Digitalisation is proving a challenge for everyone. Finding a balance between what is theoretically possible and what is practically achievable is central to the problem. Every day there is tension between the hopes of success with a vision of a reinvented digitalised business — and the fear of being left behind in the stampede to innovate.

Difficulties in steering a course between radical restructuring and more modest modernisation were openly discussed at the TradeWinds Shipowners Forum in Hong Kong last week.