A Ship, a Captain, and its Crew: Lessons in Business from Failure at Sea

Mic De Fazio, MA
Aug 26, 2017 · 17 min read

Ever since I was little I have been extremely curious by nature and have looked at things from many different angles to understand the way things work. There was a book called “The Way Things Work” by David Macaulay published in 1988 that was always glued to my hand because I found it fascinating to understand everything that is behind what we see in front of us.

Through the years my curiosity naturally carried into my professional life and I have had the same curiosity about business and leadership because there are so many dimensions to success in business and what we see in front of us is a natural byproduct of varying designs, philosophies, strategies, mindsets, actions, decisions, and complex dynamics all of which come together to lead to a particular outcome or series of outcomes. When I started my first business in 2005 I made a commitment to myself to never stop asking questions about why and how things work and to never stop my forward progression toward knowledge, development, and continuous improvement.

When I look at leadership and success in business it is amazing to look at the complexity that exists in this space as there numerous examples of companies that went under and failed despite their seemingly dominant footprint such as Kodak, Blockbuster, Enron, Borders, and GM to name a few that come to mind. These are merely well known dominant companies that went under but imagine all the other small, medium, and large businesses that began with brilliance on paper yet they were unable to overcome the challenges they faced. Then you look at those that succeeded and there are many examples of companies that looked seemingly equal to their competitors at initial launch yet they found a way to whether the storms they faced and not only succeed but thrive as dominant players such as Southwest, Starbucks, Apple, Amazon.com, and Netflix to name a few.

Within this context but scaling it down to a grain of sand so to speak, I look for ways that I can improve as a business leader to define success and sustainability for my business unit and for those which I have committed myself to in terms of support, structure, vision, growth, development, and long-term success. I truly believe the bottom impacts success all the way to the top and that everything matters in life and in business. For the larger organization to succeed, all of their business units must be unified around operational priorities, culture and values, and overall strategic objectives.

This brings me back to the title of this article, A Ship, A Captain, and its Crew: Lessons in Business from Failure at Sea. I was watching a documentary about the Titanic with my son called Inside the Titanic documenting its demise on April 14th, 1912 where 1514 passengers were killed. Out of curiosity I also watched a documentary, Terror at Sea: The Sinking of the Concordia documenting the tragedy of the Costa Concordia, an Italian cruise ship which sank almost exactly 100 years after the Titanic on January 14th, 2012 killing 32 passengers. These are just 2 examples but there are many others where a string of events involving human error led to accidents and fatalities at sea.

What I learned sparked my interest in the connections that can be made between failures at sea and failures in business as a way to learn from these mistakes and apply them to our own organizations. What becomes evident is that disaster at sea is a result of an unbroken incident chain where seemingly small mistakes add up to a catastrophic outcome but that could have been prevented or diminished should that incident chain have been broken at any point (Konrad, 2012).

The Titanic

Here is a list of events that created the incident chain leading to the death of the Titanic and a majority of her passengers as they were presented in the documentary Inside the Titanic:

· It was designed as a modern marvel to amaze all those that saw it and that were aboard it and with a focus on luxury, comfort, and convenience it was designed with a few compromises that were far more detrimental than imagined.

· The Titanic needed 51 life boats and it had 16, 4 more than legally required so as not to clutter decks of the ship (it was designed to be unsinkable so this put less pressure on catastrophe management)

· To accommodate a passenger corridor through the ship and a secret passage for the “Black Gang” (a group of over 300 crew men tasked with the sole responsibility of shoveling 1 ½ tons of coal into the boilers to keep the Titanic moving) they designed the watertight bulk heads to only extent 2/3 of the way up to the ceiling later allowing the complete flooding of the titanic due to water overflowing into each subsequent chamber unobstructed.

· There was a fire that burned unnoticed in the boiler room right in the area where the Titanic hit the ice berg. The fire burned for an extended period of time possibly compromising the integrity of the steel in that specific area before the ship ever launched.

· The hull of the Titanic was held together entirely through the use of rivets that in design made sense but when faced with the pressures that presented themselves post collision, simply popped off at the head and opened up the Titanic like a zipper.

· The 2 men in the watch tower were not equipped with binoculars and were relying exclusively on their eye sight to spot trouble.

· Upon approach to the ice berg the decision was made by the captain to steer the ship to the side to avoid hitting ice berg head on and this decision resulted in the lower side of the Titanic taking the hit rather than the stronger front of the ship which may have been able to take the hit.

· The captain had the Titanic at full bore (26mph) despite warnings to reduce speed due to possible ice bergs in the water.

· There was a state of the art radio on the Titanic for communication out but there was no central communication system on the ship nor was there a central alarm that would sound on the ship in the event of an emergency.

