Thomas disagrees

During this week's Industry Conference hosted by DNB, Norway's biggest bank, Thomas said that if you are conservative in the maritime industry, you will not make it. Full stop. The examples from history shows a Wilhelmsen company that made big decisions to stay competitive, changing from sail ships to steam, from steam to diesel, and today adapting to the digital world by eagerly diving into new ways of thinking and most of all, new ways of doing.

"With the amount of data available now, combined with technology providing new opportunities, our options and possibilities to create value for our customers are different today than just one year ago," said Thomas. He proclaimed that ideas we thought impossible three or four years ago, are now within reach due to ongoing development in technology, its availability and its price.  

Thomas gave the audience at the Industry Conference a small sample of the projects we are working on, including drone deliveries to ships, 3D printing in port and smart ropes with sensors now running a live pilot sailing in the Nordics right this minute.

"It is more fun to be in in the forefront of developing the maritime industry, than to be just someone who comes in later and adopts what everyone else are doing," Thomas said.

Thomas highlighted that we are not a technology company per say, but we are right there in the forefront when it comes to implementing existing technology and solutions into the maritime industry. "We create value for our customers by utilizing what is out there to make our customers more efficient and profitable, shaping the maritime industry as we make leaps forward."

The maritime industry is breaking out of its conservative image, and Wilhelmsen is right there in the front seat putting our money where our mouth is, delivering real solutions and services that our customers will hugely benefit from in the future.