We’re developing a culture at Norfolk Southern that’s customer-centric and operations driven.
And those are the two places I really love to spend my time. I love getting out in the field and engaging with my craft colleagues, who are working 24/7/365 to serve Norfolk Southern, serve our customers and serve the US economy.
I love getting out with our customers as well, because they buy into our strategy, and they know that we’re providing them a platform for growth and helping them be competitive in a dynamic, global marketplace. That’s where I get my energy.
Leveraging our unique franchise, we are aligning ourselves with the strengths of our customers and the US economy by consistently and responsibly investing in key strategic assets, including our people, designed to deliver long-term growth and long-term shareholder value creation.
John Orr Video
John Orr
I’m John Orr; I’m the Chief Operating Officer at Norfolk Southern.
NS is such a great franchise. I have watched NS my entire career so when the opportunity to work with Alan and bring his vision to life was presented to me, I couldn’t go fast enough.
I am so happy to be here. I’m proud to be here. It’s humbling to be a part of this storied franchise. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to work for the railway. It’s in my blood. It’s in my DNA. And one of the reasons why I came to NS, is because I really believe in the sector, and I believe in creating a more relevant transportation system within North America.
The balanced strategy of NS is a strategy that I espouse to. It’s exactly what I’m doing right now. We’ve got field safety initiatives going on right now, and we’re assessing safety and service at the same time.
But it doesn’t stop there. There’s a big responsibility to ensure that our fixed costs are being used as effectively as possible, and even our variable costs. And linking our operating execution, our operating precision, to our commercial commitments, as well as then founded by the financial spend and financial contribution is critically important because as we get improvements, we’ll need to obviously be accountable for yield and for spend and for balance.
In my first 100 days, I want to reinforce three streams: purpose, clarity and accountability. So that constant review of what’s working, what’s not working, how do we do it. And everything starts with safety. How we service our customers, how we engage with our core performance indices, how we create stability within our organization. It’s all foundational on safety. And so, I like to provide people who work for us, the women and men, the purpose, clarity and accountability to work safely and to work effectively.
A safe railway means a scheduled railway, means an efficient railway, means value creation across all the stakeholders. The balanced strategy that we have at NS is exactly the way I see PSR.
They’re also consistent with my experience with Hunter Harrison. I remember when Hunter and I were walking from dinner towards the latter part of his career. He looked at me and he said, John, if I had to do it all over again, I would be more inclusive of stakeholders. I wouldn’t slow down to change, but I would share with them the why and the purpose.