 For that reason KNSM had taken over a number of transportation businesses, including the "Koninklijke Hollandsche Lloyd" (founded in 1908), well known for its passenger vessels plying between Amsterdam and South America with mainly Eastern European emigrants after World War I.Having concluded the giant merger which took about ten years, and with the total rationalisation of Nedlloyd's shipping activities, a separate problem surfaced – coping with strong-headed management and decades-old cultures.The diversity of the original shipping companies made it extremely difficult to form a coherent management.