Table of Contents
An approximate of 444,000 employees work for United Parcel Service (UPS) which is an international firm that deals with the delivery of packages to people in different destinations. The nature of the work that the employees engage themselves in always leave them very untidy hence the need for this company to come up with a dry cleaning service for washing their uniforms as they are required to be always tidy at the workplace. However, there exists the need to come up with strategic objectives that will see to it that this proposed machine has been successfully bought and put into use to enable the company to realize its goals, which are mainly profit maximization and customer satisfaction (Kaplan & Norton, 2016). The fact that there exist competitors in the delivery of packages business such as Federal Express makes it vital for the company to establish effective strategic objectives that will make the company have a better competitive advantage over its competitors. The UPS’s mission, vision and values statements provide a clear guideline concerning all the decisions that this company makes. These statements assist in bringing to light the business’s priorities, and they contain principles which ensure an adequate alignment of the actions of the management to meet customers’ demands, workers, shareholders, and the community in general (Parker, 2017).
Key Trends, Assumptions, and Risks
Some of the key trends that can assist in shaping the future of United Parcel Service include the current economic recovery in the United States. There exists a close relationship between the economic growth of the United States and the overall performance of the United Parcel Service. Another trend is the continuous rapid growth in the country’s E-commerce. The UPS Company has been the greatest beneficiaries of this E-commerce growing trend as it can now rely on electronic commerce in different economies all over the world. Another trend in the market is the entry of new players in the logistics market of United States. The United Parcel Service Company needs to deduce better ways of overcoming the challenges brought by this trend (Parker, 2017). However, there exist few assumptions in this company such as $8.50 being the estimated earnings per share and 5.82% being the weighted average cost of capital. The real risks for this company include the development of the delivery infrastructure of Amazon, which is going to reduce the overdependence of Amazon Company on the UPS to conduct its logistics activities (Kaplan & Norton, 2016). The increase in distribution automation agents such as autonomous vehicles and drones is going to enhance the risk of the company in losing a significant number of its customers. Moreover, the United Parcel Service Company is being exposed to the risk of commodity price due to the current expectations of a rise in the prices of oil.
Below is the Balanced Scorecard for the United Parcel Service Company.
Potential Risks and Mitigation Plans
The United Parcel Service Company faces several risks in the course of formulating and implementing strategic plans and its daily operation of activities. Some of the potential hazards that the company is facing include financial risk (Shane, Strong & Enz, 2015). There are incidents of customers delaying before making payments for the services extended to them by the corporation. At times, some customers even fail to clear their debts to the company hence increasing the financial risk.
Another risk that the firm is facing is a lack of keeping up with the technological changes. The company is lacking enough experts who can help the company keep up with the rapid change in technology. Besides, the company is yet to come up with better ways, which will ensure deliveries are not affected by the adverse weather of the country.
The best way to mitigate these and many emerging risks that the company is facing is through critically analyzing the cause of the identified risks and those that the corporation had quantified in the previous processes of risk management (Shane, Strong & Enz, 2015). The United Parcel Company should also evaluate the common causes and interactions of risks in the firm. The administration of this company should also identify appropriate alternative mitigation methods, tools, and strategies. After identifying the appropriate mitigation options, the company should then select and allocate the needed resources to ensure that the chosen alternatives are successfully implemented.
Stake Holder and Contingency Strategies
An analysis of the stakeholder of the United Parcel United will help in determining how efficient he or she is for the company. This analysis can be possible and more reliable using a four-quadrant matrix (Parker, 2017). Two of the quadrants in the matrix elaborate more about the external and internal relationship that exists between the stakeholder and the company. The remaining two quadrants provide prove as to whether such a stakeholder has an effect on the firm or whether he is the one who can be affected by this company.
The strategies concerning contingency and mitigation help in conducting a cost-benefit analysis of any proposed plan. The mitigating strategy will assist in ensuring that only the right stakeholders are present in the firm and who can be able to ensure that the enterprise’s project is successfully implemented. The stakeholder should always ensure that he or she can identify and determine impact, timing, context, priority and consequence of a risk. Shareholders should always make strategic decisions that protect the company against loss and all sorts of risks that it may face in the course of carrying out its business activities (Monahan, 2014).
It is very unethical for a United Parcel Service shareholder to knowingly make a decision that will cause the company suffer massive losses and or further expose the company to more risks. A shareholder may commit such unethical act whenever there are possibilities of personal gains for such a shareholder.
Communication Plan
The purpose of the below communication plan is to show a summary of the strategic objectives that the United Parcel Service will implement towards realizing the creation of an active dry cleaning service for the workers in the company (Potter, 2013). This plan also provides the time limit for each objective strategy, the targeted audience and the method that is going to be used to deliver this information to the targeted audience.
Communication Plan
| Deliverable/Description | Frequency | Target Audience(s) | Delivery Method | Delivery Frequency | Who Responsible? |
| Strategic Objectives summary | Annually | Managers and shareholders | Representation of the strategic objectives summary to the audience during the Annual General Meeting (AGM) | Monthly | Project manager |
| . | Twice per week until all users covered | Lead analyst | |||
| Thrice weekly until all users covered | Lead analyst |
- Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (2016). The Balance Scorecard. Boston, MA: Harvard Bussines School Press.
- Monahan, G. (2014). Enterprise Risk Management a Methodology for Achieving Strategic Objectives. Hoboken (N.J.): John Wiley & Sons.
- Parker, L. D. (2017). Strategic Objectives: Creating Your Future.
- Potter, L. R. (2013). The Communication Plan: the Heart of Strategic Communication. San Francisco, CA: International Association of Business Communicators.
- Shane, J. S., Strong, K. C., & Enz, D. (2015). Construction Project Administration And Management for Mitigating Work Zone Crashes And Fatalities: an Integrated Risk Management Model. Ames, IA: Midwest Transportation Consortium, Iowa State University.