ON THE GLOBAL SCENE
“It is almost too banal to say that Mærsk is a unique and unusual person. He has class and he is noble. However, he is also an extremely demanding person.”
Kaspar Cassani
– interview with Uffe Ellemann-Jensen
A national man of the world
On January 30th 1990, Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller went for a special reception with the British Ambassador, Nigel Williams, at the Ambassador’s official residence, Bernstorffshøj near Bernstorff Park. The occasion was that the English queen, Elizabeth II, would honour him with the prestigious order ‘Honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.’ A distinction that would entitle him to call himself ‘Sir’ if he had been a British citizen. The order is one of the finest a British monarch can award to foreign citizens.
Among the guests were heavyweights from business and diplomacy. Two former British ambassadors had flown to Copenhagen to participate in the ceremony. In addition, a haggard and hollow-cheeked man turned up with a walking-stick, a large wound on his forehead and a neck-brace. The man was Denmark’s then Foreign Minister Uffe Elleman-Jensen. Strictly speaking, he should have been home for the sake of his health, but he had insisted on taking part to honour Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller. The order was recognition of A.P. Møller - Mærsk’s involvement in British business and Maersk’s work to ensure close Danish-British relations, including a donation to Churchill College, Cambridge, which was for instance going to have a new training centre, ‘Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller Centre for Continuing Education’.
In his acceptance speech, a grateful Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller said that since the Battle of Britain during the Second World War he had felt connected to the nation. From that time, he harboured a deep desire to help pay back Denmark’s debt to Britain for having held out against the German attacks and bombing raids.
Uffe Ellemann-Jensen simply had to attend the presentation of the order to Mærsk, “I wanted to go, because I admired his international vision and commitment, so I clung on to Alice, my wife, at a time where I should have lain in bed. Mærsk obviously sensed this as he approached her afterwards to say that I may want a little convalescence outside of the domestic limelight,” remembers the former Foreign Minister. The offer from Mr. Møller was for Uffe Elleman-Jensen and his wife, Alice Vestergaard to borrow the shipowner’s house La Perle in St Paul de Vence in France, so the Foreign Minister could have the opportunity to recover.
The reason for the Minister’s miserable condition was a result of complicated surgery at Copenhagen University Hospital between Christmas and New Year. He was operated for two malignant prolapsed discs in his neck, but during surgery one of the cervical vertebrae split, so doctors had to put in a splint using bull bone. Ellemann has never told just how serious it really was, but he was close to being paralysed from the neck down for life.
Meeting with Mærsk
Before leaving for La Perle, Ellemann-Jensen and Alice Vestergaard were invited to Mærsk and Emma Mc-Kinney Møller’s home on Mosehøjvej in Charlottenlund, north of Copenhagen. “Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller is a splendid host, his ability to charm the ladies is enviable and Emma was effervescent and funny. They were a couple, who worked together to unusual degree. His thoughtfulness towards his wife was so genuine and warm that it made us understand that they had been through much together and were each other’s support.” During the evening, the house in France was described to them, and they were given the keys and not least, they enjoyed the good company in the beautiful home. Naturally enough the conversation was about the dramatic changes in the world. And what changes!
In the momentous autumn of 1989, from their different lookout posts, Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller and Uffe Elleman-Jensen had followed a reversal of world history. In Eric Honecker’s East Germany, the population were stirring after having lived as citizens in a monitored society. The East Germans’ disdain was unheard of. They pushed their fear aside and came together to march through the streets, while rhythmically and defiantly shouting, “Wir sind das Volk”, We are the people. In the middle of it all, on November 9th 1989, the East German regime held a press conference regarding the easing of restrictions on travel visas. A news bulletin bolstered the message further saying that East Germany would open its borders, which led to a flood of border crossings to West Berlin.
Shortly before midnight and faced with a flood of East Germans, the guards gave up. A human wave rushed over the border crossings, where fleeing East Germans in the past had been shot when trying to escape East Germany. The wall in Berlin, the symbol of the Iron Curtain through Europe, had fallen.
However, not only East Germany experienced a revolution. The Velvet Revolution had overthrown the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, just as the winds of change blew in Hungary, Poland and Romania, sweeping away hated rulers. The openness, ‘Perestroika’ and ‘Glasnost’, which the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had begun in his country to reform the social system in a more democratic direction, could no longer be controlled, but took on a life of its own and became unstoppable. All this was spoken about at Mærsk and Emma Mc-Kinney Møller’s home. The meeting was significant. From that time, the contact between Mærsk and Ellemann was intensified and with time, a professional acquaintance developed into a friendship.
“The stay at La Perle was the beginning of a more personal contact between us. I sensed a mutual confidence that we could talk freely with each other without it being abused.”
The rest and recuperation stay was a great success. “At the time I was feeling very low, so it was a relief to be able to sit under the lemon trees and enjoy the fragrance, make peace and begin to recover.”
Visit to the Lindø yard
The first time Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller and Uffe Elleman-Jensen met, the atmosphere was far from business-related. From the early 1970s, Ellemann had made a name for himself as a newspaper and television journalist, specializing in economics, business and politics. At a young age, he was appointed editor of the Danish business newspaper, Børsen, and one day he received an invitation to a lunch meeting with Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller on Kongens Nytorv in Copenhagen. Several senior executives attended the meeting, but Mærsk took the lead with the conversation with Ellemann. The topic was general industrial policy, and shipyards were not a familiar theme with the chief editor. “He clearly thought that I should interest myself more in shipbuilding, which I knew absolutely nothing about then. I received a first briefing over lunch and was invited to visit the Lindø yard.”
It took several years before the visit took place and in the meantime, Ellemann had left journalism for politics. In 1977, he became a Member of Parliament for the Liberal Party and in 1982, when a Liberal government came to power, he was appointed Foreign Minister. When, as quite a new minister, he arrived at the large shipyard on Funen, one of Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’s most trusted executives stood ready to receive him. It was the shipyard’s CEO Troels Dilling, whom Ellemann has since got to know very well. “He was a troubleshooter by God’s grace and one of those people who Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller surrounded himself with. I fell for Dilling straight away, and I had the good fortune to work with him many years later when he was placed by Mærsk to manage some activities in Estonia. At the time, Dilling was far above the ‘normal’ retirement age, but I must say he was a live wire.”
During the tour, Troels Dilling enthusiastically talked about what employees were able to do, and Ellemann was impressed with the high-tech yard with sharp production processes and high technical skills, which should make it possible to produce ships in Denmark despite the tough competition from countries with much lower production costs. Today Ellemann acknowledges that the visit represented a skilful piece of lobbying work, he allowed himself to be carried away with the enthusiasm and took on the positive attitude that Denmark had created the right conditions for a shipyard to build large ships, which helped to create many important jobs on Funen.
Civic disappointment
When the coalition government was formed in the autumn of 1982, Mærsk followed the change of power with joy, but contact between the shipowner and the new ‘four leaf clover’ government, as it was nicknamed, did not go through the Foreign Minister, but directly to the new Conservative Prime Minister, Poul Schlüter. When Ellemann succeeded Henning Christophersen as leader of the Liberal Party in 1984, contact with Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller was resumed. In the early years, the atmosphere between the government and Esplanaden was good, but Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller and big industry were increasingly disappointed that the four-leaf clover government did not have more robust domestic policies and put more effort into creating a better framework for business. There was an exchange of correspondence between Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller and Poul Schlüter during these years of government. There is praise for the Prime Minister, but no rose is without thorns, and the leader of the government received criticism from the shipowner for abandoning his civil support base. In a letter in May 1984, Poul Schlüter was warned against raising the rate of VAT, “If you pursue the idea, you will meet with much opposition, not least among those who voted for and support you and have ventured into investment confident that your polices would be constructive. And many of your friends would find themselves obliged to also publicly fight the plan,” were the words from Esplanaden.
Besides resentment against a number of specific government plans from parts of the business community and civil support base, there was a more general disappointment that Schlüter’s government did not act more ideologically. During the same year, Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of Great Britain and became known as the Conservative’s ‘Iron Lady’, while President Ronald Reagan led the conservative wave in the USA. In comparison, Poul Schlüter seemed cautious and centrist.
