The Origins and Concepts of MONSOON

Monsoon Maritime Services Pte Ltd was established 30th March 1991 in Singapore. Almost immediately, branch offices were established in Yangon and Manila.

Although Singapore is MONSOON's Head office, both Yangon and Manila offices were autonomous, headed by local senior managers, hence the three fishes prominently featured on our logo. The three fishes also represent the important relationship of our principals, our management and our crew. The Monsoon logo with a central M anchors our corporate values and philosophy from which spins our outward looking, progressive and dynamic attitude, our teamwork and commitment towards the development of our professional business. The corporate colour in various shades of green represent the Monsoon region where we operate and a strong concern for the environment.

The founders and senior management of MONSOON are all ex seafarers most of whom are master mariners, chief engineers and superintendents who have extensive sea and shore based experience with reputable shipowners and managers background.

In the late eighties and early nineties, manning was not yet recognized for the important role it played towards the safe operations of ships at sea. Most companies delegate the role of manning to crew agencies without much background checking or concern about quality of crew. Some of the more notorious agencies were able to provide crewing services for free or very low manning fee but surviving on extracting illegal fees and commissions from the crew recruited through them.

Our founders having worked at sea and with major shipmanagers crew offices, decided to start up a dedicated manning service company with a group of experienced managers in Singapore, Yangon and Manila.

From the start, we develop our mission statement - RESPONSIBLE MANAGEMENT * PROFESSIONAL SEAMANSHIP is a simple statement of the two important complementary elements of our services towards our principals.

A strong business model was developed based on Monsoon being independent - not owned or controlled by any ship owners or managers.

From our rich crewing experience, our senior management developed a mixed crew manning concept which was very unpopular in the early nineties but now increasingly well accepted by the shipping communities.

The most difficult part of our business model but of which we are most proud of was the implementation of a fee-based professional service paid by our principals and no fee from our crew.

These three concepts were difficult to implement especially during the startup years, but unwavering commitment to these concepts and our achievement today after more than ten years in business could be said to validate these concepts.

The founders has envisioned that new ideas are quickly incorporated into our business model in anticipation of the many changes in the manning industry over the recent years such as ISM, STCW95, new crew sources, new training requirement etc. Our MONSOON network of manning offices have since been extensively expanded to provide a full range of nationalities of crew. In-house training and cadet training were implemented with co-operation of our principals. Early implementation of information technology such as development of crew databases and website ensure an efficient management information system within our company. Monsoon obtained quality system certification in all its major offices well ahead of customers requirement and expectation.

We are glad to have developed into a mature and well-runned company recognized by the international shipping communities as a reputable and high quality manning company - rich in experience with strong resources built up over the years to better serve our principals and crew. We could not have achieve this without the strong unflinching support of our principals, our staff and the loyalty of the officers and crew who have remain with the company through good and difficult years.

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