Whilst editing recent books on the ‘Future of the Post’ and on ‘Reinventing the Post’, I began to ask questions like: “What will secure a strong future for the postal sector in the digital age? … Will it depend on innovative technologies, clever strategic decisions, smart marketing campaigns, exciting customer solutions or inspiring top leaders? … How should a sector which is heavily rooted in the past with traditional products and services, navigate the turbulent waters of the digital age?” One of the answers is not necessarily obvious but surprisingly simple and low-tech. It is to have people in the organisation with a positive mind-set, who are prepared to think and act differently.
I often hear people saying that traditional letter mail has been substituted by e-mail and digital forms of communication as if it is indisputable. Yes, there are new ways of communicating more immediately. However, I am more irritated by junk e-mails (spam and genuine marketing e-mail), intrusive texts, pop-up ads and telephone marketing that demand my attention and yet have little or no value to me. E-mails are increasingly ignored or deleted and few of the new digital means actually replicate the impact and value of a personalised letter or physical document that are not intrusive and can’t be easily ignored or deleted.
Nevertheless, with all the doom-laden predictions around declining mail volumes, industry captains or commentators often turn to survival – in other words, what can be salvaged as the ship goes down! This again, is the wrong answer to the wrong question! It implies that we should cling on as long as possible to our traditional but dwindling business, to survive however we can, until we are rescued by e-commerce or some other new and brilliant idea. Firstly, all businesses everywhere have had to address the digital revolution and re-position themselves in the light of what is now possible. So we don’t need to cling on to outdated products and services, but we do need to see how we can meet those needs in new ways. Seen in this light, physical letters and messaging (marketing, magazines, samples, catalogues and other communications) can easily be reinvented as part of the new omni-channel media mix, with considerably more added value to the senders and recipients. Equally, e-commerce is not new, it is just mail order (which the post has been doing for years) but is now in ‘new clothes’ and with many new possibilities that include payment, fulfilment, warehousing and others, allowing the postal, courier and parcel sector to be at the centre of shopping and shipping for everyone, businesses and consumers.
If the new strategy is not about fleeing from substitution or desperate survival, what should it be about? