UPS Case Study Essay

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

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

The industry is defined as the Domestic US Express Mail industry. This includes overnight and second day delivery. In order to assess the attractiveness of the industry, a Porters' Five Forces analysis has been conducted as follows.

UPS still relies on its chocolate-colored trucks, but United Parcel Service (UPS) aims to be more than a plain-vanilla delivery business. Seattle teens, Jim Casey and Claude Ryan started American Messenger Company, a phone message service, in 1907. They were soon making small-parcel deliveries for local department stores and in 1913 changed the company's name to Merchants Parcel Delivery. Service expanded outside of Seattle in 1919 when Merchants Parcel bought Oakland, California-based Motor Parcel Delivery. By 1930, the company, which had been renamed United Parcel Service, served residents in New York City (its headquarters from 1930 to 1975); Newark, New Jersey; and Greenwich, Connecticut.

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

In the past there was no thing as overnight express delivery for packages or freight. Then the top 3 competitors in the delivery service industry that held 85% of the market were Airborne Express (AE), United Parcel Service (UPS) and Federal Express (FedEx) and, the remaining market share was among six second-tier companies. In the past few years, the express mail businesses had grown extremely fast due to the ability to provide and fulfill overnight shipping accompanied by next-morning delivery services for both individuals and businesses customers. By 1996, this segment of the expedited shipment delivery had grown to a $16-17 billion dollar industry business in the US alone.

The US express mail industry is highly consolidated. 85% of the market is served by 3 service providers. There are six second tier players who serve the remaining 15%. FedEx and UPS lead the industry in services and innovation. The following trends have been observed in this Industry.

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

United Parcel Service (UPS), is the world’s largest express package delivery firm that handled more than 4.7 billion packages and documents in 2015. This global transportation and logistics service provider operates in more than 220 countries, and offers an array of supply chain management solutions (UPS Fact Sheet, n.d.). The firm has diversified its products and/or services to include freight forwarding and logistics services via air, ground, rail, and sea. U.S. Domestic Package operations, International Package operations, and Supply Chain and Freight operations are the three operating segments UPS. Through technology advancements UPS delivers online package tracking, e-commerce services, and specialized

Airborne Express the current underdog in the express mail business has been able to compete with market leaders due to innovation and optimization strategy. The company built on cutting cost and emphasizing reliability now faces pressure from the leaders UPS and FedEx to change their pricing strategy. This change from standard rate pricing to distance-based pricing puts Airborne in a dilemma in which they must choose to match the competition which will make them lose what sets them apart in the market or stay with the current strategy. Changing will increase their flexibility and could open them up to new consumers while staying the same

UPS and FedEx are the leading parcel carriers in the U.S. FedEx has significantly expanded their capability to compete with UPS’s dominant ground delivery service.

Its ability to have created a global brand these products is a valuable asset and a sustained competitive advantage

UPS has been in the package delivery business for 95 years, providing services to businesses and consumers worldwide in more than 200 countries. In 1994, UPS began to investigate the potential of e-commerce and started an internal group focused on enabling e-commerce. UPS redefined its core business and found ways to change its structure and processes, forming new businesses to take advantage of new opportunities. UPS was interested in finding ways to leverage their extensive infrastructure and expertise in basic transportation of goods, services, and

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

SWOT analysis is a useful tool for understanding and decision-making for all sorts of situations in business and organization. SWOT analysis can be classified into internal and external factors affecting a company. The Strengths and Weaknesses of the SWOT analysis represent the internal factors that influence the viability of the company. While the Opportunities and Threats, on the other hand, are the external factors that may affect the company's performances. A SWOT analysis provides more understanding of the organization in relation to its internal and external environment so that manager can formulate better strategy in pursuit of its mission.