The most direct confrontation between Esplanaden and the government played out in public in May 1986. Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller often used his company’s AGM as a platform to comment on social development at home and internationally and in this case, he sent a very direct message to the Prime Minister. At the AGM for The Steamship Company of 1912, he called the government’s tax reform unfortunate and antagonistic towards business, just as he criticised the series of economic interventions that the Prime Minister had sanctioned for getting control of an overheated Danish economy. An irritated Prime Minister chose to respond with harsh words, “To put it bluntly, I find that the political comments were not quite on the level one would expect from one of the country’s largest and most successful business groups. I feel criticism of the government’s economic policy lacked proportion,” said Poul Schlüter, who also stressed that the company’s prosperity was due to among other things, the four-leaf clover government’s policy. Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller then wrote a reader’s letter in which he refuted Schlüter’s claim. On the contrary, the shipowner stated, more than 98% of the company shipping income came from sailing between foreign ports, and he added that revenues would have been higher if the ships sailed under foreign flags.
Since then, Poul Schlüter has stated that he may have been harsh in his wording, but he insisted that the criticism from Mc-Kinney Møller was unreasonable, especially because the shipowner ignored the political reality at Christiansborg (the Danish Parliament building). The leader of the government, as opposed to a top executive in a large global company, cannot make a decision and wait to get it executed. Along with his ministerial team, Poul Schlüter had to do constant manoeuvring in order to secure the support of 90 seats in Parliament to have the necessary majority.
During the confrontation, Ellemann agreed with Poul Schlüter that the shipowner shot wide of the mark with his criticism of the government, “We were a minority government. In economic policy, we were very dependent on the Radicals and occasionally by Mogens Glistrup’s anarchic approach to problems. We were left high and dry concerning foreign policy. However, we managed to create fundamental changes in economic policy, which were the government’s raison d’être. We had pulled the course back from the edge of the abyss. In other areas, we had to recognise that we could not obtain a majority to do what we wanted. We can discuss to what extent we should have said what we wanted, and it was a familiar ongoing discussion between the Conservatives and Liberals. Nevertheless, I think that Mærsk was unduly harsh towards Schlüter, who as Prime Minister had strict limits on how he could manifest himself without putting the government’s life in danger.”
Mistake at Esplanaden
As Foreign Minister, Uffe Ellemann-Jensen was rarely involved in disputes concerning domestic policy, but during a visit to Esplanaden, he could feel the disappointment over the government’s policy. At the meeting, the two discussed tax policy and Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller construed some aspects of the government’s policy very negatively, too negative in Ellemann’s opinion. “Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller had a fundamental desire to have taxes lowered. I wanted this too and I still do, although it is no longer fashionable to say so. In principle, we were in complete agreement, but the political reality was that the government did not have a majority to implement tax cuts.”
During the conversation, Ellemann felt it necessary to correct a specific example that Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller presented. However, his objections did not make an impression, because Mærsk did not change his position. At the end, Mærsk told Ellemann that one of the company’s economists had done the calculations, and this economist was called in to present the matter to Ellemann. “When the economist presented the calculations, I could hear that he had made a mistake with the assumptions he worked from, and I pointed this out. I could almost see the man turning pale!” When Ellemann voiced his objections, the economist simply said, “That is correct”. “What is correct?” said Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller. “It is true what the Minister says,” came the reply from the economist. The man was sent out and the room went quiet, where several managers from the company followed the debate. However, Mærsk just looked over at Ellemann and exclaimed, “I like that! There was no way around it. He immediately acknowledged that he had made a mistake.”
Thereafter the course of events went well, and Ellemann had an insight that mistakes in Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’s universe can be forgiven if the sinner acknowledges them and does not commit them again. The economist was not sent to Siberia, but continued his career with the company.
On a par with Mærsk
The lack of support from Denmark for NATO in the 1980s, when the government found it difficult to gather support for its security policy and the opposition time and again had footnotes introduced to the mandate on NATO talks, was infuriating for Ellemann, but the same was true for Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller. He had always viewed NATO as the key political security institution, just as he has consistently advocated the strongest possible transatlantic ties between the USA and Europe. Both were convinced that the threat from the East was real and for years Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller was a member of the defence and security organisations Mars & Mercury and Interforce, just as he always argued for the need to have an effective Danish Armed Forces. At that time his views were to say the least, contrary to popular opinion. Instead, hardliners and cold warriors were looked upon with deep scepticism. Mærsk never let himself be put off course, but relied on his own analysis and instincts. Today Ellemann highlights that early on the shipowner was active in relation to creating a framework for a more active Danish foreign policy. “It was not just about expressing positive attitudes towards NATO and the Armed Forces - it was also a matter of practical support, when it came to helping to solve many of the problems that arise when civil and military sectors of society must work together. Here Mærsk McKinney Møller was active in efforts to ensure the Armed Forces could draw on resources in the civilian sector, probably also because he sensed that there was a great advantage for the companies that will work internationally, because their employees would have the opportunity to take responsibility in many other fields that were not business-related. It is this foresight that today makes it possible for Denmark to be actively present in the world with people who have a civilian career alongside the military effort.”
After the collapse of communism, it became clear that Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller and Uffe Elleman-Jensen had been right in their assessment of the frightening potential of the Warsaw Pact’s war machine. When secret military archives were opened in East Germany and Poland, details about attack plans against Western Europe and Denmark became known. The most radical plans involved the deployment of tactical atomic weapons against targets in Denmark. According to the plans, atomic weapons would have been deployed as part of a first devastating strike against Western Europe.
War in the Gulf
In the early spring of 1990, Ellemann and Mærsk spoke about the changes after the Wall came down, and they discussed both opportunities and threats of the new world order. During the conversation, the Foreign Minister noticed the businessman’s knowledge of international politics. Moreover, it was clear to Ellemann that Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller had a heartfelt desire to get Denmark placed in the world picture that was looming, just as he wanted to repair the damage to the nation’s reputation after the footnote period. “He was very preoccupied with Denmark’s ranking in the global world picture after a period of years where in the eyes of many of our allies, not least among the Americans, we had failed.”
Shortly after their conversation, they were involved in a conflict that neither they nor anyone else had predicted. It was a surprised world, in the early morning of August 2nd 1990, that woke up to news that the Iraqi army had invaded the wealthy kingdom of Kuwait. Admittedly, there had long been a dispute about the right of oil sources in the border between Iraq and Kuwait, but no one had predicted that Saddam Hussein would attack so quickly and with such force.
With President George H.W. Bush leading, the USA began to build a coalition of willing nations who were ready to come to the assistance of Kuwait and if necessary, drive the Iraqi army out of the country by force if Saddam Hussein did not withdraw his troops. The UN Security Council responded with resolutions strongly condemning the aggression and imposed comprehensive economic sanctions on Iraq. Against this background, a number of western countries headed by the USA initiated a naval blockade of Iraq, and the Americans began a military build up in Saudi Arabia, called Operation Desert Shield, to both protect the Saudis and prepare for the liberation of Kuwait. On August 25th, the UN Security Council gave mandate for a naval blockade and thus a crucial piece fell into place. For the Foreign Minister, it was important to involve Denmark and when the UN mandate was a reality, he moved quickly. He announced that Denmark would send a naval vessel to the Gulf and he suggested specifically that it should be the corvette Olfert Fischer.
Certainly, Denmark’s contribution was a small offering, but the deployment of Olfert Fischer has since come to stand as a symbol of the end of the footnote period. It heralded a new era of foreign policy, which later committed Denmark to hotspot areas including the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mærsk steps in
Ellemann was not the only one who fought to fly the Danish flag. Two weeks after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the Americans asked Denmark together with other NATO countries, if anyone could help them to move equipment from the USA to the Gulf. Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller contacted the Prime Minister and said that his company could help. Poul Schlüter referred it to the Foreign Ministry, which contacted the company with a phone call from Ellemann to Mærsk. The Foreign Minister had been given the shipowner’s direct telephone number at Esplanaden and was somewhat impressed that Mærsk took the phone in person - without any intermediaries. “He confirmed that he had something to offer and we agreed that I should communicate it to the Americans and I did so by direct contact to the US Secretary of State, James Baker,” remembers Uffe Ellemann-Jensen.
