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Having struggled over the past twenty-five years to keep a few boats running on the Irrawaddy it defies understanding quite how the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company managed to keep several hundred running. To find people with the right skill set to undertake such challenges must in itself have been a challenge. Responsibilities were huge, you could not sit in Scotland and micromanage an operation using Whatsapp (as I do). You could not hop on a plane if there was trouble. Whether a letter from head office or a visit from a director, it took a month to get there by steamer and a month back. The telegraph was prohibitively expensive and only used in emergencies. Managers were thus on their own and had considerable latitude to make on-the-spot decisions without recourse to head office. Perhaps this is why it all worked so well!... read more