The Strategic Planning Process At United Parcel Commerce Essay

The Strategic Planning Process At United Parcel Commerce Essay UPSs primary business is the delivery time identification of packages and documents worldwide. In recent years, UPS has extended their service portfolio to include less than truck transportation (mainly in the U.S.) and supply chain services. UPS reports its operations divided into three parts: U.S. Domestic Package operations, International Package operations, and Supply Chain transportation activities. Based on the Case study, the purpose of this report is to answer the following questions: Identify the strategic problems and opportunities that exist at United Parcel Service and discuss a coherent set of actions that will address these. What are the potential problems involved in implementing these actions Critically assess the approach to the Strategic Planning process at United Parcel Identify the strategic problems and opportunities that exist at United Parcel Service and discuss a coherent set of actions that will address these. SWOT is an acronym of the internal strengths and weaknesses of a company and the opportunities and threats to the environment in which the company is facing. SWOT analysis is a widely used technique through which managers create a quick overview of the companys strategy. This technique is based on the assumption that an effective strategy derives from a sound fit between a companys internal resources (strengths and weaknesses) and its external situation (the opportunity and threat). An appropriate maximum strength and opportunities of the business and minimize the weaknesses and threats of it. This simple assumption has a strong impact on the design of a successful strategy, United Parcel Service UPS offers transportation services, primarily in domestic and international mail and package delivery Packet through its subsidiaries, it also provides transportation, logistics and specialized financial services company is one of the largest companies provide packages in the world, in terms of revenue and volume. UPS is one of the leading providers of less than trucking service. size large operations of the company allows it to cater to a large customer base in the international market. However, the increase in fuel prices can have a direct impact on corporate profits by causing an increase in the cost of operation of the UPS. Strengths à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Sustainability: UPS is the environmental leader in the U.S. package delivery industry. UPS to reduce its carbon emissions through integrated network, modern air fleet, alternative fuel sources, and extensive use of the tracks.   à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Network: UPS has a network of established and continue to invest in network expansion, especially in China.   à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Superior Financial Strength: UPS is known for maintaining high operating margins than its competitors.  It is highly profitable, the average ROE of 28% in six years.   à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Value of dividends Strength: has consistently increased dividends every year except 2009, in which it is held constant.  Since 2000, the ratio of annual dividends have increased by an average of 2.53%.   à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Brand equity: UPS is synonymous with the delivery of parcels.  Brown tones of the delivery truck and logo is iconic for the distribution industry. Weaknesses Awareness of traffic ground instead of overnight Heavy union presence Lag Brand: While the brown trucks of UPS recognized, who cannot have a complete picture of the full capacity of the UPS. Trade unions: the labor force of the UPS is unionized and thus affect the labor cost of the UPS. The threat to strike UPS can cause pressure to increase wages. Debt: UPS has a higher ratio of financial debt compared to its competitors Opportunities: Expansion of online shopping The emergence of the international middle class Business to business growth: increase B-to-B growth will help to expand operating profit due to economy of scale. Asian markets: By increasing the expectations of customers higher quality products, UPS scalability in a fragmented Asian market. They first entered the market by working with key business players in the market with a focus on export / import. After that, they will pursue acquisitions and more of a domestic drama. Logistics Business Solutions: UPS promote its network by providing logistics solutions for the retail and manufacturing companies. Business has been growing double-digit expansion before the crisis and in 2009 revenues decreased 20%. However, this has recently reversed by We Love Logistics campaign. Global healthcare distribution network: the new facilities are being added to the U.S., Asia, Europe, and Canada to adapt to the rapid growth in the medical field. Productivity growth: While DHL, market prices down, leaving the U.S. parcel market more than two years ago, we believe that pricing power is partly delayed after shipment contracts often is 1-3 years. So UPS can be increased margins by controlling prices. U.S. mail volume decline: Over the past 10 years, USPS has steadily lost market share to UPS and FedEx. Continue their decline may benefit modest volume for UPS Threats à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Rising fuel prices: UPS fuel surcharge in the domestic and international package and LTL services as their primary means of reducing the risk of adverse changes in fuel prices. They also periodically on the option contracts on energy commodities to manage price risk with forecasted transactions related to refined fuels such as jet fuel. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ challenging weather conditions: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Bad weather can damage the quality and efficiency in delivery impact. In addition, bad weather can affect retail sales and other groups UPS partner that could hurt sales. While the UPS cannot control the weather, they have improved their tracking platform for customers by providing more information and provide an updated time for customers in case of any delay doubt. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Currency Headwinds: headwind currency in their international business can affect inflation costs. However, UPS has delivered the strong cost that we believe make them competitive with others in the industry. With over a century of experience, we believe that UPS has specialized in foreign currency hedging activities using the derivate financial instruments such as forward currency contracts and currency options. What are the potential problems involved in implementing these actions Porters five forces Porters Five Forces will be used to determine industry competition as well as the strategic impact on Apple. New Entrants- Low à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ UPS has established brand equity à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Long-term contracts with corporate customers à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Capital intensive industries related to aircraft, vehicles, software, and storage Replace Medium à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Some customers have needs not time sensitive logistics can trade down using the slower delivery options and less expensive, such as USPS à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Companies can create their own housing in the supply chain and logistics solutions rather than outsourcing work with a company like UPS à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Threats to business mail delivery as a result of a movement to electronic documents Power supply Low UPS does not rely on specific suppliers for their business activities outside the major capital costs Buyer Power Medium Smaller customers are less likely to negotiate the price for fixed price Larger companies using the full range of logistics solutions have pricing power due to their ability to negotiate long-term contracts Competitive rivalry -Private postal companies à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Federal Express Most government agencies support à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ USPS à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Deutsche Post Until 1994, UPS has mainly focused on continuously improving their operations that they have to compromise on quality and customer service. Many analysts noted that UPS did not pay attention to the needs of the customer and customer satisfaction. In 1994, due to increasing competition, UPS recognized the need to have many customers meet and embark on a major transformation initiatives of the company. This case gives a detailed overview of the various human resource initiatives UPS à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Nearest competitor, FedEx, similar services in the freight and logistics business à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ UPS focused on overseas growth and expansion of business supply chain à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ be able to compare prices in the industry Critically assess the approach to the Strategic Planning process at United Parcel They have invested in the core business of worldwide distribution and logistics. The company is building capacity in the integration of goods, funds, and information. They use technology to create new services. They began to attract talented people. Study customer behavior and predict their needs. Practice innovation leads to growth. Build an environment that allows them to treat each customer as if he was the only one. We believe that UPS has high potential in the fragmented Asian emerging markets such as China, Malaysia obvious its recent expansion in 2010 and bought seven new aircraft in 2011. Air Freight transportation is developed here. UPS has high interest activities and will earn higher profits when the economy recovers and Have the right to set higher prices in 2012 and 2013. UPS developing supply chain and transportation division, using customized logistics solutions. While they have been used for many retail and high-tech companies, they are branching out into the market global distribution of health care, we believe there is high growth potential for distributed this song. In January, UPS announced the expansion of health care facilities in Kentucky, Singapore, the Netherlands, and Canada. UPS operates in a competitive environment with their direct competitors just FedEx. Developments in the past have shown that they are able to set the price on the exchange rate as well as pass along higher costs in the business, such as energy prices rise. The companys financial strength has allowed them to generate stable cash flow through all business segments of business EPS is expected to reach the highest of all time