At a press conference in September 1990, Poul Schlüter spoke of Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’s offer, an offer that was officially in the form of a written proposal and the Prime Minister stated that the company and the Americans would jointly decide how the support from the company would be organised in practice.
Thus, the case passed from Parliament and was instead a matter between Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller and the USA. Mærsk was, to say, a private participant in the operation.
In a brief press release from Esplanaden, it was announced that the two vessels being sent to the Gulf had room for ‘quite a lot of rolling stock’, which was a bit of an understatement. The two container ships ‘Albert Mærsk’ and ‘Adrian Mærsk’ individually housed ‘garages’ measuring 4200 square metres. Later in the Maersk Post, Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller explained his involvement. It happened when Kuwait was liberated, “USA’s fast and very skilful reaction will hopefully prevent attempts to invade other countries,” he wrote, stressing that the company’s services would continue to be available to Americans.
After the liberation, he wrote a complimentary article about the commander of the operation, US General Norman Schwarzkopf, who later visited Esplanaden in connection with him speaking to business leaders at the Annual Danish Top Executive Summit. The theme for the conference that year was ‘Crisis Management’. The other two speakers were Mærsk McKinney Møller and Uffe Elleman-Jensen, who remembers a good stunt from Norman Schwarzkopf, “He put a baseball cap on and said, ‘When you are in charge - take command!’ It struck me that it sounded very simple and ‘American’, but it is so true and many leaders forget it.”
A new time
Overall Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’s commitment shows that he was and is willing to go that extra length to support America. Since the end of World War II, it was his belief that Denmark and Europe have a debt to pay back to the USA, which liberated Europe from German domination. If the Americans had a dubious picture of the Danes and A.P. Møller during the war, Mærsk has since changed that image, as the company’s unique position in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill stresses. Despite protests from American shipowners, A.P. Møller - Mærsk resolves major tasks for US defence.
In 1991, after the end of the Gulf War, Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller was awarded a prestigious order in Washington D.C. It took place at an official lunch, where Mærsk received a ‘Peace and Commerce Medal’, and here he demonstrated to the Danish Foreign Minister that his network is something out of the ordinary. “I was at the ceremony and among the participants was the President’s Special Trade Representative, Carla Hills and she knew me well from international trade negotiations. I would introduce her to Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller. However, before I had a chance, he put his arms around her, gave her a big hug and said ‘Hello Carla’ and she said ‘Hi Mærsk …!’”
Naturally, the former Foreign Minister is not blind to the fact that Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’s initiatives in the run up to the first Gulf War against Saddam Hussein might help to pave the way for lucrative contracts between A.P. Møller - Mærsk and the USA. Nevertheless, his point is that the businessman was acting idealistically. “His decision was carried out by the desire that Denmark should make the right choice and aid the Allies with the Americans in front. In this situation he did not act from business-related considerations, instead he was driven by other considerations.”
Ellemann clearly remembers Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’s disappointment when Denmark had not been able to participate in a naval blockade a few years earlier in the Gulf. At that time, the situation was that under the extremely bloody war between Iran and Iraq there was a need to protect ship traffic. Europe let the Western Union, the WEU, take common action, which in 1987 made it impossible for Ellemann to get a majority to support Danish participation in the operation. At the time, Ellemann remembers that Mærsk thought it wrong that Denmark did not send one of the two frigates collecting dust in the harbour at Holmen. “He did not think that the situation was acceptable, not least in view of Denmark’s significant interests in shipping. He had ships in the area and he had to see other countries protect these ships, while his country remained outside. It was contrary to his concept of honour and I could only agree with him.”
Reunification and the EU
While Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller and Uffe Elleman-Jensen have pretty much shared the same basic opinions, they have disagreed on one point. After the Wall came down, it started a process for Germany’s future and the ultimate goal was that the two German States should become one, which for Ellemann was a promising prospect. With the prospect of the reunification of Germany, it really stressed that the cold war was over and that a new unified Europe could be allowed to grow. However, to steer the political and economic development, European cooperation, in Ellemann’s view, had to be simultaneously strengthened and expanded. Not all looked upon development with equal enthusiasm. At the top of the government, Poul Schlüter and Uffe Ellemann-Jensen did not entirely agree. With understated irony, Poul Schlüter came to say that he liked the Germans so much that he could not have enough Germanys and therefore he would like to keep the two. Bonn was not impressed with the Prime Minister’s remark.
Mærsk was not overjoyed with the idea of a unified Germany, which he expressed in 1990 when he spoke with Ellemann on the prospects after the fall of the Wall. “Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller had his generation’s natural scepticism of a strong Germany and expressed it on several occasions. I was however excited about the developments of German democracy and spoke warmly of reunification. Neither of us at the time could have imagined what would later happen with the Soviet Union - the collapse was literally just around the corner.”
Part of Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’s resistance arose from a fear that Europe again would have problems with a strong Germany. He was sceptical about whether stronger European cooperation could cope with the German giant and he was worried that a more integrated European cooperation would be dominated by Germany, while Denmark would lose autonomy in the future EU. Prior to the referendum on the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, he expressed his reservations and felt that Denmark risked sacrificing its legacy of autonomy. He urged his countrymen to face the fact that European balance could only be maintained by a continued American engagement in Europe, politically, militarily and economically. As mentioned, Mærsk and Ellemann did not agree, but some of the shipowner’s points Ellemann does not reject by any means, “His cautious attitude to Germany, and the bureaucracy in Brussels, especially their aggressive policies against Liberal free-trade principles were common knowledge. He has also publicly expressed concern that today’s politicians will hand over sovereignty forever. In addition, I have sensed a deep concern for the weakening of transatlantic ties, as the idea implies, Europe as a counterweight to the USA. I share these views.”
Endeavours in the Baltic States
The former Foreign Minister praises the shipowner’s commitment, when there had to be investments in the former communist countries. Ellemann especially followed investments in the Baltic States closely. In the first round as Foreign Minister, he played a role in the intense drama, which meant that Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were recognised as independent nations after more than 50 years of occupation. Denmark became the first country to resume diplomatic relations with the three countries in August 1991, after their regained independence was a reality. In the following years, Denmark took the lead to build cooperation around the Baltic Sea which was no longer divided by the Iron Curtain.
In 1998, after Ellemann had announced that he would stop as the party’s leader and withdraw from politics, he was asked to join the boards of a number of A.P. Møller Group companies in Germany, Poland, and the Baltic States. “When it came to establishing new stability in the whole area, after August 1991 when the Soviet Union began to collapse and there emerged new opportunities, Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller and the A.P. Møller Group were among the first who went into the Baltic countries and made substantial investments. Mærsk was involved in the process himself, so much so that he went over and visited some of the factories and shipyards that had been invested in.”
One of the investments was in a factory in Narva, Estonia which is the third largest city and lies on the border between Estonia and Russia. Immediately after Estonia became independent in 1991, there was deep concern as to whether Narva, which had a large majority Russian population, would tear itself away from the new Estonia and wish to be part of Russia. “One of the city’s largest employers was an industrial military complex that made mini-nuclear power plants. These power plants were put up along the Siberian coast to operate lighthouses, which may be useful to have the day when the ice has receded so far back that new traffic routes between Europe and the Far East are opened. It was an exciting factory with high professional standards. They also made parts for SS-20 missiles. However, after the Soviet Union’s collapse there was great uncertainty about the future.” The Russian director tried to get the plant to continue, but it was difficult and as an image of the company’s situation, Ellemann remembers how there was no money to repair the roof, which had begun to collapse. However, people from the Lindø yard came over and they found what they came for: many talented and skilled craftsmen. A.P. Møller Group bought the company for its container factory in Sønderborg, Jutland, and in Narva, they produced items requiring high technical expertise, but which could be made without exorbitant costs. Today the factory has been re-sold after container production moved to China.
