The Lloyd’s List Podcast: Why Stena Bulk’s CEO is prepared for a more complex future

As unpalatable as it may be to say out loud, global turmoil is pretty good for business. Shipping CEOs are as happy as shipping CEOs generally get to be.[Sidebar#LL1149672] They are after all a pretty philosophical bunch at heart and they understand that all this has been seen before and will be seen again. They know that unexpected good fortune tends to come with a flipside. What comes up must come down, and every action has an equal and opposite reaction — it’s just a question of being able to calculate the Newtonian market forces to know when you are about to get clobbered. All of which is by way of context to the conversation at the heart of this week’s edition of the podcast with Stena Bulk president and chief executive Erik Hånell. Hånell talks through his view about the immediate market prospects, but the conversation is about how to deal with uncertainty. As a business leader he needs to take strategic decisions now despite not knowing what lies ahead when it comes to fuels, technology or geopolitical risk. That presents a complex series of challenges.