Staff development is Van Zyl's new challenge

A NEW challenge awaited Pierre van Zyl when he took up his post as regional manager of Mitsui OSK Lines' Gauteng branch last week. After 21 years in the shipping industry he now faces a task well removed from that which his past has provided.
"I'm going straight into the company's major target of the moment - staff development. It involves plotting a career path for those already on board, training and monitoring them with the aim of developing our own talent. It is a demanding responsibility but I'm keen to get stuck in to it."
It will be a change of activity for the man who moved from an initial tariff co-ordinating position into sales. He was involved in tariff co-ordinating with Transnet between 1975-80 and again at Safmarine for his first three years. "Safmarine promoted me to a position as a sales executive in 1983 and that started my work on the road, meeting people everywhere who were involved with the shipping industry," he says.
In 1987 he joined Ellerman and Bucknall in Johannesburg as export sales executive and started a 14-year cycle in which he moved from one firm to another without changing office as a sequence of acquisitions took place.
Under the Ellerman flag he became involved with MOL for the first time as the line's appointed agent before it set up its own office structure in South Africa.
"I was involved in sales until I decided to take on this challenge. Yes, I'm deskbound now but with items such as the Employment Equity Act to which MOL is totally committed, there is a whole new road for me to explore and enjoy."