“However, in those years A.P. Møller invested both there and elsewhere, and it was crucial that there was someone who invested and kick started the economy. Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller visited the factory and he met the Russian director, who was a very vigorous and exciting man. It was evident that the two understood each other.” The Russian’s name was Vladimir and one day he confided to Ellemann that if the old system had continued, he would have been a general in the Red Army. “Then I said, ‘Vladimir, what would you prefer?’ ‘I prefer this here,’ came the reply. He was sent on management courses in Switzerland, he learned to speak English and it was fantastic to see his development. What the A.P. Møller Group did, especially in Estonia, was formidable. It helped to steer the young democracy through some very difficult years where everything could have collapsed.”
Uffe Elleman-Jensen introduced Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller to Estonia’s first President, Lennart Meri, at a dinner in his home on Sundvænget in Hellerup, north of Copenhagen. The meeting with the charismatic Meri served to reinforce Mærsk’s involvement in Estonia. The former Foreign Minister is aware that decisions to invest in the emerging economies in Eastern Europe were in full accordance with Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’s business model. “It was clear, however, it was not the business model alone, which drove it. It was very much a desire to help steer development in a necessary and important direction.”
Global and national
When asked to summarise Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’s way of thinking internationally, Ellemann-Jensen emphasises that the shipowner is the incarnation of globalisation, while still being very nationalistic. “He is a wonderful combination of being a Dane, a deeply nationalistic Dane and a world citizen with global vision. He has an understanding of balance in international politics. He is also, because of being a businessman, a through and through politician. He has no time for empty gestures. You can see this in his commitment to business with China. It is characteristic that the company has helped to support China in their efforts to get the Olympics, which I personally think is a good thing. I also have the view that there should be a real political vision. It is sometimes wiser to take small steps along the road of development than it is to block through a policy of protest.”
Uffe Elleman-Jensen stresses that Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’s formidable international network includes not only the USA, but spans the entire globe. “The access he has had with the political leadership in China is exceptional and it is quite telling for the position of not only his company, but also him as a person in the world’s power centres.”
According to Ellemann, no other Dane in recent times has been close to having contacts at the level that Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller has built up over a long life, and he does not believe that anyone will succeed in creating similar relationships in future.
On Esplanaden and at the company’s branches around the world, Mærsk has naturally insightful experts and consultants to draw upon, and he benefits from them doing the footwork ahead of personal contacts between the shipowner and international decision-makers in politics and business. However, the crucial ability to create these ties lies with Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller himself, stresses Ellemann. “He has always been good at surrounding himself with people who gather the information he needs. I do not know how much they analyse. My impression is that if he wants facts, he will probably do the analysis himself. I know he reads a great deal, international telegrams and newspapers, but he has also been extremely adept at exploiting the new information flows that exist, because I have discovered in several situations when I was very proud to have a little special knowledge on an international issue, he knew it too. It can be deeply irritating! One of his strengths is to constantly be ahead of the game. He is blessed, and maybe sometimes burdened, with a brain that has the capacity and design to accommodate all the details and be able to find them quickly. It is often a problem for the rest of us. It is not difficult to put information into brain cells. It is difficult to find them quickly enough. In that way, he is like a super computer with a greater capacity than the rest of us.”
Realist and idealist
When asked whether he perceives Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller as a liberal or conservative, the reply from Uffe Elleman-Jensen is that in his view it is a combination. “He has liberal elements in the European sense of liberal and he has conservative elements in the American sense of conservative. When I say in the European sense of liberal, it primarily concerns thoughts of free trade and a desire that the state should not intervene too much. It is the European form of liberalism, that the USA you might call neo-conservative. I sense that his whole mindset is characterised by his years in the USA. They were formative years. His whole frame of reference is very much the USA. Nevertheless, he still cannot be placed in one box.”
Here Ellemann again uses the example that Mærsk McKinney Møller may have a predilection to the USA, while he still fares well in Russia, Asia and the Middle East. “As I see it, he has a realistic relationship to the world. It can perhaps best be described by using the title of Robert Kagan’s latest book, ‘The Return of History - and the End of Dreams.’ I gave Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller the book for his 95th birthday (in the summer of 2008). In the same way the book contains an unsentimental position on how the world is arranged, and the surface fractures and conflicts we must experience in order to function as a global trader and global citizen.”
The global side of Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller is always combined with a deep national feeling. “He wishes Denmark to be positioned in a way that creates respect.His understanding of what matters to Denmark is expressed so well in an old quote from Bernstorff the Younger, who was the father of the Danish Foreign Service: Count Bernstorff said what is crucial for a nation if it wants to have influence, is reputation - just as creditworthiness is essential for a merchant for him to operate his business. The old quote is still valid both in international politics and in international business and with Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller you experience a combination: care for the nation’s reputation and care for the company’s reputation.”
Møller’s importance
After working with Mærsk for many years and having a friendly relationship, Ellemann has several times pondered over the importance Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller and the A.P. Møller Group have had, especially for a small country like Denmark. As far as internationalism is concerned, Ellemann-Jensen feels national ownership is far from irrelevant in a global world, where some will stress that the world is integrated as never before and that people, goods, and services are constantly moving and crossing borders. “To the highest degree I deeply believe that it affects, let us just say it bluntly, Danish self-esteem. Maybe I am being a little sentimental, I grant you, but I think it is wonderful that you can travel around the world and suddenly see a bright blue ship flying the Danish flag. It is irrational, I agree, but it helps to create pride and a feeling that the world is big and that we are a part of it.”
Ellemann also believes that the company is helping to open Danish eyes to the outside world, “It is important that we do not get settled around the village pond, but feel that we live in a larger world. My concern is that here at home we focus so much on our own virtues that we overlook what is happening in the world around us and we stagnate into a strange mixture of Danish self-sufficiency and a sense of inferiority. It means a lot to have a worldwide company. It allows young people to get out and spread their wings, and experience the world as their workplace. The East Asiatic Company (EAC) had the same role in the past. This is just so much bigger.”
The private side
Since the conversation on Mosehøjvej in 1990, Alice Vestergaard and Uffe Elleman-Jensen have visited Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller and Emma for dinner in their home, and they have revisited La Perle in France. Even the French sanctuary contains a facet of the owner, “There are so many big and ostentatious mansions on the coast, but La Perle is not. It is a tasteful and quiet place discreetly withdrawn and the host shops at the market in the nearest major town where they know him and he knows exactly where to find the best and the freshest fish at the good restaurants.”
Moreover, there were the voyages on board Klem, where they have experienced Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller in the element that he loves the most. Here, they also had a new understanding of why Mærsk seeks calm on the sea. One day when they were to go sailing, Alice Vestergaard walked arm-in-arm with Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller on the way out along the jetty at Skovshoved harbour to ‘Klem’, which because of its size is moored farthest away.
There was yacht racing off the harbour jetty, so there were many yachtsmen in the Marina and they all greeted Mærsk. The respect that surrounds the shipowner could best be compared with the greetings and good will the royal family meet when they participate in an event. Mærsk greeted kindly and exchanged words, his politeness is legendary and he was not sorry for the interest, but he was nevertheless pleased when he could steer his ocean cruiser out of the harbour and out onto Øresund (the sound between Denmark and Sweden). “It is clear that he is a true seaman, who can read the weather and the wind. It is something of an ordeal for a landlubber to be given the tiller, because he does not even look at the compass to sense that we are a few degrees off course, he is able to feel it, and then you get to know in unequivocal terms.”
Other times they have met at Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’s estate, Bramsløkke. At Emma and Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’s joint 85th birthday in 1998, it was held in a large marquee on the lawn in front of Bramsløkke and the hostess sat at Uffe Ellemann-Jensen’s table. In his speech to his wife Emma, he used a photograph of the couple cycling briskly off into the summer countryside on a tandem as a reference. He emphasised that while Emma sat at the back where the handlebars on a tandem are unable to move, there was no doubt that they were two to choose the route. In addition, if someone dared to strike her husband below the belt she was a lioness in his defence, as several had experienced the time there was the controversy about Amalie Garden, the shipowner’s gift to Copenhagen. They are a strong couple and a beautiful couple, who support one another and suit one another, says Ellemann.
At Ellemann-Jensen and Alice Vestergaard’s home, there are several of the small, finely decorated boxes with engraved inscriptions, which were created to celebrate these special anniversaries and given to guests. On several occasions, he also received extremely colourful French Leonard silk ties and Ellemann has a suspicion that Mærsk has since greatly amused himself to see how even very stylish and prim men have worn them to please the giver.
