Case Name :      The U.S. Postal Service: A First Class Disruption

Authors :           Allen H. Kupetz, Martin Suter

Source :             Ivey Publishing

Case ID :            W15003

Discipline :        General Management

Case Length :    12 pages

Solution Sample availability : YES

Plagiarism : NO (100% Original work)

Facing declining revenues, huge fixed costs, bloated employee unions, an inflexible regulatory environment and a generation of millennials that virtually never used its products, the United States Postal Service (USPS) was looking for help. Accordingly, it had hired several advisors who all came from entrepreneurial backgrounds. Their mandate was clear: challenge the status quo, help to frame the magnitude of the disruption that the USPS was facing, identify opportunities for the USPS to enter new markets for new sources of revenue, and develop a solution immediately. Was an entrepreneurial approach likely to be successful? Or would this approach only involve niche ideas that would not produce significant results? Many other developed countries were facing the same disruption; were there lessons to be learned from these other postal services? The advisors gathered together in a small office and settled into a task that, at first blush, seemed impossible.