Running a Tight Ship
by Mark Miester

"Kirby Marine..."

Pause.

"No, we used to be Hollywood. Now, we're Kirby."

"Kirby Marine..."

Pause.

"No, we used to be Hollywood. Now, we're Kirby."

Like Bill Murray's character in the movie Groundhog Day, receptionist Marie Mouton seems to be stuck in a time warp, repeating the same telephone conversation over and over.

Even now, almost four months after Hollywood Marine Inc. and Kirby Corp. announced their multimillion-dollar merger, clients and vendors are still caught off guard by the new name.

The name change might be the most visible sign that things are different at the former Hollywood Marine, but it's also the most superficial. At Kirby's headquarters two miles west of downtown Houston, the aroma of fresh paint still fills the corridors, and denim-clad workers clutching plans and retractable rulers are almost as common a sight as button-downed sales or accounting staff. At the same time, a combined workforce of 2,200 is in the midst of learning a new system intended to integrate the best practices of both companies. It is safe to say the merger of Kirby Corp. and Hollywood Marine--physically and organizationally--is a work-in-progress.

"It's a lot of work, but it's going good," says C. Berdon Lawrence (BBA '64, MBA '65), the recently elected chairman of Kirby Corp. "Putting these two companies together is a challenge I'm enjoying very much."

In October 1999, Kirby Corp. purchased Hollywood Marine, the company Lawrence founded in 1970, for $325 million in cash, stock and assumption of debt. The merger of Kirby Corp., the nation's largest tank barge operator, and Hollywood, the nation's third largest, created a marine transportation giant with combined revenues of more than $500 million. With 781 barges, 230 tow boats and operating facilities in Baton Rouge, Belle Chasse, Corpus Christi, Harahan, Houston, Lake Charles and Shreveport, Kirby now operates a quarter of all tank barges in the United States.

After serving for almost 30 years as president and CEO of the closely held Hollywood, Lawrence, 57, has a new title and a new set of responsibilities that comes with heading a publicly traded company roughly three times the size of his previous company.

"We have a lot to do, but we've accomplished a lot in the first four months," says Lawrence, who as chairman will be actively involved with the management of the company. "Our goal is to take the best people from each company, the best procedures, the best techniques and the best systems and end up with a company that is better than either one of the two parts. This is easy to say, but obviously it takes a lot of work and a lot of fair-minded people to see that it is accomplished."

If anyone is equipped to take on the challenge, it is Lawrence, who started Hollywood with one tugboat and a leased barge and built it into a major marine transportation company with more than 1,000 employees and $170 million in annual revenues prior to merging with Kirby.

According to Lawrence's longtime friend and business partner Robert Mosbacher, chairman of the Mosbacher Companies in Houston, Lawrence built Hollywood the hard way. "To use a football analogy, he did it right through the middle of the line," Mosbacher says. "Three yards at a time and a cloud of dust."

That unrelenting drive and fierce determination stand in stark contrast to Lawrence's easygoing disposition. Mosbacher says Lawrence's friendly, self-deprecating style can be a little misleading. "Don't get fooled by it," he says. "Berdon is such a pleasant guy to be around, people might tend to take him less seriously, but underneath that is a very keen mind and a very clear direction and goal."

In the inland marine transportation business, Lawrence is well known and well respected. He has served as chairman of the American Waterways Operators, the National Waterways Conference, the Inland Waterways Users Board, the Texas Waterways Operators and the Clean Channel Association of Houston/Galveston. He also served as an advisory director for Cogen Technologies in Houston, which was sold to Enron Corp., and has sat on the board of Pennzoil/Quaker State for 10 years.

George A. Rizzo (MBA '65), the former president of Exxon Chemical Co. Americas, says that Lawrence is a throwback to businessmen of an earlier generation. "When he gives you his word, gives you a handshake, he delivers," Rizzo says. "He's very personable, very ethical and a very fine businessman who lives by his word.

"And fun to be with," Rizzo adds. "He's a delight to work with."

Four months into his new job, Berdon Lawrence is having the time of his life. "I really like it," he says of his new role. "We've accomplished a lot in the first four months, and I'm confident that we'll accomplish much more in the months ahead. This as an exciting new era in my life."

Charles Berdon Lawrence was born in petroleum-rich Lake Charles, La., in 1942. His father, Charles H. Lawrence Jr., made it through the Depression working as a roughneck in the oil fields, and after World War II, started an oil lease brokerage business. Charles Lawrence worked with various land owners around Lake Charles to put together blocks of land for drilling companies. The elder Lawrence did not attend college, but he proved to be a savvy businessman and built Lawrence Oil into a sizeable company. He later branched out into the exploration and production business, and he served on the Louisiana Mineral Board for four years in the 1950s.

In addition to instilling in his son a work ethic born of the Depression and stressing the importance of honesty and integrity in all one's dealings, Charles Lawrence left Berdon with another fundamental belief. "He taught me to enjoy what you do," Lawrence says. "If you don't enjoy what you do, you won't be good at it and you won't be very successful. It doesn't matter what you do as long as you enjoy it."

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