In her last few years, Emma Mc-Kinney Møller was extremely frail before she died in 2005, aged 92-years-old. In these years, Alice Vestergaard and Uffe Ellemann-Jensen could feel how Mærsk showed loving and gentle care for his sick wife. “I think that those who have seen the two together will remember it as a beautiful and strong image of a couple who supported and complemented each other without hiding the fact that it was a lifelong love that bore it all.”
Leader
Over time, Uffe Ellemann-Jensen has learned new sides to Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, “It was said several hundred years ago about Thomas Moore that he was ‘a man for all seasons’ and the phrase fits Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller. We all know that he is a formidable businessman. I have learned that he also has great knowledge and a sense of international politics. However, I do not think that he would go into national politics, not at all. Here he has his limitations and he is not at all happy being told about them, but then who does not in Danish politics! What is less known is that he has so many other sides and interests. He has a broad knowledge of art and culture; so therefore, it is no surprise that he chose to give an opera house to the nation. He visited opera houses all over the world so that he could build the best. It was marvellous to follow and when you now see the decoration of the Opera House in Copenhagen, he has chosen it. He has a sense of what belongs in a modern room. Just look at the paintings in front of the small stage Takkelloftet, and it was he who chose Olafur Eliasson, who only stood on the threshold of becoming worldrenowned. It was not something that someone came and told him.”
When Uffe Elleman-Jensen has to get to the core of Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’s personality, it is primarily the ability to take responsibility and lead, which is clearest. “One thing that impresses me is his practical approach to the concept of ‘personal responsibility’. This can be illustrated with a boat trip where we were bound for the harbour, which had a difficult and narrow entrance. We were suddenly hit by severe thunderstorms, the sky turned black, visibility was minimal and strong gusts swept across the water. He jumped up and took the helm - not because he did not trust his crew, but now it was a difficult voyage and in this situation the captain should be at the helm.”
Uffe Elleman-Jensen finds it difficult to discern the limits of the personality he has learned to know, but in relation to the outside world there is still a challenge for Mærsk. “I think that one limitation is that he does not always understand that the surroundings can find it difficult to follow him, just as he may find it difficult to delegate and accept that others cannot live up to what he can do. He does not always understand that sometimes he has to lower the requirements for others in relation to the high standards he imposes on himself.”
– interview with John Warner Member of the United States Senate 1979-2009
From Esplanaden to Washington
The close relationship between the company at Esplanaden and the USA has existed almost as long as the company itself. Family wise, the first Danish-American relations were made on April 30th 1910, when A.P. Møller married Chastine Estelle Mc-Kinney in the town of Mayview near Kansas City, and a few years later the company began calling at American ports. The businessrelated connection between Esplanaden and the USA, however, only began in earnest during the seven years Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller worked in New York. Not only has Mærsk described the period as ‘the most important chapter in my life,’ but also it was here he laid the foundations for the business and political network, which subsequently became one of the crucial factors in the company’s international success.
For years, Mærsk has had close contact with many influential US politicians. Not only foreign, defence, and trade sectaries, but also senators and governors from areas of the USA, where the company has had major economic interests. One of the politicians who Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller has built a particularly close relationship to is the 81-year-old Senator John Warner of Virginia, on the east coast of the USA. After almost 30 years as a member of the US Senate, Warner has now slowly started to empty his heavily decorated office in Dirksen Senate Building, one of Washington D.C.’s many imposing buildings that exudes power, influence and grandeur.
Warner makes no secret that it is sad to leave American politics after so many years, but he believes the time has come. When a new US President is sworn in early in January 2009, it will mark his farewell to the post in the Senate and the office and staff that over the years have helped him to secure reelection no fewer than five times. Nevertheless, he will continue to be involved in the political debate and his reach is far. He is extremely interested in environmental and climatic conditions, but defence and security remains close to his heart and it has done ever since as a 17-year-old he left high school to volunteer in the US Navy during World War II.
The Senator, who before he was elected to the Senate, was Secretary of the Navy from 1969-1974, knows Denmark very well and what few know is that for many years he has had a close and personal relationship with Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller. The US Senator has been discreet about it and in line with company policy, Esplanaden has never unveiled the relationship between the two. John Warner was first elected to the Senate in 1978 and since has been a member of the US Congress' most influential committee, the Senate Armed Services Committee, for several years as chairman. When you add the fact that he is elected in Virginia, where A.P. Møller - Mærsk’s subsidiary Maersk Line Limited has its head office, you have the key to the close relation with Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller. For decades, Esplanaden has supplied ship transportation, when the USA has been involved in military actions around the world, from the Vietnam War and more recently in Afghanistan and Iraq. Today Maersk Line Limited has contracts worth billions with the US government and is its largest private partner in connection with global military ship movements, just as the company is responsible for the operation of over 30 non-military government ships.
To achieve such a position for a foreign owned company in the USA, who in this respect are very nationalistic, is a unique achievement. In addition, it is recognition of the company’s good name, adaptability and decades of intense and persistent lobbying of the policy makers in Washington, where the company was the first foreign company to set up its own lobbying office. A.P. Møller - Mærsk’s economic importance to the state of Virginia is put further into perspective by the fact that APM Terminals on September 7th 2007, after an investment of close to Dkr 3 billion, inaugurated the USA’s third largest port terminal in Portsmouth, a few kilometres from Norfolk.
Naturally, Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller travelled to the USA to be present for the inauguration. In addition to his own personal relationships with the country, Mærsk’s mother Chastine was in the senior shipowner’s own words ‘a true Southern woman’, born one thousand kilometres west of Portsmouth in the state of Kentucky. He stated in his opening speech that A.P. Møller - Mærsk has had business relations with Virginia for nearly a century. Today the volume is so large that more than 300 of the company’s ships annually call at the state, and in his speech Mærsk sent a special thanks to a series of Americans who have made this development possible. One of the people who, in Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’s eyes, deserved a special thank you was Senator John Warner. “It is true that we have known each other for many years and Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller has repeatedly visited me at my offices here in the Senate. The last time he was here was in early April 2008, accompanied by his daughter Ane,” says John Warner.
Whoever accompanies the senior shipowner to these meetings; they follow the same model and usually last at least one hour. “The first few meetings we had were solely business-oriented, but after the third time Mærsk was here, we have tried to get that part of the meeting over with as soon as possible to get an opportunity to discuss some political, sometimes philosophical issues. When we reach this point, Mærsk normally raises his hand to indicate that we now move on to talk about all the things that are not on the formal agenda of the meeting. So other participants in the meeting lean back in their chairs and then it is just Mærsk and I who sit and discuss the world situation, until we believe we have covered everything, and we do not allow the others sitting there looking at their watches to distract us!” Maintaining close Danish-American relationships has been a cardinal point for Mærsk for decades and several times, he has publicly aired his concern over what he sees as a lack of understanding of the importance of this relationship. In June 1992 when the Danes had to vote in a referendum on the Treaty on the European Union, known as the Maastricht Treaty, Mærsk hesitated for a long time before making his position known. Only a few weeks before the vote, in an interview for the Danish business newspaper, Børsen, it became apparent that he would vote ‘yes’, but it was not a resounding yes. He feared, among other things, that the formation of a European Union could be detrimental to the relationship with the USA and reduce Americans' desire to take an interest in European affairs. “History has shown that Europe needs this, the USA also, so I very much hope that the Danish government will work constantly and conspicuously to ensure the USA remains engaged in Europe; politically, economically and militarily,” he said in an interview. From the Republican Senator John Warner, Mærsk has warm support for these views and Warner expresses great respect for Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller and the results that his company has achieved over the years. In his own words, the US Senator sees Mærsk as a ‘lighthouse’ for the Danish public and government, and this is why he listens with special attention to Mærsk’s assessments of both the economic and political developments in the USA and internationally, when the senior shipowner is in the American capital.