· There was no communication system allowing the different crew members on the ship to communicate to one another so there was no real time connection between the Bridge, the Boiler Rooms, the Engineers, or the customer facing crew on deck or below. The only notification that existed between the Bridge and the Boiler room (which was the sole means of moving and stopping the giant ship) was a red light for stop and a green light for go.

· The crew had not undergone training in the event of a catastrophe as the ship was designed to be unsinkable and with that came a false sense of security. For this reason, when the “Black Gang” in the boiler room saw the red light for stop come on after the collision with the ice berg they were confused and disoriented as their task was strictly to keep moving forward while at sea. This was just one initial example of how a lack of effective communication would begin to break down the ship.

· After striking the ice berg, no passengers and most of the crew had no idea what was going on. Only the bridge and the engineering crew knew which is why those in the Boiler room were confused and disoriented as they were simply reacting to bells and lights they saw.

· There was no evacuation procedure in place and all 1343 passengers had to be individually informed by 300 stewards that the ship was hit and that it was sinking as there was no central alarm or communication system as previously mentioned delaying the evacuation.

· Due to no evacuation procedure in place and a lack of control over the process by the captain, of the 16 life boats which could have held up to 80 people each, some boats were allowed to go with only a handful of passengers drastically increasing the number of casualties.

· The distress call made from the Titanic out for help on the most state of the art system of its time did not help them as the man behind the controls miscommunicated their location and he was off by 17 kilometers making rescue efforts impossible due to the narrow window they had with the freezing waters.

· As the ship was taking on water and the crew in the boiler room were working on stabilizing the flow, the Captain, not knowing the severity of the flooding down below ordered the ship (now stationary) to move forward again in an attempt to get to their destination and race against the flooding. So the green light was given and the Black Gang followed instructions and got the ship moving again. The problem with this was that it just increased the speed with which the water was flowing in and by the time they could let the bridge know and the order to stop was once again issued, the damage had already been done.

· Even after taking on all the water, it was decided that Boiler room 5 was the one room on which the fate of the Titanic would rest. Those responsible for its integrity were members of the Black Gang that despite the odds were able to stop the flooding and achieve stability. However, the engineers which were not in contact with the men in the boiler room or the Captain on the bridge and instead were communicating with the owner of the Titanic that was onboard and now involved in the rescue efforts. The engineers decided that to save the ship they would run a vacuum line into the flooded boiler rooms to suction out the water not knowing that the crew in boiler room 5 had contained the flooding. So the engineers made their way room by room opening the watertight doors until they got to boiler room 5 and opened that door too. The men in boiler room 5 quickly tried to close the door as the water started to flood in but even after shutting the door, too much water got in and it compromised the integrity of the walls causing boiler room 5 to flood tipping the scales and sealing Titanic’s fate.

· In one of the last decision’s the captain made, he was asked if the rest of the water tight compartments should be closed and the captain decided to let the water flow thinking it would even out the ship and give them more time but it did not and merely sped up the process.

The Costa Concordia

Here is a list of events that created the incident chain on the Costa Concordia as they were presented in the documentary Terror at Sea: The Sinking of the Concordia:

· No matter how strong a ship is built, it is impossible to build a ship (large or small) that can sustain a strike with a rock or an ice berg. This has become clear over the years and in most commercial cargo ships this is accounted for by creating a type of reinforced barrier in the lower section of the ship that would come up to the water line. This would allow a hit to the ship below the waterline not to compromise the integrity of the ship as the water would flow into the lower reservoir but not breach the rest of the ship. On the Concordia, this reinforced barrier did not extent up to the water line and the hit the Concordia took was above this reinforced barrier allowing the ship to flood and eventually sink.

· The ship was moving too fast for the waters that it was in.

· The Concordia had a very sophisticated navigation system as well as a central alarm and warning system. The ship’s navigation system could account for any irregularities in the water and put the ship on a safe course to its intended destination. However, the Captain made a decision to deviate from the set course as they approached an island and shut off the alarms and navigated by sight in the dark to do sail-by. This took the ship far too close to the shore line in shallow water where they struck rock before the Captain could give the command to maneuver away. The collision created a tear in the side of the Concordia very similar to the one experienced by the Titanic and the sinking of the ship began.

· Due to a design flaw or malfunction with the ship, the valve that would divert water to the water tight compartment in the event of flooding shut down and instead of diverting water into the water tight compartments, the water flooded the pipes of the ship causing water to shoot out of every sink, toilet, and bathtub onboard. In essence the flooding went directly into the ship instead of into the water tight compartments.

