in success or failure but I never wanted to be among those people who would say in the end… “Only if I could have….”

6. What have been the biggest challenges you’ve had to overcome?

Coming from a traditional sailing background, my exposure to business practices was limited which really became a hurdle when I got started on this journey. Also, I would not hesitate to say that I did not have adequate sales skills to survive in the market. Whenever I look back, I see that I have come a long way but still so much more is there to learn every day.

7. Give us one word that describes you the best.

• Ethical
• A work in progress

8. What makes you excited about Mondays?

The thrill to face the challenges which await you as you reach your office. I am blessed that I have a good team of friends in the office who does their best to solve any problem given to them. Working with them is the most pleasurable part of any of my days.

9. Tell us about a project that forced you to be innovative and creative.

We have recently done a shipment of project cargo from the Far east region to the AG area. This project has really been a steep learning curve for all of us as it was not regular work we do.

10. What are the key values which helped you to overcome the roadblocks/challenges in your career? Tell us something about your memorable incident in your leadership.

You don’t need to be the smartest person in the room. As long as you have the right intentions and you are ready to work hard, anything is possible. We are taught in shipping that whenever there is a crisis, stick to the basics and follow your instincts.

I have applied it in so many situations in my carrier and it had always helped me. I remember one particular incident where we had a fire situation on board. Instead of panicking, we worked as a team and followed the procedure, of course, giving due consideration to the specific details of the location and type of fire.

This could have resulted in total chaos which could lead to a disaster but thankfully, we managed to survive by facing the situation and tackling it in the best possible way.

11. What are your company’s services/solutions or products compared to the current industry standards? Tell us something about your upcoming products or services.

As we operate in the commercial and technical space of shipping, it is extremely important for us to keep an eye on the dynamic situation in the market and keep advising our customers.

We do so by being in continuous communication with our customers on a one-to-one basis which is highly appreciated by our customers.

At the moment, we are not planning to expand our service portfolio by adding some more services but to bring an element of AI and automate certain processes to our existing offerings so that we can become more efficient for our customers.