Each time they meet, Danish-American relations weigh heavy on Mærsk’s mind and since the attack on the World Trade Center in New York in 2001, the political consequences of international terrorism have also been high on the agenda. “We also discuss developments in China, a market that means a great deal, not only for A.P. Møller - Mærsk, but for all of us. It reminds me a little of an old story about a bank robber who is caught and brought before the judge, who asks him why he robs banks. ‘Well, that is where the money is,’ replied the thief boldly. It is the same with China - it is here that a very significant part of international trade has its origin and then you should naturally be in that market,” stresses Warner.
Besides the interest in great political issues, he and Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller also share a great love of life on the sea. In various ways, John Warner has had a connection to the Navy for more than 60 years. He had only just completed his military service in the US Navy and started with his law studies in 1950 when the USA was again at war. He chose to stop his studies and volunteered for duty in Korea in the US Marine Corps. After returning to the USA, he resumed his law degree and, among other things, worked for the State Prosecutor’s office before joining the reputable law firm Hogan & Hartson in Washington in 1960. He worked there for nine years when, in February 1969 while the Vietnam War raged, the then President Richard Nixon appointed him Deputy Secretary of the Navy. Three years later, he advanced to Secretary of the Navy. “For a large part of my life I have had a connection to the maritime world, but even though I was in both the Second World War and the Korean War, one should not call me a war hero or something similar. Those years have given me a healthy sense of judgement, which I have benefited from greatly since.”
Virginia has benefited greatly over the past 30 years due to Warner’s influential position as a member of the Defence Committee. It is not least thanks to his influence and connections right up to the top of the White House that the southern State’s economy year after year has benefited from the billions of dollars that changing American governments have pumped into its shipyards and naval station at Norfolk. Being home to the US Atlantic Sea fleet, it is the world’s largest and covers an area of 20 square kilometres. More than 130,000 naval personnel and civilians work at the naval station.
John Warner’s office in the Senate is clearly influenced by his close connection to the Navy. In addition to being decorated with dozens of signed photographs, in which Warner is either greeting US Presidents, sitting with them at meetings or in the case of Ronald Reagan, riding with him, almost every inch of the walls is adorned with sea pennants, flags and souvenirs of different sorts and merits. One of the things that Warner is most fond of is the bust of Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister during World War II. Warner discovered early in their friendship it is a pleasure, he shares with Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller. “I have never met Churchill, but I have read extensively about him and to this day I have a motto hanging over my door, which has followed me ever since I was first elected to the Senate 30 years ago. It says, ‘Never, never, never give in’, and I have lived by it all these years and I believe Mærsk has also. He is also full of admiration for Churchill,” says John Warner and says with a smile that each time Mærsk has been in the office he checks that the senior shipowner has not seen his chance to make off with the bust.
Just like many others who have met Mærsk McKinney Møller in business or social contexts, John Warner is impressed with his extensive general knowledge and eagerness to learn. The senator is also amazed at Mærsk’s almost self-effacing nature, “Many would expect that a man in his position would be self-centred and perhaps arrogant - Mærsk is the exact opposite! It may well be that he has been a tough guy as CEO, but I think it is remarkable that such a calm, polite and humble man is leading a worldwide company of the size and the very different business areas it is involved in. Many American executives could learn a lot from a meeting with Mærsk!”
When Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller met with Warner in April 2008, the Senator had unusually invited his wife into the Senate. He wanted her to meet this ‘fabulous man’, and his wife was deeply impressed. “But one must also say he has plenty of charm and knows how to use it. He has that glint in his eye that means so much. When you add to this the man’s professional and businessrelated authority, you can only be impressed,” says Warner, who himself has had his share of difficulties with being taken seriously by the public, when he first ran for the Senate elections in 1978. He came in second and therefore did not gain a seat in the Senate. However, two months later his Republican colleague Richard Obenshain, who had won the election, was killed in a plane crash and Warner took his place.
In 1976, Warner married the English actress Elizabeth Taylor, her seventh marriage and during his first term in the Senate he was considered a political lightweight, who was just riding on her fame. In the American comic strip Doonesbury, John Warner was always referred to as ‘Senator Taylor’ and American comedians made fun of him on stage. However, gradually he made a name for himself as an extremely knowledgeable and powerful Senator in the field of defence. In Washington today he is considered one of the most influential Republican politicians with regard to issues concerning US involvement in Iraq.
Warner has not been afraid to have a showdown with the Republican Party or to oppose President George W. Bush. In 1994, there was great furore within the Republican Party when John Warner publicly distanced himself from Oliver North’s attempts to enter the Senate. Some years previously, North had played a crucial role in the so-called Iran-Contra scandal and Warner believed, contrary to his own party, that North was not worthy to sit in the Senate.
The USA’s decision to go into Iraq and the organisation of the coalition force headed by the USA received his full support. However, in August 2007 after hearing testimony in the Senate Hearings from top officials and military experts, who sowed doubts about whether the Iraq war could be won with a military presence, he criticised President Bush’s handling of the war and proposed a gradual withdrawal of some of the more than 150,000 American soldiers serving in Iraq. “I am elected in Virginia and I represent the eight million people who live there. It is theirs and the American people’s interests I undertake. I can clearly remember what an old, very experienced colleague in the Senate said to me, just when I was elected in 1978. ‘Young man, you need not fear your new position or the tasks you must resolve, but you must always remember that you are one of 100 people here in the Senate, holding the interests of over 300 million Americans and that the decisions you make here affect a large part of the world.’”
Warner has tried to live up to these words during the 30 years he has served in the Senate and defended the principles of democracy and the values of the free world. Sometimes it has been necessary to use military force, for instance when Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi troops crossed the border and invaded Kuwait. It caused great delight for Warner that Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller in September 1990 made available the two ships Albert Mærsk and Adrian Mærsk to the Americans in connection with the build up of US troops and equipment in the area. “It was a big decision, taken by a great man. In my 30 years as a Senator, I have encountered well over 1000 highly important and influential people from around the world. Mærsk is ranked as one of the top ten on the list. He has made a fantastic impression on me over the years.”
For Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller it was a natural decision to support the Americans, when the build up of troops began. At the head of the Allied forces was the charismatic American General Norman Schwarzkopf, whom Mærsk had the chance to meet in January 1992. The General, who by that time had resigned, came to Copenhagen to speak at the Annual Danish Top Executives Summit, known as the ‘VL Day’. However, there was of course time for lunch with Mærsk at Esplanaden, where the shipowner could repeat the recognition of Schwarzkopf that he had expressed in a letter to the International Herald Tribune in February of the previous year.
Senator John Warner does not hide the fact that he would like to keep in contact with Mærsk, although he will soon leave the Senate, and he hopes that in his busy retirement years he can take the opportunity to take up the standing invitation to him from Mærsk to visit Denmark. “I especially want to visit A.P. Møller - Mærsk’s own yard and see how things work there. Mærsk has invited my wife to be godmother to one of his ships, but we still have not been able to fit it into our calendar, but we will. It is amazing to think that the yard was built by Mærsk’s father and that alone for more than 100 years the two of them have been leading the development of the giant company that A.P. Møller - Mærsk is today.”
John Warner is convinced the day neither he nor Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller are here any longer that the recent decades of close ties between Esplanaden and the Senate will continue unchanged. “The bond will not be broken. Mærsk has some extremely talented people around him, both here in the USA and in Denmark, and I have great confidence that they can handle the job and then he has his daughter Ane, who has made a big impression on me. A company of A.P. Møller - Mærsk’s calibre will always be able to attract the very best minds. You would want to work for such a company! I am quite sure that if I asked Mærsk himself, he would have exactly the same view and it is the best guarantee that the strong ties between A.P. Møller - Mærsk and the USA will also be there in the future.”
– interview with Kaspar Cassani
The discreet adviser in Switzerland
Everyone in the international business community knew his name during the 1980s, when he was first the European head and later Vice CEO of IBM worldwide, based in the USA. In 1989, as a 61-year-old, he reached retirement age and he moved the family back to Switzerland. Here he became chairman of the renowned management school IMD in Lausanne and he was on the boards of international companies like Shell, the pharmaceutical group Novartis and insurance group Zurich. However, what few know is that for nearly twenty years Kaspar Cassani has been one of Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’s most confidential advisers and has been consulted on every important decision. Actually, Cassani would prefer to see his close relationship with Mærsk to stay unknown outside a narrow circle. Discretion is his hallmark, and he views his relationship with Mærsk as personal and friendly. However, after some reflection, he nevertheless agreed to lift the veil slightly on his partnership with Mærsk.
