ASEAN Business Leaders: Since Giga Shipping’s establishment in 2001, the Company has grown and positioned itself as the prime integrated automotive logistics company. Can you briefly introduce the Company, and give an overview of the integrated solutions that the Company offers as a part of Giga Maritime Group?

Datuk Kumar Prabakaran: Formed in 2001 by a team of skilled professionals in the field of ship-owning, operating and chartering; the core team of Giga Shipping focused on the auto industry in Malaysia specializing in sea transportation in the domestic sector creating a bridge between West Malaysia and East Malaysia. This core team had prior expertise of 12 years in the market and were consistently the top operators in this sector since 1988.

The growth in total industry volume (TIV) for automotive sector in Malaysia fuelled us to increase capacity on the ocean routes with larger cost efficient, modern ships to strengthen our ability to cope with increased demands.

GMG now comprises of four companies, the first one is the ocean transportation Giga Shipping, and several years later we had the opportunity to buy out Nexus Mega Carriers which is the transportation company that would support moving our vehicles from factories to dealerships.

Right after that we introduced the Giga Car Terminal in 2008, and with that we were able to offer comprehensive services to automotive manufactures, and transported cars from the factory to dealerships throughout Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah and Sarawak.

ASEAN Business Leaders: Lifelong learning is one of the key factors that enable business leaders to be at the forefront of their industry.

Datuk Kumar Prabakaran: In the business environment there are things that can be controlled, they can be anticipated and managed well. But there other things that cannot be controlled – those are risks such as currency fluctuations, a changing landscape in supply and demand, the political environment and new regulations.

We have to continue learning and be informed about the developments that can affect our business. By doing so, we are able to position ourselves as the industry leaders. The automotive industry is a very demanding industry as a whole especially if you are a one-stop logistics service provider.

As well, we invest a lot on our work force. We offer our staff flexibility to work from home and we have department rotations at timely intervals and cross-transfers within business units to contribute to our employee development and give them learning opportunities. We have adapted a Performance Management System to reward people who are in-line with the organization’s goals. In addition, we also care for our employees well-being and GMG offers an in-house gym, restaurants, spa and car wash centres, and free car parking facility.

ASEAN Business Leaders: Can you comment on innovation in the Company, and adaptation to technology?

Datuk Kumar Prabakaran: I believe resilience is a core virtue and character of our group that has over a span of 28 years faced many challenges; and with the strong leaders in our company who we call “Captains”, we remain always in anticipation to meet new challenges in an ever evolving environment.

The Malaysian Transport Industry has been heavily impacted over the last 2 years, however despite the slowdown our valued customers persevere in pushing for sales, consumers continue to purchase and Giga Shipping maintains to provide and progress our services. Resilience is a core trait which cannot be compromised in order to survive in this ever changing and fast paced world we now live in.

Now three years ago, we revamped our decade old IT system and we recognize the importance of technology. We customized developed software across all our business units and as of today we have software that facilitate our transportation on land, on sea and also for the car terminal operations. some examples are our e-Survey, including e-pickup and e-deliveries, route optimization engines and electronic sales force and gathering Business Intelligence.

All business units are interconnected and we have a seamless information stream that is disseminated to our customers real-time, which enables us to provide excellent customer service.

ASEAN Business Leaders: Transport infrastructures is crucial in promoting increased connectivity across nations, and are being boosted with mega-infrastructure projects under One Belt One Road initiative. What are the needs for the ports infrastructure, for companies such as GMG to facilitate its operations?

Datuk Kumar Prabakaran: The aim for the key players in the sector is to overcome road and port traffic congestion, meet labour shortages, and end inefficiencies at border crossings, thus freeing up the movement of vehicles both within the region and outward to global trading partners.

As part of customs reforms for the AEC agreement, automation has also been vital to speeding up the customs clearance process and reducing administrative costs.

Giga Shipping has an efficient business operating model. Furthermore, since we partnered with NYK we could easily deploy this model into other countries and develop it further.

The automotive industry has been growing further in the ASEAN region and GMG is poised to play a big role in this industry, and at the same time add value to the ASEAN community.