The digitalization movement is shifting from a "nice to have" to a "need to have" to remain competitive

First Steps

Every year, Klaveness Digital organizes an Internship program and welcomes the best and brightest of shipping’s next generation. As a student of SMU, Aladdy Choo started her days at Klaveness Digital filling this role while completing her Bachelor in Business Management with sub-specialization in Maritime Business and Operations.

Asked what motivated her choice of career path, Choo explains,“many people, myself previously included, commonly think of this industry as ‘old school’ - I wanted an opportunity that would put me on the frontline of the digitalization movement.”Choo adds that Klaveness’ long-standing history of challenging established thinking and fierce digitalization agenda originally attracted her to the organization.

Project APAC

As an Intern, Choo’s projects primarily entailed market research initiatives to identify new industry verticals and growth opportunities in the APAC (Asia-Pacific) region. But, when Covid-19 hit and business priorities worldwide shifted, she was quickly thrust into the spotlight and played a lead role organizing Singapore’s First Virtual Maritime Tech Conference in collaboration with Maritime & Ports Authority of Singapore, DNV-GL, and other industry players.

Now a full-time member of the team, Choo explains part of her remit will be working with Klaveness Digital’s Singapore office to digitalize the seaborne supply chains of companies operating in the region, and adds, “I’ll constantly be developing my knowledge base and leveraging the Klaveness network to help companies not only with a smooth digital transition, but how to identify continuous improvement techniques.”

She adds that during her stint at Klaveness Digital, she’s already observed an industry shift in perception when it comes to embracing digitalization, “it tends to be about the value creation, and now more (companies) are realizing digitalization is a key enabler of added value, it’s shifting from a ‘nice to have’ to a ‘need to have’ to stay competitive.” Choo adds that seeing companies realize this in practice is a particularly motivating part of her work, and cites an example of an Australian mining giant recently attributing massive savings to Klaveness Digital’s CargoValue tech in its employ.

The Future of Shipping

Asked where she sees things heading, the newly appointed Commercial Associate is hinging everything on digitalization and collaboration and goes on to explain, “digitalization will play a huge role in transforming the shipping industry. It will transform the way we approach problems, think and work – simplifying workflows and facilitating improved decision making for the benefit of everyone.”

Choo goes on to explain that industry-wide collaboration is important in getting there and argues, “we’re used to doing work alone, especially now with work from home being the norm; but the age-old mantra two is better than one always rings true; through collaboration we can achieve so much more.”.

She goes on to conclude, “I look forward to playing my own role collaborating with industry players here in the APAC region to help make it happen!”