Program Leadership at Overseas Shipholding Group

As a technical program leader at Overseas Shipholding Group, Eric Schreiber is responsible for  researching technologies that   meet commercial feasibility. Schreiber  collaborates across departments and   manages cross-functional teams to define   the What, Why, and When of new products  and services. In addition, he investigates   and interprets industry trends and new   technologies for development, builds   business cases, raises funding, and starts   new organizations.  

With an engineering and business   background in various industries, his   experiences include managing projects,   developing products, and growing services   with international teams that deliver value   to clients and growth for investors.   

What are the challenges that have   emerged, and how do you envision the   landscape-altering quickly?   

The supply chain is based on skill sets.   As an engineering-intensive organization,   we depend on highly skilled people, and   that's been the most challenging aspect.   No matter how advanced the technology is   humans are still essential to understanding   and fulfilling organizational goals. So it's   important to keep those individuals busy   and employed as it's hard to find good   talent. Because once you lose talent, it   takes a long time to develop the skill set and   elevate the human element in operations.  

What tactics have you employed as a   company to mend your internal chains   in light of the recent changes that have   arisen?    

Talking about the human element has   sharpened our focus on the safety aspects.   There is a tendency that if you stop   operating machines and equipment for quite   some time, you may become lethargic and   stop using all of your skill sets. Therefore,   we have truly concentrated on enhancing   the safety element.  From the perspective of enterprise   performance, we begin embracing new   metrics to elevate how we will appeal to   our clients and new indicators, such as   the intensity of greenhouse gases. Even   though we have always followed these   procedures, we suddenly had to start   quantifying many of them. As a result,   quantifying and measuring things has   presented a new challenge because we   don't want to overburden the people with   paperwork. So, that also introduced a lot   of really technical roadblocks. We have   been gathering data for the sustainability   report for the past two years, and it's   been examined in greater detail. 

  ​Networking in the   enterprise
domain   grew up to provide   connectivity   between office   buildings and   provide access   to Internet and   corporate services   within data centers         

What are some of the most important   lessons your coworkers or peers can   take from your experience?   

Throughout my career, I have learned two   valuable lessons from an organizational   level. The first lesson learned is how to   test the changes faster, especially when   we had disruption due to a pandemic   that stopped many of the operations. To   follow the financial reporting metrics and   fiscal calendar, it's important to discover   and implement a way to test them before   you hit a detrimental financial result.   The second and very powerful lesson   learned is collaborating with your clients   intimately. Sometimes we assume that   all of our clients will respond similarly.   That's not the case. Clients have different   ambitions and leadership with various   goals, benchmarks, and objectives. We   have found that working closely with   our clients is another strategy that works   incredibly well for us. Therefore, you   need to delve deeper and treat each   client individually. You cannot assume   that every client will be the same by   extrapolating.  

How do you envision the marine   industry in the coming 12 to 18 months?   

I believe the Marine industry is going   through a very uncertain time. It means   that we are under pressure to lower   our emissions of greenhouse gases.   The difficulty is figuring out what   technological avenues we can take   to change the fuel type we utilize to   power the engines on border ships. Now   that we're investing in carbon capture   technology, you can either switch to a   completely different propulsion system   or add equipment to make the fuel   or emissions impact much greener.   However, if you make a choice now,   you don't have a good path because   there is now an insufficient fuel supply   to support the existing population.   Therefore, I believe that carbon capture   is undoubtedly one of the greatest   methods to help businesses comply with   the upcoming legislation.