a great company but seems to have lost its way in the seas at the moment
Pros
culture. apart from the cluster leadership team, all managers sit together in the open with their teams. work gets done in a climate of trust with little concern for titles/position. in Maersk, titles are a reflection of functional responsibilities more than seniority and or entitlement to respect. respect is earned and this is done through proving one self time and again. generally speaking, there is more and more empowerment, over time, to the front-liners to get things done. people - at Maersk. we believe in getting the right people for the right job. and this is not confined only to the ability but also the right temperament (personality etc). this together with our culture, creates a synergy that many would envy. the people + culture has also resulted in the organization being a fun place to work at.
Cons
IT management - absolutely nightmarish and embarrassing for a company its size and global presence. overall, the company is still VERY bureaucratic despite its recent efforts to empower its people to gets things done. the key drawback is in its lack of direction and know-how in what to do with regards to its IT infrastructure. this has lead to increasing frustrations at the grassroots in having to deal with the IT infrastructure's shortcomings. everything from its softwares to its hardwares. it would not be an exaggeration to say that its systems and/or hardwares are failing more than 50% of the time in a year. its actually amazing we manage to keep things running. it is a testament to the people in the company more than anything else. sadly, not everyone has the patience to stomach these things. over time, the good people leave. this is sad. because it is something that is clearly within the control of the company. if only it took charge. Management can at times be hypocrites with double standards. They themselves often fail to live up to the cultures and standards they champion and/or expect their direct reports and rest of organization to live up to. in short, they often fail to walk the talk. Despite its change in direction in wanting to drive performance and therefore also pay for performance. Many of the star performers of the company are still underpaid for the work they do and the value the bring to their jobs. notwihstanding talent obtained through external hire, Senior Management is generally too slow in recognizing internal talent. another example of them not walking the talk. This has created an unfortunate disparity in the compensation among peers which in turn leads to lost of talent as the disparity tend to have a medium to long term (more than 1 year at times even up to 2 years) effect before being corrected. the end result is the top performers often feel they're underpaid and undervalued for the work they do in the medium term view. given the dynamics of the job markets today, such talents often leave the organization before the corrective actions are made. as much as the company wishes to emphasize on talent pipeline. it really doesn't have a clue to get this going. most talent development initiatives are superficial let alone leadership pipeline plans. if one is lucky as the current writer is, one may chance upon the opportunity to experience and be enriched by different job rotations. this is unfortunately not something entirely intentional and is often left to chance (i.e. opportunities arises only when there is resignations vs planned transfers/rotations).