· Electricity went out and passengers began to panic but even though the captain and the crew knew what had happened and they knew the ship was going down, a message was communicated over the intercom that they were simply having an electrical issue which was being addressed and that everything was ok.

· In an attempt to save the ship from sinking the Captain maneuvered the ship to shore which is technically the right thing to do but instead of going head on due to the limitation of the engines at this point, it went in sideways and actually caused the listing or tipping of the ship.

· There was no communication on the ship from the crew to the passengers. When the passengers saw they were in trouble and that the crew had no idea what to do, they went on deck and that is where it was everyone for themselves to get into life boats. The problem was that by now the ship was listing or leaning too far on one side to launch the boats on the high side of the ship. As a result, passengers got off the ship by any means necessary some on boats, some by climbing down the overturned ship and swimming, and some by jumping from the ship into the water or trying to land on the life boats floating away.

· The Captain was actually found on a life boat with his officers while passengers were still onboard and was ordered by the coast guard to re board the ship and command his ship to which the Captain refused. He stated that he accidently fell off the ship into a life boat and that he did not mean to abandon his passengers. While his abandoning the ship did not directly impact the loss of life, by removing himself from the ship he could not accurately communicate with safety personal in terms of those injured or killed or the number of passengers still onboard which made rescue efforts more difficult and which had to finally be discontinued.

I am writing this not to offer a full historical recount of the events that occurred on these 2 ships but rather a look at the series of events that occurred either before or after the actual collision of the ships which alone may seem small but together contributed to tragic events, events that could have been avoided, minimized, and/or controlled. When we look at those businesses that have failed despite their apparent dominance as previously referenced, it is impossible to understand all the circumstances the led to their failure however, much like the events that unfolded on the Titanic and the Costa Concordia, there were likely a series of small events that together contributed to their ultimate failure. It may have started with a small compromise here or there, a split decision that had to be made with regard to strategy or execution, a poor organizational structure that was further compounded by ineffective communication and work processes, a lack of alignment between departments that created a divergence between the strategies and objectives needed by the larger organization and those that were embraced and lived out by their various business units. Whatever the case maybe, what becomes clear when we look at the mistakes made at sea and the mistakes made in business, is that the human element is what is critical to success as it is ultimately the human element that drives failure or success regardless of technology, equipment, design, strategies, objectives, and processes.

Looking at these examples of how a series of events led to failure at sea I have put together a list of what I feel is critical to achieving excellence and long-term success in business.

· A business has to be properly designed, organized, structured, and built.

· A business needs remarkable leadership

· A business needs a diversified team with varying talents that are specific in nature.

· The selection and on boarding of the employees is critical to ensure collectivism and shared vision for people and processes to be aligned and succeed during times of adversity.

· A leader and their team must be trained to expect deviation from their plan and to expect adversity while maintaining agility and adaptability in the face of conflict.

· Clear, concise, and context based communication in business between a leader and their team, between the team members themselves, and between the different operational units within the organization, is critical to ensure transparency, understanding, and ultimately, the ability to act swiftly in any given situation.

· A leader has to have a clear vision of their objective and they have to be able to clearly communicate this to their team.

· A leader has to show the ability and willingness to understand the nature of the work performed by those they lead and be willing to be at their level from time to time for a ground-level understanding of their operations.

· Every employee has a specific role within an organization and in order for the organization to achieve continued success, each employee must perform at the very best of their ability and up to their full potential. To accomplish this there must be a clear alignment between their role and contributions and the overall strategies and objectives defined by their individual business units. It is a leader’s responsibility to create this alignment and lead their team to success.

· Running a successful business and leading in an effective manner is much like a game of chess; it is imperative that a leader look multiple steps ahead to foresee possible challenges and devise preemptive solutions before they ever occur. They must understand that the decision or action they take in the moment can lead to unforeseen outcomes at a future point.

· The relationship between a leader and their team needs to be one of collaboration, equal participation, commitment, and shared vision.

· All businesses are different in terms of their design, their purpose, their potential, and their success. The key for effective leadership is to understand the design and the purpose of their individual business unit as it relates to the larger organization and to then lead their team accordingly.

· A leader must solicit open feedback and dialogue from members of their team in addition to the data that they themselves access and monitor in order to accurately identify and interpret key performance indicators and obtain a holistic understanding of their operations. With this added perspective they can then analyze and interpret the data and actively and effectively communicate their findings as they relate to their business unit while highlighting the specific actions they must take for continued success.

· A leader must be able to see things their team does not yet see and then communicate their vision in a tangible, concrete fashion so as to provide their team with a context they can understand.

