UPS Business Analysis

In early August of 1997 the United Parcel Service (UPS) had a predicament on its hands, a teamsters strike. UPS, the world 's largest package distribution company was coming off a year [1996] in which they reported sales of $22.4 billion. UPS Employed 75,000 management and non-union employees compared with 185,000 teamsters who are part of the AFL-CIO that were going on strike. The teamsters rejected a contract extension offer from the company leaving the fate of millions of packages carrying everything from lobsters to laser printers up in the air (Johnson).

     In early August of 1997 the United Parcel Service (UPS) had a predicament on its hands, a teamsters strike. UPS, the world’s largest package distribution company was coming off a year [1996] in which they reported sales of $22.4 billion. UPS Employed 75,000 management and non-union employees compared with 185,000 teamsters who are part of the AFL-CIO that were going on strike. The teamsters rejected a contract extension offer from the company leaving the fate of millions of packages carrying everything from lobsters to laser printers up in the air (Johnson).

The United Parcel Service (UPS) adopted a business strategy of mostly hiring part-time workers – attractive to young workers who were given work at off-time shifts earning union-negotiated wages and benefits. However, part-time work presented almost no opportunity for advancement. By 1996, this part-time UPS’s workforce grew to 182,000 part-time employees, working approximately 26-28 hours/week. The Teamster Union, handling the bargaining negotiations for UPS worker-members, researched the rights of the part-time worker and analyzed the disparities in salaries, retirement fund benefits and limited opportunities for full-time hiring between the part-time and full-time workers. The Teamster Union members’ called for strike after presenting this picture of UPS had exploited part-time workers to cut costs. This 1997 strike against UPS was as successful as it was disruptive. The strike was disruptive to the businesses across the country because it upset the shipping patterns. Yet, the strikers had gained large general public support over the company. The strike was led Teamsters president Ron Carey successfully because of its strategic execution. Namely, Carey made good use of media and generated public sentiment to pressure UPS to settle in his favor. From the first, the Teamsters had the high ground given the nature of the dispute and the fact that the public was also concerned about the issue of part-time work and the way companies were using part-time workers to avoid paying

Managers of the company believed that the integrated operating model maintained by the company will deliver significant benefits in respect of many performance evaluation criteria, like employee management, environmental issues and financial viability. UPS defines itself as the first delivery service company that has the ability to synchronize the flow of goods, information and funds into a single integrated form of service. Managers and employees at UPS have worked hard to build the scale, the infrastructure, the financial foundation and the specific expertise to give birth to such synchronized form of service (‘Overview’, 2007).

Operation leaders are tasked to identify the critical success factors and core competencies of their business functions and objectives in order to generate sustainable long-term growth. Critical success factors are actions essential for a business to reach its objectives. (Heizer & Render, p. 42, 2009). UPS’s key success factors are its efficiencies in scheduling, integrating the stream of goods, its ability to provide multiple solutions such as “harmonizing the flow of goods, information and funds across customer supply chains” while enabling consumers to “evolve in new and necessary ways” (Lewis, Forquer & Quinter, pg. 2, 2007). UPS’s environmental factors include their supply chain design and planning, competitors in logistics such as FedEx, distribution services, diversification in the global environment and focusing on differentiation. UPS is also an expert in its industry because the strategy is globally focused and is centered on diversification of its systems (See Appendix1.1)

United Parcel Service (UPS) was founded in 1907 as a messenger company. It has grown into a multi-billion dollar corporation. Today UPS is a global company and one of the most admired and recognized brands in the world. UPS has become the largest delivery package company and leading provider of specialized transportation and logistics services in the world.

James E. Casey borrowed 100 dollars from a friend and started American Messenger Company, bicycle delivery service. In 1913, the bicycle was exchanged for a Model T Ford and the name was changed to Merchants Parcel Delivery. The company expanded from Seattle to Oakland, California in 1919, where the world’s largest delivery service was renamed the United Parcel Service, UPS. In 1930, UPS expanded to the east coast. Air operations began in 1953. In 1975 UPS became the first package delivery company to service every address in the 48 adjoining United States. By 1988, packages and documents were delivered to 175 countries. Success of this magnitude requires active management. Leaders must analyze and understand all internal and external

In 1975 UPS reached a milestone in that it could promise to deliver a package to every address in the US. The same year the company expanded outside the US with its first delivery to Ontario Canada. The following UPS began service in West Germany with 120 of its trademark delivery brown vans.

UPS is the largest parcel delivery service in the world. They also help their customers its customers with supply chain management,

However, the power of employees has grown considerably since the early 1990s. Even though UPS was a manager owned private firm, the employees went on strike in 1997 and successfully obtained wage rises and other benefits. Federal Express handed out $20 Million worth of bonuses at the same time to thank their employees as well as make sure that they did not consider similar actions. This shows that employee power has increased in recent times leading to lower industry attractiveness.

UPS is a global package delivery business that specializes in not only managing the movement of goods, but the information and funds that moves with those goods in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide. UPS’s target market is primarily U.S. companies that ship business to business via ground delivery and whose delivery time is not

DHL 31%, USPS 8%, FedEx 27%, and Amazon 3%. From these numbers Amazon is a very small player in the shipping department. Every competitor, expect DHL, are currently shipping the excess freight that Amazon cannot maintain. With Amazon 's move to acquire more of the market, these competitors need to be on the lookout because portions of their market share can be taken away. These major shipping firms only provide shipping services not offering household products like Amazon. With Amazon starting by semi-supplementing their shipping avenues, Amazon has the potential to grow even larger. The market cap numbers are not a good basis to judge market share on since FedEx and UPS have the majority of the market in the shipping industry. FedEx and UPS are the major competitors against Amazon and its new shipping department. FedEx and UPS had the most recent annual net income of $50.3 billion and $58.3 billion respectively. They represent the majority of packages delivery from individuals, businesses, and online retailers.

United Parcel Service, a logistics company has established itself through its strong corporate culture, continuous ability to innovate, and its far-reaching global network. The company has maintained a competitive advantage over the years by implementing continuous growth strategies—the first was geographic expansion, next the early adaptation of electronic tracking technologies, and then came a series of acquisitions. Although UPS is financially strong and is able to maintain its role in the courier and delivery industry—it is vital that UPS continue to act strategically as to strive for long-term success. UPS is heavily dependent on the U.S. economy and it is important that it find greater and more profitable ventures

 *New Products,ServicesandBusiness Models- The information systems of UPS created new way on how to offer delivery service. It has transformed the way the company gathers information, creating routes etc.

Studying FedEx, UPS and their competitive relationship in the decade from mid - 80's to mid - 90's gives a good insight for the companies' and industry's future. The two companies have different strategic goals and are operating in the same industry but in different main markets: FedEx is working on "producing outstanding financial returns" and focuses on the overnight air market while UPS is looking for "earning reasonable profit" and its core business is the two-day ground delivery. However, by 1981, the two companies started to have a strong sense