Navigator Supreme

An ardent but measured risk-taker, Allcargo’s captain Shashi Kiran Shetty has set his sights on becoming one of the Top 10 integrated cargo logistics players in the world

- Prerna Lidhoo

AS A YOUNG boy in his early twenties, things that fascinated Shashi Kiran Shetty were quite out of the ordinary. From the bustling sounds of containers being loaded onto cargo ships to the salty seaside breeze that filled his lungs and the endless splashes of water stretched out before him, all of it held him in thrall. And soon after leaving his hometown of Bantwal in Karnataka for Mumbai in 1978, Shetty realised that his calling was in the shipping industry. By then, he knew that he would strive hard to make his dream a reality. And today, that dream has grown into a business worth some $2.5 billion.

"Looking at the enormity, the process of unloading ships, the movement of goods from one place to another-ocean transportation was an adventure in itself. You have to go through that loneliness, those choppy waters and navigational channels. Everything was very fascinating, and I fell in love with it,” says Shetty, the 66-year-old Founder and Chairman of Allcargo Logistics, the winner in the Transport & Logistics category of the BT-PwC India’s Best CEOs ranking this year.

Shetty credits his confidence in the India story and the requirements of efficient transportation in the country, for the phenomenal growth of his business. “The services side was not very sophisticated, while the shipping side was well developed. There was no middle ground; that’s where I fitted in. I was kind of a bridge between the two,” he says, adding that entering the less than-container load (LCL) segment immediately gave his business a national scope. “Within one-two years, it gave me an opportunity to establish 20-plus offices across the country,” he adds.