Question

United Parcel Services (UPS) is a large well known parcel service. The company started as a small business by two teenage boys’ basement in Seattle. Today UPS delivers to more than 200 countries. For the last 15 years UPS is trying to develop a stronger presence is India. In the case presented in class one learned that strategically UPS have formed alliances with well stablished companies that have already footprint in India and other Asian-Pacific countries. As in any good alliance both parties have gained. UPS gain access to the country and the other parties have obtained UPS logistics.
The main problem for UPS is how to expand their services in India. I will use the benefit risk assessment. PrOACT-URL frame work to explained some strategics that may work.

India
India is the second largest populated country in Asia. India is depict as a “well-developed infrastructure and a highly diversified industrial base, in its pool of scientific and engineering personnel, in the pace of its agricultural expansion, and in its rich and vibrant cultural exports of music, literature, and cinema (Thapar, 2020).
The first thing that comes to mind when one mentions India is IT. There are other appealing factors that makes India a gold mind for companies. First, most people speak English and affordable less regulated labor (Spivi, 2004).
The biggest challenge in India is the lack of roads, unreliable internet connection and the in rural areas there is not electricity. Even though, several industries such as auto mobile, logistics, etc have been investing in India, there is much to be done. However, India counts with the three most populous cosmopolitan cities in the world: Mumbai, Kolkata and Delhi (Thapar, 2020.)”

PrOACT-URL

The acronyms stands for Problem, objective, alternative, consequences, trade-offs, uncertainty, risk tolerance, & linked decisions.

Problem: UPS is having a difficult time growing their parcel & logistic business in India. This is partially due the lack of roads, and aircrafts airports. The second problem is that most rural areas in India do not have electricity, rather less Internet. The biggest challenge UPS have is getting breaking the ice. Meaning most people like to use well known parcel company instead of a new company such as UPS. We learned this in the article

1. Objective: UPS objective is to have a stronger larger presence in the Asian market including but not limited to India.

2. Alternatives: As a way to achieve its goal UPS is forming alliances with other institutions that have a solid presence in India and other countries of Asia.

3. Consequences: UPS is investing in India and slowly but steadily creating strong presence in the Indian market.

4. Trade-off: the positive aspect of forming alliances is that both parts gain. For example in 2008 UPS formed their second alliance with ALF which is a logistic company with significant foot print in India. UPS gain access points to for international delivery customers and ALF gained UPS export capabilities (class article, D/U).

5. Uncertainty risk tolerance: base on the article UPS wants to set a strong presence in India, but they are not willing to risk (invest) if it would not yield dividends. The author explains “When you are int he package-delivery business, you are really in the pennies business. UPS could not afford to experiment based simply on trial and error”.

6. Linked decisions: What have worked in the past? How other delivery services are succeeding? All valid questions considering there is a very small risk tolerance. UPS is expanding their frontiers with the certainty whatever moved they make will be successful and profitable. What has work for them so far is forming alliances and adapting with the current market. The is the reason UPS has been in business for over 100 years and deliver services to more than 220 countries.

As one can inferred from the article UPS is not only one of the oldest delivery service company in the US, but continues to innovate their market by expanding the services they offered and forming alliances. Synergy is the term Lesser and Parnell calls the situation that occurs when the combinations of two organizations results in higher efficiency and effectiveness. In the textbook Organizational Theory, Lester & Parnell explained that synergy is essential when an organization wants to diversify (p.21). UPS the perfect example of how important synergy is for and organization to grow. For example, in May 2010 UPS formed an alliance with AliExpress, which is the world leader in e-commerce for small businesses. UPS hoped to connect with other buyers and UPS would simplified AliExpress logistics.

The concept UPS have used wisely is “best practice” which is the process or activities that have been successful in other organizations. FedEx pioneered the hub and spoke system in the US. This system “consist of a hub (center) where package are send for consolidation and spokes to all other link the points in the system. UPS then, transition the the direct system to the hub. UPS saw that the Hub and Spoke System works is more effective therefore it adopted the system.

UPS is one of the largest package-delivery, logistic company. Currently, they are expanding their services in India. To achieved their goal UPS is forming alliances with various companies that have footprint in India. In addition, UPS is investing in the Indian market. This investment is much needed in order to open their doors in smaller cities of India that may not count with the technology or reliable electric sources.

Moving forward UPS needs to continued to form alliances with companies that are already set in India. In addition, starting to open small UPS stores in India big cities is a way to have a small investment and still continue to grow their presence in India. Lastly, since India does not have the best of roads and some parts cannot be access via air, UPS can use cargo boats to reach the rural areas of India.

agree with or nor.plz expain (7-8 sentences)

Answer 1

Agree with above analysis due to the following:

• For developed cities they can make use air cargo to deliver products.
• For smaller cities and rural areas they can use inland river transport and also railways to deliver the products. Both these modes are well developed in India
• They can introduce ,autonomous vehicles, which will increase efficiency and reduce human workforce
• For Last mile delivery, they can be provided by drones to improve cost efficiency
• UPS can seek alliance with existing service providers like bus, rail and ferry operators to increase their reach in India