His first meeting with Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller was over 30 years ago. In 1970, Mærsk was the first and for many years the only non-American to be on the board of IBM, which was already one of the world’s largest corporations. Cassani was then head of IBM for northern Europe and board meetings in the European company and its parent company, where Mærsk sat, took place simultaneously in the USA. They met each other here for the first time and Cassani remembers clearly his first impression of Mærsk. “He was elegant. Very elegant! He looked like IBM’s CEO, Thomas Watson Jr., in many ways. Same upright position, same manner, same charisma, and almost the same age. In addition, they both had very powerful fathers. I was once witness to a casual conversation between them where it became obvious to me how dominant both their fathers were. For Watson Jr.’s part it is obvious from his memoirs, and Mærsk has also told about his father.”
Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller met Thomas Watson Jr., in Denmark by chance in the late 1950s, while visiting a mutual acquaintance. The two families became friends and sailed a summer holiday together on the Swedish canals and the friendship developed further over the years and became business-related. Hence, in 1970 Mærsk was elected to IBM’s board, where he sat until 1984. During the years that Mærsk sat on the board, he met Cassani repeatedly although they did not become close. It was not until Cassani retired in 1989. “Mærsk approached me and told me that he wanted to involve me in his company. He would use me as a sounding board and sparring partner, where he could test opinions and points of view. I would have no power whatsoever and I would not be involved in decisions and I did not wish to be anyway.”
The need for outside inspiration
Cassani clearly remembers the first topic they discussed. “Mærsk told me and we are going back almost 20 years when he was 74-75-years-old, that the key to the company’s future was a generation change. It must be said that this was absolutely correct,” he notes. Cassani subsequently travelled to Denmark several times to look at the company and all its activities. Together with the American consulting firm McKinsey, he came to the conclusion that Esplanaden would need to secure the services of an advisory body composed of top international businesspeople. The intention was to bring the company the international scope and vision that it lacked. “At the time, the board of A.P. Møller was very Danish and it was typical of the entire organisation. I know it still preoccupies Mærsk. He is concerned that there is not enough international influence and input in the decision-making.”
Therefore, it was decided to establish the so-called ‘Business Advisory Council’ (BAC), which saw the light of day in 1991. Cassani became the first member and he sat on the council until the end of 2000. Over the years, a number of top international businesspeople, for example, the former Citroën boss Xavier Karcher, and H.F. Van Den Hoover from Shell, have had a seat on the council, which meets 4-6 times a year, led by Mærsk McKinney Møller. In addition, Poul Svanholm from A.P. Møller - Mærsk’s chair sits on the BAC to discuss business presentations and comments, as well as operational strategy issues.
After Cassani stepped down from the BAC, he continued in the role of Mærsk’s sparring partner. The two meet four or five times a year, usually at Cassani’s home outside Zurich. Mærsk flies to Switzerland, Cassani picks him up at the airport in the morning and then they spend three or four hours together, before Mærsk flies back to Denmark. Their conversations are inherently personal and confidential, but not just about business affairs. “I think Mærsk enjoys our conversations because they give him an extra dimension and a new perspective on the matters we discuss. In addition, they come from a person who is outside and has no interests to defend. I speak my mind freely and confidently, and he accepts that. He does not have to justify himself to me over why he has done or failed to do something. I believe it appeals to him.”
Over the years, the two have become even closer and today Cassani feels that he knows Mærsk well, both the businessman and the private man. Together with his wife Elizabeth, Cassani has repeatedly visited Mærsk and his wife Emma at their holiday home in St. Paul de Vence, where their neighbour is the German Formula 1 racing driver Michael Schumacher, and he has sailed many times on Danish waters with Mærsk at the tiller. “I am very impressed with his stamina. The man is 95, he can stand for hours at the tiller in whipping rain, he has sound judgement, and his brain works perfectly. We have many mutual acquaintances from over 25-years ago and when we talk about them, he can immediately recall their names. He has the same ability in relation to business dealings. It is simply amazing. The rest of us cannot keep up,” says Cassani. “I think my relationship with him and the way in which we discuss is very different from the way he associates with people at home in Denmark. Our acquaintance began in a very special way - for me Mærsk is a colleague on the board.”
Leadership has its price
Although he is full of admiration for the results that Mærsk has acquired over the years, Kap, as Mærsk and all others call Kaspar Cassani, is not blind to the fact that the cost, also for the surroundings, has sometimes been great. Mærsk’s very direct leadership has had its price for people close to him, not least Jess Søderberg, who for 16 years was CEO of A.P. Møller - Mærsk Group, with Mærsk very active on the sidelines and sometimes as an opponent in the decision-making process. “It is almost too banal to say that Mærsk is a unique and unusual person. He has class and he is noble. However, he is also an extremely demanding person. First-and-foremost, he demands a great deal of himself, but also of others. He is constantly striving for perfection; you could say he is almost obsessed with perfection and is never satisfied with status quo. There must be constant improvements, and he is an impatient man. He feels a great responsibility towards his father and his grandfather.”
During his 40-year career in international business, Cassani has seen and experienced how top executives administer their leadership differently and the different results that are produced. It is clear to him that A.P. Møller - Mærsk would not have reached its position in the elite world today if there had not been direct and highly demanding leadership over the years. He has worked for different types of leaders, and he has always preferred the tough ones. “Not for my own sake, but for the company. That type of leadership may hurt, be demoralising, and demotivating and sometimes you become furious as an employee. However, the company develops. I am convinced that in the large companies a front man is needed to strive for perfection and be uncompromising. It is necessary to ensure momentum.”
In this context, Cassani has also noticed Mærsk’s sense of responsibility for not only the legacy, but also the company’s customers, shareholders and employees. Almost every time he and Mærsk discuss a business affair, this feeling of responsibility is obvious. This is especially true in relation to A.P. Møller - Mærsk’s many small shareholders, who mean a lot to Mærsk. He feels he owes them something, believes Cassani, who is impressed with how, at the annual AGM, Mærsk goes around and greets many of the small shareholders who turn up year after year.
If you continually strive for perfection to be number one in all fields, it hurts when things do not succeed. That happened for instance, when A.P. Møller - Mærsk’s Dkr 17 billion purchase in the spring of 2005 of the Dutch competitor to Maersk Line, P&O Nedlloyd, did not go as expected. The acquisition did indeed make Maersk Line twice as large as its nearest competitor, but the results did not materialise, it turned in a deficit in both 2006 and 2007 and the dissatisfaction from Maersk Line’s customers was extensive, largely because of IT problems at Esplanaden. The massive problems with Maersk Line hit Mærsk hard, and while Cassani will not comment on that specific case, he does not hide the fact that he also sometimes sees it as his job to cheer Mærsk up. “I can generally say that if there were problems in one area, I would spend time showing Mærsk the positive sides of the issue or a person.
Just like most of us who have tried to sit in a top job, Mærsk focuses on the things that are not running smoothly - being the boss this has to be done. Of course, you can discuss and this is really a philosophical question, when in life can you really begin to enjoy the excellent results you have created. I think Mærsk has now reached that age,” states Cassani with a smile.
Difficult to motivate
Another characteristic trait of Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’s leadership is that he has difficulty praising his staff, which is a significant motivational factor. However, on this point he is like many other top executives, says Cassani without it seeming like a redeeming factor. “As a manager you should be able to criticise when you see something that is not working, but it is important to ensure people receive credit where it is due. It is not enough that you pay them a good salary.” The now 80-year-old Swiss has never had difficulty telling Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller what he thinks and although he is diplomatic in his wording, his meaning is very clear. The analysis is razor sharp and may briefly irritate Mærsk.
