THE FRANCHISE

High-level expertise

The railway industry is generally mature, with a substantial legacy of long-lived assets. Notwithstanding that legacy, many stakeholders have adapted to the aggressive Information-Age competition that nowadays characterizes their environment: Many more still need to learn to adapt and cope by exploiting the competitive strengths of the railway transport mode's genetic technologies. Railway Corporate Strategy Close Corporation's intellectual property franchise includes expertise in:

• Identifying, understanding, and resolving systemic dysfunction within railways,
  individually or in regional clusters, to establish a robust position from which to adapt to contemporary and future challenges.
• Identifying, understanding, and leveraging the inherent competitiveness of the railway genetic technologies, to support sustainable alignment with external stakeholder expectations in a relevant environment that is global in extent.
  

Target clientele

Railway Corporate Strategy CC seeks out involvement with stakeholders in the global railway industry, who subscribe to its vision of free, effective, and sustainable competition and cooperation with other transport modes in the global logistics- and mobility settings, but who are still working on formulating and realizing their vision. Its business focus and high-level expertise targets a market niche in the upper echelons of railway industry leadership. It works in the global railway industry with infrastructure- and train operators; investors; customers of major railways; equipment suppliers, original equipment manufacturers, and system integrators; consulting houses; as well as institutional stakeholders, such as donors, government at all levels, organized industry and organized labour.

Geographic reach

The contiguous continental land masses of the world, shown in the following map [About the map], define the territorial franchise of the global railway industry. Railway Corporate Strategy CC is based in Pretoria, South Africa, and seeks to map its intellectual property franchise internationally onto that railway territorial franchise.

About the map

Portraying a spherical surface on a flat one is geometrically challenging. Mapmakers must inevitably compromise area, direction, distance, and shape.

The blue map is the Winkel Tripel projection, which shows the sizes of land masses in proportion, while minimizing direction-, distance-, and shape distortion. This example is centred on the Pacific Ocean, to emphasize the contiguous juxtaposition of land masses that have potential to support continental- and intercontinental railways. The Winkel Tripel projection best portrays the domain in which the railways of the world take on their competitors.

The grey map is the more familiar Mercator projection, which originated with early voyages of discovery. It is a mariner's view of the world, where oceans surround continents. A straight line between two points represents a constant compass bearing, but areas, distances, and shapes are distorted, more so toward the poles. The Mercator projection is usually centred on Greenwich, which makes it difficult to visualize the contiguous juxtaposition of the land masses that have potential to support continental- and intercontinental railways.

Railway stakeholders who grasp the profound distinction between these two map projections will visualize opportunities exploit the competitive strengths of the railway genetic technologies. The relevance to long haul, time sensitive, merchandise traffic in major trade corridors should be self evident.

Use the contact page to explore issues such as source competition and modal competition. Consider the potential for rail transport to support logistics services in major trade corridors: Revival of the Silk Route from China to Europe, the North East West corridor from the Far East to North America, the North American Land Bridge, the Transport Corridor Europe Caucasus Asia (TRACECA), the Trans-Asian Railway, the north-south axis that emerged within railways of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and the Trans European Rail Freight Freeways, to mention some.

Return to Target clientele