The Life-Threatening Experience :: essays research papers

I was a freshman in high school and invited to the biggest party an underclassman could attend. I had no reason to think that attending this party would put me in a life-threatening situation. I thought the party would be exciting and fun. Instead, it turned into a night that ends so tragically. One Friday night some friends and I decided to attend our high school's football game. Upon arriving, the stadium was already covered with overjoyed, and exciting fans. During the game, there was excited chattering about the party. Everyone was talking about going. Finally, the game was in the last seconds of the fourth quarter,a nd oru team was winning. The crowd was all fired up. When the game endend, everyone stampeded to theri cars and headed to the party leaving the once filled stadium deserted. When we finally arrived to the party, I could feel my body trembling with excitement and nervousness. It was a couple minutes after 10 pm and the party was already jumping off. Wehn entering the main room, you could see people dancing, clowning, and just having a good time. Althought the room wasn't that big, I begin to dance and enjoy myself as well. All of a sudden a fight broke out. You would have thought someone screamed free food the way everyone was running. People were falling all over the place trying to avoid the fight, but no one would break it up. When the fight was brought to a halt, everyone was ordered to leave. Everyone was stumbling trying to get out the house and to their cars, until one of the guys fighting decided the the issues wasn't resolved. He pushed his way back into the house, pulled out a gun and begins shooting. I was so close that I could hear the bullets flying by my ears, and I could see the sparks from the gun. I couldn't move; it was like someone turned my knees into the off position. Suddenly, I was pulled to the floor for protection. The shooting finally stopped. Everyone raced to their cars as if they were in a marathon. Out of nowhere, a low-pitched scream was heared. Two of my friends were found bleeding due to bullet wounds to the head.

