The Business History of 10 Greek-Owned Shipping Companies Evaluated by Nonlinear Management

We analyzed the business lives of 10 Greek-owned shipping companies by revealing their strategies since their foundation in about 1850s till recently. The majority of the managers of the Greek-owned shipping companies controlled their companies feeling four fears: the first derived from ordering new-buildings; the second came from the premature death of their owner; the third derived from the Stock Exchanges, and the tentative take-over there, and the last came from the shipping depressions. We underlined, especially the main facts, which “made Greece a great shipping nation again”, after the almost total destruction of its fleet during the 2nd WW. Moreover, we analyzed the business patterns applied, almost uniformly, by all Greek-owned shipping companies, following an unwritten tradition. Our main preoccupation was with forecasting the shipping markets using the tools provided by Chaos Theory. We presented also the “Cash-Flow Analysis”, the “CP shipping company” in its case-study, the ill-fated “Tidal Marine” and the differences between “Weather” and … “Business”. Two further case-studies were presented of “USA Thiokol and Eletson Shipping corporations”.