(David Giersdorf)
Outlast Disruption & Face Change with Accomplished Business Authority, David Giersdorf
Industry expert and business professional, David Giersdorf, shares a wealth of knowledge from his extensive career in the cruise, travel and tourism industries. A thick fog of disruption has rolled into your life. Maybe your entire industry just went into freefall. Or your business is struggling mightily. Perhaps your career path has been upended. Whatever your situation, the world as you know it has changed. You may feel despair, fear, even anger. You have no idea what to do next. Is there a way through this? YES.
That’s the answer executive and entrepreneur David Giersdorf presents in Hard Ships, which details his four decades of experience navigating brutal disruptions in the cruise ship industry and achieving innovation and growth. David knows disruption — and how to find a way through it. In addition to navigating his fair share of personal disruptions, he’s helped major companies, small businesses and individuals withstand catastrophe, including the Gulf Wars, Y2K, 9/11, Hurricane Katrina, the Great Recession, the H1N1 pandemic and notable industry disasters. Then when COVID-19 swept the earth, and the $45 billion annual revenue cruise industry lost $65 billion in market value, David’s experience and advice guided companies toward recovery. Drawing on counsel David has given countless clients, companies and career professionals, Hard Ships helps people facing disruption, particularly those struggling in the aftermath of COVID-19. What works to stabilize the cruise industry works anywhere for anyone, from publicly traded companies to self-employed freelancers. Cruising is the most operationally complex and difficult industry on earth, with self-contained smartcities that operate 24/7 on the world’s oceans and rivers. What happens anywhere can impact the entire industry. A ripple anywhere can become a tsunami everywhere. Hard Ships repurposes David Giersdorf’s hard-learned strategies for any situation, from pandemics and market panics to everyday personal change.
Giersdorf is an innovative entrepreneur with extensive C-suite experience in the cruise, travel and tourism industry, including senior executive leadership positions at Holland America Line, Windstar Cruises, Paul Gauguin Cruises, American West Steamboat Company and Exploration Cruise Lines. He is also the founder of Global Voyages Group, a CEO-level advisory engagements firm addressing growth, performance, product development, acquisitions, marketing, sales, distribution and emerging technologies. He is an advisor and limited partner of Seven Peaks Ventures. He previously served as Managing Director and CEO of CF2GS, an award-winning marketing services firm acquired by True North Communications. David is a former Chairman of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) and numerous other industry and civic organizations. He attended the University of Washington and completed a Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management Program in Entrepreneurship.
An Interview with David Giersdorf:
Q: Why did you decide to write this book now?
David: I wanted to take a topic that is more common than we like to admit, Disruption and Change. And it’s a topic that also is accelerating for many reasons and becoming greater in scale. For instance, this disruption for the cruise industry, it became a global disruption. That’s a first for the industry. I felt that I’ve learned many lessons in my life, dealing with change, self-created, positive changes and the unexpected or uninvited change and disruption of all types that occurs. I’ve learned a lot because of that. I have found that I’m able to be supportive to other individuals and to businesses who are experiencing change and disruption. And in the course of doing that, I have found a set of key principles or protocols that represent my playbook, the things I go to first and what I think about the most when trying to solve a problem.
I chose to use the cruise industry as a filter through which I spoke about disruption and examples that I gave, not exclusively, but mostly the cruise industry, because, in my view, the cruise industry, while romantic and extraordinary in appearance from the outside looking in…. In truth, it’s one of the most operationally intense and toughest industries in the world. We’re on all oceans and rivers, all continents, all time zones operating 24-7 without interruption. And at the highest quality imaginable for tourism and vacation experiences and with spectacular commitments to the environment, to health and safety, to immersion and learning. It’s such an amazing industry.
Q: What are the Six Protocols and how did you develop them?
David: The book is arranged around six protocols Giersdorf identified as a playbook for survival, stability and success: Know your waypoint, stay afloat, find your first first, get flexible, become collision-proof and protect your value. Hard Ships also has a chapter on building an endurance mindset that starts with a childhood near-death experience and continues with Giersdorf’s Ironman training and competitions. The points are to remain calm and ‘do the work’ — the training and preparation to stay on course. Working on the six protocols before disruption occurs will provide momentum to get through, the author says.
Q: Who can benefit from reading this book?
David: Every disruption is a learning opportunity. One of the key purposes in my life must be to not just learn but to add something that comes out of wisdom and experience and bridge that forward so the next person who’s got to learn starts from a higher stage. Hopefully [the book] resonates and helps someone else. Some who experience disruption let it and its consequences define them forever while others leverage the disruption for their benefit. ‘What you learn during disruption can propel you into a wonderful new future you otherwise would not have experienced had two things not occurred: the disruption and your response to it.
Q: What was the biggest disruption or crisis you faced in your career?
David: My family sold our cruise and tourism business to a very large company, with dreams of expanding our vision and unique approach to travel experiences worldwide. Those dreams were dashed when being a part of that larger company became disastrous and resulted in the total shutdown of our business. It was impactful and disruptive on many levels — my livelihood and career, my family, my vision of the future. As a result, I also learned many valuable lessons. (Note: due to legal settlement agreements, I cannot name the larger company or give details of the transaction – I can only talk generally about the event)