Shared from "Ideas" on Inkdown
Malcom McLean was an ambitious rising entrepreneur who used macro opportunities to get rich. He made good money transporting fuel. In the first decade of business he had 162 trucks earning $2.2M (a lot in 1945). Another 10 years and he would 3x that business only to later shut it down.
Crowded shipping ruined post-war and roads were crowded. He tested standard shipping containers and immediately cut cost by 94%. To transport a ton now cost 5.83.
His big breakthrough really came with the Vietnam War. Supplying troops was difficult and the ports sucked. McLean persuaded the Pentagon to build a container port in Cam Ranh Bay. He would oversupply to build it on his own. With a huge contract from the military he was shipping 600 containers every 2 weeks. He then took those empty containers and shipped them to Japan to pick up more goods.
This launched the Asian export boom that transformed their developing economies. McLean’s business, Sea-Land, was right at the center of it all.