· Every single organizational member must hold themselves accountable for the responsibilities they have and they must feel empowered and trusted to do their jobs at the best of their ability.

· A leader is held to a higher standard and they are expected to put their people, their business, and their organizational obligations above their own personal needs to ensure that regardless of circumstances, their focus will always be placed on maintaining the integrity of their team and their business unit so that all of those under their command are able to be in a place where they can thrive regardless of their role or responsibility.

When I look at this list I see that many of these items listed were missing upon the review of the events that unfolded on those ships. The thing that becomes clear to me as I digest the complexity that exists in running a business is that everything is connected and that everything matters. Looking at success in business it is critical to understand that without the human element, everything else falls apart.

We can have the very best systems in place, we can have the best vision or mission statement on our website or in our employee manual, we can have the best technology, we can have all the data and metrics needed for every product, service, and process that we have, and we can have all the best people in all the best positions but if we do not maintain a focus on the human element, all of the things in which we have invested will be meaningless. An organization’s competitive advantage comes from properly leveraging our people so that they can thrive in their respective roles as they were selected to do and continue to move our organization forward.

Every single person is critical to the success of the larger organization because each of their roles fulfil a very specific purpose. Every communication is important because it is an opportunity to further highlight our vision, solidify our progress, highlight a change in direction and the why behind it, and ultimately solidify the relationships we have with our people. Every decision we make, big or small, will have a long range impact either as a result of that one decision or as a result of the chain of events put in motion by that one decision. Every interaction we have whether in person, in writing, over the phone, or via digital channels matters as all interactions will either solidify our brand and our culture or undermine, detract, and dismantle everything we are trying to build.

When I zoom in with regards to how all of this impacts me I bring it back to the little grain of sand that is my specific business unit. It is entirely up to me to define the relevance of my business unit. It is my responsibility to maintain an alignment between vision and contribution in order to exceed organizational expectations, drive and sustain growth and profitability, and solidify a cultural environment that binds everything together in order to drive motivation, discipline, accountability, and empowerment.

As a leader, I am tasked to see our business in a way that my team has not yet seen. I am tasked to create a vision for the future and communicate the why on a consistent basis to strive for collectivism and shared vision. I am tasked at maintaining a clear, open, and transparent channel of communication between the larger organization and my team as well as between myself and the team. I am tasked with creating and sustaining a culture that makes our strategies and objectives tangible and felt across the team allowing us to succeed despite adversity. I am tasked with leading change through knowledge sharing, vision casting, empowerment, and an individualized reaffirmation of success and progress. I am tasked to build a mindset across my unit that is unwaveringly focused on thriving regardless of conditions, circumstances, or challenges. Most importantly, I am tasked with understanding that I am leading during a time where we each are shaping our future reality as employees, as leaders, and as humans within the business landscape.

Being a leader is not a title, it is a mindset and we are all leaders because we can all have a significant impact on those with which we interact and we all have a significant impact on the organizations within which we operate. Leadership means putting others above yourself and displaying this with your actions. It is having a focus on what things will look like in the future instead of operating exclusively in the short-term. It is holding ourselves accountable for our results and pushing ourselves harder than anyone else can ever push us. It is taking ownership of our results regardless of our circumstances or outside factors and deriving our own motivation and discipline to see everything through to completion. It is looking to make our organization better today than it was yesterday and having a hunger for self-improvement and development continually creating a better version of ourselves each day. Ultimately, Leadership is embracing the view that a change in our mindset, a change in our actions, and a change in our behaviors can drive sustainable change in others within our organization and consequently, drive sustainable change in our organization as a whole.

Let’s all focus on creating an unbreakable incident chain that leads to business success rather than business failure. Let’s all focus on excellence in every aspect of our lives so that each decision, action, thought, communication, and strategic implementation acts a brick that perfectly placed, will build a physical manifestation of our vision for the future state of our respective organizations. Everything matters, big or small, and when we look back at the story that we have written, let’s make sure that story is worth reading but most importantly, let’s make sure that in reading that story it depicts all of the things that we had hoped and planned to achieve.

References:

Inside the Titanic. Directed by Richard Dale, Channel 5, 2012.

Konrad, John. Costa Concordia — The 3 Most Fatal Mistakes. gCaptian, 20 Jan.

2012, http://gcaptain.com/costa-concordia-3-fatal-flaws-that-led-to-

disaster/ . Accessed 25 Aug. 2017.

Terror at Sea: The Sinking of the Concordia. Directed by Marc Tiley and Paul

O’Connor, Channel 4 Television Corporation, 2012.

)

Written by

Driven by curiosity and imagination and focused on a vision of what could be, I look to redefine the way we view ourselves, our work, and our interactions.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade