After two days of settling into life in Cyprus and exploring the area, today we had our first three meetings with companies in the Limassol area. First, we met with representatives from Bernard Schulte Ship Management (BSM) at the company’s training center at the Limassol marina. Here, we learned about the many services ship management companies provide the owners of the vessels, who can simply collect profits after outsourcing all of this work to the management companies. What was very interesting about this business was the high amount of vertical integration they employ, which includes owning their own travel and restaurant agencies that they use aboard ships they manage. This talk was also very eye opening about the many different ways one can work in the maritime industry as an engineer, while not necessarily working out at sea.

For our second visit of the day, we traveled to a similar company, Columbia Ship Management, to learn about their roles in the supply chains for many different industries. Columbia and BSM had a lot in common regarding their business model and their vertical integration, as they both provide a wide range of services to vessels owned by others, as well as owning a few ships themselves. The Columbia Group, however, is also involved with overseeing the building of some ships, and is even getting involved with areas outside of the shipping industry. The representatives from Columbia talked a lot about how they invest in and acquire other companies, and what they look for in the value it can add when doing so, which was very interesting to me.

To end the day, we visited Medochemie, a pharmaceuticals developer which provides medications both locally for Cyprus and for many other areas around the world. The presentation from their representatives was very helpful in understanding how many supply chain concepts we learned earlier on are put into action on a day-to-day basis, such as demand forecasting, inventory planning, and balancing responsiveness vs. demand. Getting to tour the expansive warehouse for this company was a great experience, as it houses enough resources for them to create and sell 700 different products that can be presented in over 3500 ways.