Plants and Life on Earth Essay

Plants are the only organisms that can convert light energy from the sun into food. And plants produce all  of the food that animals, including people, eat. Even meat. The animals that give us meat, such as chickens and cows, eat grass, oats, corn, or some other plants. Plants make oxygen One of the materials that plants produce as they make food is oxygen gas. This oxygen gas, which is an important part of the air, is the gas that plants and animals must have in order to stay alive. When people breathe, it is the oxygen that we take out of the air to keep our cells and bodies alive. All of the oxygen available for living organisms comes from plants. Plants provide habitats for animals Plants are the primary habitat for thousands of other organisms. Animals live in, on, or under plants. Plants provide shelter and safety for animals. Plants also provide a place for animals to find other food. As a habitat, plants alter the climate. On a small scale, plants provide shade, help moderate the temperature, and protect animals from the wind. On a larger scale, such as in tropical rainforests, plants actually change the rainfall patterns over large areas of the earth’s surface. Plants help make and preserve soil In the forest and the prairie, the roots of plants help hold the soil together. This reduces erosion and helps conserve the soil. Plants also help make soil. Soil is made up of lots of particles of rocks which are broken down into very small pieces. When plants die, their decomposed remains are added to the soil. This helps to make the soil rich with nutrients. Plants provide useful products for people Many plants are important sources of products that people use, including food, fibers (for cloth), and medicines. Plants also help provide some of our energy needs. In some parts of the world, wood is the primary fuel used by people to cook their meals and heat their homes. Many of the other types of fuel we use today, such as coal, natural gas, and gasoline, were made from plants that lived millions of years ago. Plants beautify Plants, because of their beauty, are important elements of out human world. When we build houses and other buildings, we never think the job is done until we have planted trees, shrubs, and flowers to make what we have built much nicer.

Did Goethe Really Say Boldness Has Genius

Der Worte sind genug gewechselt,lasst mich auch endlich Taten sehn! Enough words have been exchanged;now at last let me see some deeds! (Goethe,  Faust I) The  Faust  lines above are definitely by Goethe. But are these? Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Sometimes the phrase â€Å"Begin it!† is also added at the end, and there is a longer version that well discuss below. But do these lines actually originate with Goethe, as often claimed? As you probably know,  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe  is Germanys â€Å"Shakespeare.† Goethe is quoted in German as much or more than Shakespeare is in English.  So it comes as no surprise that I often get questions about quotations attributed to Goethe. But this Goethe quote about â€Å"boldness† and seizing the moment seems to get more attention than others. If Goethe said or wrote those words, they would be originally in German. Can we find the German source? Any good source of quotations—in any language—will attribute a quote to not only its author but also the work it appears in. This leads to the main problem with this particular â€Å"Goethe† quotation. Ubiquitous Popularity It pops up all over the Web. Theres hardly a quotation site out there that doesnt include these lines and attribute them to Goethe, but one of my big complaints about most quotation sites is a lack of any attributed work for a given quotation. Any quotation source worth its salt provides more than just the name of the author—and some really lame ones dont even do that. If you look at a quotation book such as Bartletts, youll notice that the editors go to great lengths to provide the source work of the quotations listed. Not so on many web  Zitatseiten (citation sites). Far too many online quotation sites (German or English) have been slapped together and seem to â€Å"borrow† quotes from each other, without much concern as to accuracy. And they share yet another failing with even reputable quotation books when it comes to non-English quotations. They list only an English translation of the quote and fail to include the original-language version. One of the few quotation dictionaries that does this right is  The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations  by Tony Augarde (Oxford University Press). The Oxford book, for example, includes this quotation from Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951): â€Å"Die Welt des Glà ¼cklichen ist eine andere als die des Unglà ¼cklichen.† Under it is the English translation: â€Å"The world of the happy is quite different from that of the unhappy.† Beneath these lines is not only the work from which they come, but even the page:  Tractatus-Philosophicus  (1922), p. 184. — Which is how its supposed to be done. Quotation, author, work cited. So let us now consider the aforementioned, alleged Goethe quotation. In its entirety, it usually goes something like this: Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in ones favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way. Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now. Okay, if Goethe said it, what is the source work? Without locating the source, we cant claim these lines are by Goethe—or any other author. The Real Source The  Goethe Society of North America  investigated this very subject over a two-year period ending in March 1998. The Society got help from various sources to solve the mystery of the Goethe quotation. Heres what they and others have discovered: The â€Å"Until one is committed...† quotation often attributed to Goethe is in fact by  William Hutchinson Murray  (1913-1996), from his 1951 book entitled  The Scottish Himalayan Expedition.* The actual final lines from W.H. Murrays bookend this way (emphasis added): â€Å"...which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.  I learned a deep respect for one of Goethes couplets:   Whatever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it! So now we know that it was the Scottish mountaineer W.H. Murray, not J.W. von Goethe, who wrote most of the quotation, but what about the â€Å"Goethe couplet† at the end? Well, its not really by Goethe either. Its not clear precisely where the two lines come from, but they are only a very loose paraphrase of some words that Goethe did write in his  Faust  drama. In the  Vorspiel auf dem Theater  part of  Faust  youll find these words, â€Å"Now at last let me see some deeds!†Ã¢â‚¬â€which we quoted at the top of this page. It seems that Murray may have borrowed the supposed Goethe lines from a source that had similar words labeled as a â€Å"very free translation† from  Faust  by a John Anster. In fact, the lines quoted by Murray are just too far from anything Goethe wrote to be called a translation, although they do express a similar idea. Even if some online quotation references correctly cite W.H. Murray as the author of the full quotation, they usually fail to call into question the two verses at the end. But they are not by Goethe. Bottom line? Can any of the â€Å"commitment† quote be attributed to Goethe? No.