Services
Teach & inspire
Contributions to educational programs
PLA regularly contributes to post experience educational programs (masters), often in cooperation with members from www.porteconomics.eu. PLA has developed specific course material for courses on ports, most importantly a textbook on port management (work in progress) and two management cases. Both help in delivering well evaluated education. Amongst others, PLA provides an ‘Advanced Port Management’ module at MEL (Erasmus University Rotterdam).
A (one-day) advanced introductory course in the port industry
PLA regularly provides an in-house one-day ‘crash course’ for professionals that are new in the port industry for Port of Rotterdam Authority. This one-day program provides participants with a complete overview of important players, the latest trends, and major challenges for the industry. This course is partly based on the port management textbook and evaluated positively (8 or higher from a scale from 1 to 10). PLA also contributes to executive education provided through www.porteconomics.eu.
In-company training entrepreneurial port development
PLA has developed entrepreneurial port development training capabilities mainly based on a large project at Port of Rotterdam Authority to increase skills and capabilities for entrepreneurial port development. The main goal is to actively co-develop business opportunities, instead of reacting to initiatives of private companies. PLA strongly believe in this approach for landlord port authorities and its experience suggests that port authorities can benefit from developing such skills.
Advise
Advise
PLA believes it can help companies in ports & logistics through (boardroom) advisory services. The PLA approach is focused on well-prepared workshops and (management) team meetings to jointly decide on a strategic direction, for instance in relation to a long term port development plan, goals and performance indicators, commercial strategies and investment projects. PLA can share a strong set of best partices and lessons learned, developed in past projects. PLA also provides ‘second opinions’ in these areas.
Fresh ideas
PLA can bring fresh ideas to companies / public agencies in the port industry, for instance in relation to attractive business opportunities, performance indicators for port authorities, new roles for port authorities, disruptive trends and implications for policies and strategies. Furthermore, PLA can provide and in-depth description of Port of Rotterdam Authority, a benchmark for many port authorities.
Workshops
PLA strongly believes in open strategy formulation processes. Too often, studies and strategies are developed by a small group of ‘happy few’. Most strategy implementation fails because of the inability of organisations to involve and commit the whole organisation in/to a new strategy. An open approach from the start provides a better basis for well implemented strategies. PLA has a vast experience in preparing and moderating interactive strategy sessions.
Analyse
Most investment decisions in ports and logistics are multi-million decisions with long term consequences. Such decisions require careful analysis, of market dynamics, trends and developments and growth prospects. PLA –often in partnership- can provide rigorous analysis that assists decision makers both in the public and private sector.
Second opinions
PLA can provide and ‘outsider opinion’ on important issues such as approaches to granting concessions, forecasts, port development plans, corporate plans and so on. PLA’s ambition is to make a valuable impact with such contributions.
Developing the set-up for studies
PLA can help structuring studies. Quite often, organisations struggle with how to analyze issues such as long term forecasts, industry trends, market dynamics and so on. PLA can assist in developing a clear analytical structure, that helps involved staff in their work.