Meet Paul Bramhall - Oceania Continuous Improvement Manager

Paul Bramhall began his Maersk career in 2013 as part of Customer Services in Australia, and soon after took on a role in the Process Improvement Team -- He had an opportunity to re-locate to Manila GSC in late 2015. After the project he become increasingly interested in change management and re-located to Copenhagen in 2017 to join the Business Change Authority as a Business Change Manager. It was during this time that he worked closely with APM Terminals on their transformation journey and frequently ran workshops in their HQ in the Hague. After completion in 2018, a new opportunity arose to return to Australia as the manager of the Process Improvement Team, which became the Continuous Improvement Team, integrating colleagues from the Supply Chain Management side of the business. He’s been in the role for 2 years, and still enjoys the challenges it presents each day!

What does a typical day look like?

In Continuous Improvement I'm not sure if there is such a thing as a typical day, but normally we'll start out with a Daily Huddle to align on our priorities for the day and understand where I can provide support for the team. Being a team of 13, a lot of my time is spent on development, both on a team and an individual level, to ensure that we're engaged and understand how we contribute to the Maersk vision. In-between, I'm always on the lookout for best practice that we can share with other Areas, particularly around the Customer Experience, and likewise I've also made a habit of exploring and collaborating with other area's to understand their best practice, and how it could be replicated locally.

What is the most exciting aspect of Continuous Improvement?

The most exciting part is that no one day is the same. With so many different initiatives happening to impact the Customer Experience, it's an important juggling act to prioritise the right ones for the Area, while also ensuring change fatigue doesn't set in. What gets me excited is to see the impact of a project or initiative that we've been working on once it goes live, as that's always the moment when all of the work (and occasional pain!) feels worth it.

What inspires you?

I truly believe that Maersk, and by extension ourselves, makes a difference in the world. Without logistics so many things we take for granted would disappear overnight, and combined with the fact that Maersk is committed to making the world a better place, such as its partnership with The Ocean Cleanup, it makes me feel I'm working for a company that understands what matters in the bigger picture.

Describe a career highlight

My highlight was getting thrown into the deep end of global project management in 2016! I'd re-located to the Manila GSC in 2015 to take on a Process Lead role to implement Salesforce with our Service Recovery and Finance colleagues, however after just a few months a restructure meant a Project Manager position was available. As I'd expressed an interest in my Personal Development Plan to gain experience in managing a global project, I stepped into the role, and soon found myself facilitating several calls a day with up to 100 participants, often from the back of taxis and various other interesting locations! It was a trial by fire, but one which I remember fondly, and the implementation was successfully delivered thanks to the awesome teamwork we showed.

What is the one thing that may surprise people about the work you do?

I think many people see logistics as somewhat of an old-school industry, and I believe people will be surprised to find out how cutting edge and innovative the company is, leveraging data and the latest technologies to drive innovation. It's an exciting place to work!

Life outside of Maersk

My hobby is writing movie reviews for a website that specialises in East Asian cinema. I mainly write reviews for Korean, Hong Kong, and Chinese cinema, and through my writing I've had the opportunity to review a number of directors and actors who I admire the work of!