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Keystone Leader's career defined by hard work, smooth sailing

April 2010

Take careful inventory of the items lining the shelves and racks of local big box retailers.

Those polo shirts, sneakers, gardening tools, toothbrushes, tricycles, laptop computers, brica-brac and build-them-yourself bookcases most likely arrived — packaged and ready for purchase — after an extended cruise aboard a massive container ship. These vessels, which span the length of more than three football fields, serve as the workhorses of the global import-export industry.

Keystone Leader-in-Residence Ken Johns '57 accepts a statuette from College of Education Dean Frances Kochan.

Unbeknownst to most consumers, Auburn graduate and 2010 Keystone Leader-in-Residence Robert Kenneth Johns '57, played a significant role in redefining that industry and in streamlining the process that brings merchandise to local stores. After graduating from Auburn in 1957 with an education degree, Johns went to work with Sea-Land Service, Inc., a newly formed transportation company based in Mobile, Ala. Founded by transportation entrepreneur Malcolm McLean, Sea-Land revolutionized the way goods get from point A to point B.

"We created a new way to do ocean shipping,'' said Johns, a Mobile, Ala., native, who visited Auburn and delivered a campus lecture in April 2010. "The old way [of loading ships] was with pallets, slings and bales.''

It was a process that relied on the brute strength of longshoremen, many of whom looked as if they'd stepped out of the Marlon Brando classic On the Waterfront. Sea-Land recognized that specially designed cranes and other machines could do the job cheaper and more efficiently while also reducing the incidence of damage, delays and theft. Most significantly, those machines could load and unload large detachable metal containers from ships and easily transfer them to tractor trailer trucks for transport.

Ken Johns (left) visits with Auburn President Jay Gogue during a post-lecture reception.

Sea-Land's innovations, which included the building of larger ships to transport more items at a time than ever before, changed the nature of world trade and stimulated post-war economies worldwide.

"The 1950s were a time when a lot of systems were being automated,'' Johns said. "We were the ones who took it up for ocean transportation. Like everything else, there's a leader who has to be out in front. None of us knew it would go as far as it did. It has made world trade much easier. Walmart couldn't exist the way it does without this system.''

Johns rose up Sea-Land's ranks, moving from Mobile to Tampa to Jacksonville to New Orleans before landing at the company's headquarters in New Jersey. He served as Sea-Land's president and chief operating officer from 1979 to 1987, guiding it through an especially prosperous era as it maintained its standing as one of the world's largest and most successful transportation companies.

Sea-Land subsequently became part of the Maersk Group. In 2008, the combined company, Maersk-Sealand, grossed revenues in excess of $28 billion.

After retiring from Sea-Land, Johns founded The Hampshire Management Group, Inc., a Manhattan-based firm of which he remains chairman and chief executive officer. Since its inception, the firm has either created as start-up or obtained through acquisition or shareholding alliances numerous innovative and successful businesses that primarily serve the ocean shipping industry. Even though he could have retired comfortably after 30 years in the shipping business, Johns continues to go to the office every day because he's an Auburn man who believes in The Auburn Creed.

"Part of The Auburn Creed is that 'I believe in work, hard work,''' he said. "I really like working.''

He also enjoys sharing the business knowledge he's acquired through more than 50 years of service. When asked about his own template for effective leadership, Johns places a value on being able to anticipate and adapt. He learned that early, when Sea-Land adopted a business philosophy that others had yet to emulate.

"We were a breakaway, no question,'' said Johns, who received the Auburn Alumni Association's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010. "That ground floor sort of gave me a little bit of a jump on other people and it also required that I share what I knew with others.

"There is a responsibility that goes with leadership. Sometimes it's a burden, but often it's an opportunity and always it's a responsibility. I think it's important to have an open mind and to be alert to opportunity and to be inquisitive about what's going on around you.''

In the trenches

Before focusing on shipping lanes, Johns cleared running lanes as a lineman on the Auburn football team from 1953-56. He earned a scholarship offer from legendary coach Ralph "Shug'' Jordan after excelling in three sports at Vigor High School in Prichard, Ala. He and his teammates — who included future Georgia football coach Vince Dooley and future Alabama governor Fob James along with stars like Lloyd Nix, Morris Savage and George Atkins — led Auburn to three consecutive Gator Bowls during a turning point in its football history.

"Playing for Coach Jordan was a great opportunity to watch and learn how a real solid, quality individual operates each day," Johns said.

In 2006, Johns earned the Walter Gilbert Award , presented to former Auburn athletes who have demonstrated a high level of achievement after graduation. Johns still speaks fondly of his time at Auburn, and why not? He remains married to his wife, Barbara, a former Auburn co-ed from Birmingham who also majored in education.

Education as a vessel

Before graduating from Auburn, Johns briefly considered following the footsteps of Dooley and becoming a coach. But it made sense for him to enter the shipping industry because that's what he knew as a child. He grew up on a farm in Andalusia, but his family moved to Mobile after the outbreak of World War II. His father, Aubrey, contributed to the war effort by providing some of the necessary manpower and imagination needed to build the nation's industrial base. He became a ship builder at the Alabama Drydocks, where steel and rivets became freighters and tankers.

"At the dinner table, of course, the talk was often about the job and the war effort,'' Johns said. "I grew up talking about ships and what would be built and why. I grew up thinking about ships.''

The man who grew up thinking about ships now appreciates education as a vessel of sorts. There's no telling where it can take you.

"I went in a different direction, but I think education prepared me to deal with people,''

Johns said. "Auburn University and the College of Education, in particular, have people who go into education wanting to make things better somehow. As you get into business and move up the management ranks, you find yourself teaching every day and all of that cascades down. There's a teaching role every day of your life.''

Last Updated: May 17, 2011