Matson moved deliberately. Pan-Atlantic, under McLean’s control, was a scrappy upstart building a brand-new business, and it risked little by acting quickly. Matson had no such haste; it had a large existing business to protect, and its directors were tight with the purse strings. After commissioning outside studies for two years—the same two years it took Malcom McLean to move from a concept to a functioning business—Matson created an in-house research department in 1956.