“Mærsk feels a great social responsibility and a great responsibility towards Denmark, in particular. This is, among other things, reflected in donations from the company Foundations,” says Cassani with regard to, inter alia, the massive gift in the form of the Opera House in Copenhagen and the smaller, but still significant amount the Foundations have given over the years to projects in southern Jutland and Schleswig. “This is all well and good, but one should be aware that the fondness for Denmark should not block inspiration from outside. Specifically, A.P. Møller - Mærsk has a very strong tradition to promote people who have ‘grown up’ in the system. It begins with Svendborg International Maritime Academy, which is a fantastic place. However, it continues all the way up the system to a degree that is not always in the company’s favour,” says Cassani. He has repeatedly discussed this with Mærsk and noticed that there are not many Danes, who have reached top positions in international business over the past 25 years. Cassani acknowledges that in A.P. Møller - Mærsk, they try to pull in international experience into the company through the advisory body, but they lack many foreigners in senior positions at Esplanaden. “Mærsk takes it nicely when I say it, and he will obviously not defend himself to me. Sometimes I repeat my points in writing and then he may well return my fire. I do not blame him, but remember that my motivation for saying what I do is that I want to affect the company positively. If I do have any sense of loyalty, it will be towards the company and the future.”
Good corporate management in focus
The future and especially the future management structure preoccupy Kaspar Cassani. The discussions he had with Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller almost twenty years ago concerning a generation change are still relevant, although some things have already fallen into place in recent years.
For Cassani the generation change at A.P. Møller - Mærsk is to a large degree concerned with the principles of good corporate management. There is no doubt about where the power lays - it is solidly placed in the two Foundations and the successor is in place. However, that is not the final word. In the future, the trustees of the foundations will primarily have a watchdog role in relation to the listed company, but the roles of chairman of the trustees, chairman of the listed company and its CEO will also fundamentally change over the coming years. Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller is fully aware the Group is facing a decisive step, the day he is no longer there. The role he had as chairman, first of the listed company and now as chairman of Family Foundations, there is definitely no one who can take that on. Nobody has the background for it, it is as simple as that, underlines Cassani.
As Cassani sees the future management structure being put into practice, the chairman of the trustees becomes significantly less involved in the listed company’s daily operations than Mærsk has been. On the other hand, the Foundation chairman, in this case, Ane Mærsk Mc-Kinney Uggla, gets a decisive role in the appointment of the top level of management in the listed company. “I think it will be Ane’s most important role. Not just to appoint future board chairs and CEOs of the listed company, but also to actively take part in decisions, dealing with future key personnel in the company. And that means both to identify them and develop them,” says Cassani.
The need for a new statesman
A company of A.P. Møller - Mærsk’s calibre and importance has a need for what he calls a ‘statesman’. Today there is Mærsk, but a new one has to be developed. “Nobody else has been able to develop in the shadow of such a remarkable leader as Mærsk. It is quite natural. He is the owner, who together with his father has driven the company for over 100 years in fantastic fashion. Both the chairman of the listed company and its CEO are in post. That makes a big difference.” Therefore, a new statesman has to be ‘developed’ and that person must have room to create a profile, emphasises Cassani. Moreover, it makes no difference to him whether it is the chairman or the CEO, as long as there is only one. “It varies from company to company, how to tackle it. It is either the CEO or the chairman, who has the outgoing role in relation to the public. It is about personality and it does not necessarily damage the company that it is the CEO who is the front man as long as there is no doubt about where power is, namely with the chairman.”
During his career and through his directorships, Cassani has seen many examples of the management structure not working in fund-owned companies, and each time the explanation has been that the chairman of the trustees was too lenient and accommodating. However, he is convinced it will not happen at Esplanaden. “Ane has gone to a good school with her father, she is demanding and she is the third generation and the fourth generation is well underway,” says Cassani with a smile.
A new economic world order
Family-owned businesses, their development and not least, problems with generation changes have always preoccupied Kaspar Cassani. His long career at IBM has given him thorough firsthand experience of the challenges this type of company face and it is these, among others, that have proved useful in the sparring process with Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller over the years. In addition, as the initiator and first chairman of the international business school IMD in Lausanne, he has followed scientific work in this area closely. In June 2008, it was partly due to his efforts that the IMD opened a new 5,000 m² teaching centre, the Maersk Mc-Kinney Møller Centre, after having secured a donation from the A.P. Møller Foundation of approximately Dkr 150 million.
Cassani is convinced that family-owned businesses have a future, but their success largely depends on the leadership exercised. Looking at the very big companies around the world, the key milestones have been generation changes. “My experience is that if the family properly understand how to assume an important role in company management after the generation change, then the outlook is good. However, the bigger the company is, the harder it is.”
Apart from the challenges that a generation change presents to A.P. Møller - Mærsk, in Kaspar Cassani’s opinion, the company faces exactly the same difficult choices, decisions and challenges as the rest of the international business community. A number of fundamental economic ground rules are changing. In his view, in the coming decades the economic centre of gravity will move from the transatlantic world to the Asian. This will have enormous implications on world trade and international transport patterns, and it will be vital for the company. “I think it is very important that A.P. Møller - Mærsk is not only present in that part of the world, but they establish themselves in a way that is perceived as if they have their origins there. I think it will be the decisive factor for business success in the next generation. Can they do this or will they remain a European, not to mention, a Danish company? It is an enormous task to face - not least because the cultures are so different,” assesses Cassani.
This new economic world order also means that the next generation of Europeans must adapt to much more change than the previous generation. There is still uncertainty about how great the Chinese challenge will be. Today, we are happy for it, not least because the country’s low costs are a welcome source of economic activity, but that will change when China becomes a global power centre, assesses Cassani. “So where is A.P. Møller - Mærsk in this picture? The company has one huge advantage over many other international companies. It has the finances to invest when the opportunity arises. It is invaluable,” he believes.
However, it is an open question whether A.P. Møller - Mærsk will then need to have its head office in Denmark. “I do not think is necessary, but it might be useful. The most important thing is that one has at least a strong second and maybe third leg to stand on in that part of the world. It could be China and Hong Kong. However, wherever they are, the changes we are facing also have consequences for their staff. Not all executives can be Danes.”
Before June 2003, the AGMs of the two listed companies; ‘The Steamship Company of 1912’ and ‘The Steamship Company Svendborg’ followed a very fixed pattern. An innovation in recent years is the wish of many shareholders to have Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller’s autograph in the reported accounts. Here he signs the 2002 Annual Report for The Steamship Company of 1912, at the AGM in April 2003.
After months of preliminary work the merger between the two listed companies behind the shipping giant was implemented and at the AGM of The Steamship Company Svendborg in April 2003, shipowners Jess Søderberg and Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller could look forward to the final decision at a future extraordinary AGM.
The extraordinary AGM of The Steamship Company Svendborg on June 12th 2003 meant not only the final dissolution of the nearly 100-year-old corporate structure and hence a smaller board in the new amalgamated company. Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller surprised all by choosing the “three-leafed clover” in the photo as Deputy Chairmen, namely his daughter Ane Mærsk Mc-Kinney Uggla, Poul Svanholm and in the background Michael Pram Rasmussen.
Ane Mærsk Mc-Kinney Uggla, Jan Leschly and Poul Svanholm photographed at the AGM in 2007.
Even though they work hard at Esplanaden, there is also time to keep up with life outside the office. Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller and Jess Søderberg look with interest at the DFDS ship Crown of Scandinavia, which departs for the last time from Kvæsthusbroen following the inauguration of the new DFDS terminal at Nordhavnen.
Nils Smedegaard Andersen went from his post as a board member of A.P. Møller - Mærsk A/S to the post of CEO for the 110,000 employees. His first major task was to whip container operations into shape, which continued to tarry. Here he is photographed in front of the head office.
A.P. Møller - Mærsk AGM in April 2007. Jess Søderberg, CEO - or group CEO, as his title was at Esplanaden - is to the left in conversation with one of the board’s Deputy Chairmen Poul Svanholm, unsuspecting that in less than eight weeks he will be removed from his post and replaced by Nils Smedegaard Andersen. Besides Svanholm is chairman Michael Pram Rasmussen, who was the prime mover in the removal of Søderberg. To the right of Pram Rasmussen is Henrik Christrup and far right Ane Mærsk Mc-Kinney Uggla receives a hug from Jan Leschly, who was elected to A.P. Møller - Mærsk’s board in May 2000.