Attention Spans, Authentic Leadership, and The Twin You Didn’t Ask For

In this episode, Nick Chubb and Raal Harris return from CrewConnect Global in Manila, reflecting on the strange, dreamlike week of long-haul travel, jet lag, and big maritime conversations. Nick opens with a gripe: the rising narrative that Gen Z has no attention span and needs TikTok-style micro-training. They challenge the myth, arguing it’s patronising, inaccurate, and dangerous for a safety-critical industry, especially when young seafarers are delivering some of the most impressive, high-quality presentations in the sector, including a standout IMEC cadet-led cyber-risk session.

The conversation shifts to seafarer representation in corporate leadership, sparked by Splash’s new Seafarers Report. Nick and Raal explore ideas like putting active seafarers on company boards, sending executives to sea annually, and building more authentic two-way engagement. They share examples from across the industry, including Bjorn Højgaard’s recent time onboard and BSM’s mixed-seniority innovation retreats, as well as reflections on culture, transparency, and why long voyages reveal the “real” shipboard experience more than CEO photo-ops.

They then discuss the OSM Thome merger, Tommy Olofsen’s new leadership role, and the growing shift among PE-backed ship managers toward diversified service portfolios as technical management alone reaches its scaling limits.

Finally, Raal introduces the episode’s big idea: digital twins of people, not ships. From startups like Vivien and Expertwin to Zoom’s CEO imagining AI replicas attending meetings, they unpack the ethics, risks, and potential benefits of capturing organisational knowledge. Nick wrestles with the tension: while knowledge retention and process capture could genuinely strengthen maritime businesses, AI “clones” risk destroying autonomy, degrading decision-making, and blurring personal IP.

The pair debate creativity vs. infinite-game decision-making, authenticity, AI-generated “likeness marketplaces,” and the slippery slope between helpful augmentation and Black Mirror-style identity capture.

Episiode Partner

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