Norfolk Southern President and CEO Alan Shaw keynoted the annual Georgia Foreign Trade Conference (GFTC), hosted by the Georgia Ports Authority. The GFTC brings together senior-level shippers and maritime executives from around the world. It’s an opportunity to discuss market trends, technology advancements, and the future of the global supply chain.

Norfolk Southern and the Georgia Ports enjoy a longstanding partnership and have several opportunities for future growth. In fact, Savannah to Atlanta is one of Norfolk Southern’s largest international lanes, and Norfolk Southern is supporting the Georgia Ports as they ramp up at Mason Mega Rail and in the build out of the Northeast Georgia Inland Port. Both of those projects will increase capacity and open new lanes for customers. In the fall of 2022, a delegation from NS visited the Georgia Ports to discuss the region’s supply chain recovery, customer service, and growth. Watch a recap here.

Shaw addressed the audience about Norfolk Southern’s strategic focus on ensuring safe, reliable, and resilient service for its customers, and he spent time detailing the importance of building trust and long-term relationships. Importantly, Shaw told the audience how Norfolk Southern plans to work with key partners, like the Georgia Ports, and leverage the Class 1’s assets to create enduring opportunities for smart, sustainable growth.

Change Moves at the Speed of Trust

We firmly believe that change moves at the speed of trust at Norfolk Southern, which means aligning around a common goal and trusting the people you work with – whether it’s someone in your organization, or your business partners.

Preparing for Next Evolution of Global Trade

Working alongside state economic development officials, over the last 10 years, we’ve attracted approximately 90 projects which have generated approximately $1.9 billion and created 2,100 jobs in Georgia… The future of economic development in Georgia is really strong, and because of that, we’re confident in our investment over the long term.

And I think about our business partners and some of the things that have helped us think about our strategy. Number one is, we're students of history. We’ve seen what happens when service suffers, what that does to our customers, and what that does to our opportunities. We also stand on the horizon. Because we're humble, we look outside of ourselves, and we might not have all the answers. Let's look for organizations that are world-class in service delivery. When benchmarked, we've learned from the environment in which we operate. And, frankly, one of the ones that we've really kind of modeled is Georgia Ports. You go to their website, and it talks about investing for the evolving world marketplace. That’s what we want too. We want to look forward. We want to look through the near-term economic headwinds and invest in the future, because we're really confident in where that future is headed.

Norfolk Southern as a Customer-Centric, Operations-Driven service organization

We're pivoting away from that traditional rail focus of near-term operating margins, because of the confidence that we've got in our franchise, in our customers and in our business partners, and the U.S. economy. And I really believe that's a better way forward. It's a better way forward by taking a long-term approach to the best of the best interests of our customers, and our employees, the communities we serve, and our shareholders. And what we call it is a customer-centric, operations-driven service model.

We’ve Got a Franchise Built for Growth

When you add all of that up—you can see why I’m so excited and so confident in Norfolk Southern’s future. It’s going to take some out-of-the-box thinking. It’s going to take teamwork—and I know NS has the right team to help us succeed. It’s going to take vision—a vision for a better way forward—a vision for the future.