all about nordhavn
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...a few select builders, like their boats, seem able to weather any kind of storm and to come through toughened and improved by the experience
to one another by 30 years of mutual respect, trust, and total commitment. Its own 81 executives and staff are headquartered in Dana Point, California, named for William Henry Dana, author of Two Years Before the Mast, in which he describes the area as “the only romantic spot in California.” A modest office building in town is action central for management, design and engineering, and administration, while another on the harbor handles southwest sales, brokerage and parts, and West Coast commissioning. PAE also owns and operates sales and brokerage offices in Seattle, Washington; Stuart, Florida (which also looks after East Coast commissioning); Portsmouth, Rhode Island; Hamble, England, and is represented in Australasia by an agent (See Page 124). Ta Shing and South Coast Marine construct boats to PAE specifications, and do so to a very high standard of compliance. The level of integration between PAE and each of the yards is difficult to comprehend, particularly since the reality of customization makes each boat a project unique unto itself. PAE owns and finances the construction of all tooling, it supplies the yards with the final design and specifications based on the contract with the buyer, and it also sources and ships to them many of the components and sub-systems. PAE does the final commissioning of the vessel—a several-months-long process involving the client, and often does or supervises the installation of subsidiary systems such as electronics or hydraulics to ensure that everything not only works as it should, but is integrated into PAE’s unique system of manuals which its technical writer prepares specifically for each boat. The management of every project requires a complex series of agreements at the front end as to who shall do and supply what and when. Supervision and coordination are key parts of the build process with PAE’s managers always at the yards checking on progress, monitoring quality, and dealing with issues—particularly late change orders requested by the client, as they inevitably arise. Aside from doing well the many tasks 196
circumnavigator | 2008-2009
that all businesses must manage, it is arguable that the basis of PAE’s success has been the combination of that almost mystical ability to intuit market trends matched by the courage to react to them well in advance of others. As a consequence, PAE in no small way now influences those trends. If imitation truly is the highest form of flattery, PAE is clearly much admired and respected by many of its competitors. The company is also liked by the people directly involved. Spend a little time talking with PAE staff or customers and the word “family” will come up. Often. As a first impression, it seems logical, since it’s a family company and quite a few employees are relatives within the expanding Streech and Leishman dynasties. Listen a little more carefully, however, and it soon becomes clear that the PAE “family” covers everybody dealing with the company. What’s really remarkable is that once employees, clients, and suppliers become associated with the company, they stay with it for the long term. It’s a serious business, run efficiently and effectively as a business ought to be, but it’s more than “just” a business. Although hard to define, a relaxed collegiality seems to permeate PAE, even during crises. Everyone seems to take his or her lead from Streech and Leishman, both of whom have open and low-key personalities, are calm no matter the duress, very much people-oriented, and committed to always “doing the right thing.” That leadership breeds a level of commitment and performance among employees and suppliers that money alone could not buy. It also inspires confidence and loyalty in Nordhavn clients, most of whom are or will be repeat buyers. It’s been more than three decades since Dan Streech and Jim Leishman founded the company as brash youngsters. They still have that sense of excitement that was so essential to ever-higher goals, but the brashness has been softened by experience and maturity. These days, they are still aggressively doubling the business every 36 months through innovation and expansion, but are no longer doing it by themselves. Over the years, they have been nurturing the best
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and brightest people already within the organization, and as required, recruiting externally. They now have a tightly-knit level of capable and confident middle management that has freed them up for more strategic responsibilities, even if they do manage to find ways to get their own hands dirty several times a week. Although their conversations are still primarily about their first love—building new and better boats, they are interspersed with reflections of legacy and their ever-increasing obligations to others. Not least among these are their Asian partners, who have committed their fortunes and futures to Nordhavn’s continued success. Interestingly enough, “family” is used in exactly the same way when Ta Shing and South Coast Marine executives speak of the relationship. PAE’s market sense has proved almost unfailing over 30 years, and as Streech and Leishman predicted, passagemaking powerboats is where the action has been. Despite its love of sail, declining orders brought Ta Shing around, and the company switched its plant over to construct the then-new Nordhavn 62. (Although it, too, is an unusual looking boat, it had a unique appeal that continued to sell itself even after PAE’s decision to not promote it anymore. It has finally been taken out of production.) A major factor in the overall success of the arrangements binding PAE and its Taiwanese partners has been the willingness of the builders to tie themselves absolutely to PAE to an extent that they now make multi-million-dollar investments in expansions based on PAE’s assessments of the market. This trust became crucial as the demand for the early powerboats soon pushed their construction facilities to maximum capacity. When, in the late 1990s, PAE’s management first challenged itself to start doubling its total annual sales volume and to also produce larger vessels than either factory could then build, both yards responded by investing millions of dollars to secure land and to build the new, larger, modern facilities required to produce them. Ta Shing was founded in 1977 and www.circumnavigatormag .com