Carl Crawford was recommended to our study team by office personnel at Signal International. When contacted, he agreed to an interview. The interview took place at the Shell Landing Country Club.

Mr. Crawford was born in 1943 in Greenville, Mississippi. He worked for several equipment companies, including Caterpillar, in Mississippi and Louisiana before meeting J. L. Holloway, who shortly thereafter helped form Ham Marine. From 1981 to 1998, he was vice-president of marketing for Ham Marine, which was later rechristened Friede Goldman International (and at the time of the interview was Signal International). He discusses the history and growth of the company, their first contracts with ODECO, the importance of their contracts with Noble Drilling in helping the company go public, and their failed attempt to get into new builds. Important in growing the business were establishing a stable labor force and gaining the trust of customers. However, in the company’s formative years, they benefited from the historical presence of Ingalls Shipyard and the availability of a skilled workforce that could be hired and laid off in accordance with industry cycles. He also mentions the difficulties in bidding for drilling rig jobs, supply issues related to planning, the current problems recruiting skilled workers and the recent moves to subcontracting more of their labor force, the changes in the involvement of clients in their work and the necessity that fabricators become more sophisticated, and the consolidation of the drilling industry.

This is a follow-up interview with Mr. Crawford. The first interview was conducted on June 2, 2008. During this interview, Mr. Crawford talks specifically about how Ham Marine and later Friede Goldman dealt with industry cycles. He stresses the “can-do” attitude and hard working nature of the people in the company, their teamwork, and the importance of the company’s specialization in drilling rigs. He also discusses in some depth his role as marketer for the company and the relationships he formed with their drilling contractor customers. He mentions that it was during a job with Shell Oil Company that their company decided to focus and improve on their safety and quality, and they adopted Shell’s system of morning safety meetings. Safety is important for both ensuring the welfare of workers and also in terms of insurance rates. Many times rigs do not come in for upgrades or repairs unless they need them for specific jobs, and recently many have come in for upgrades so that they can work in deeper and deeper water.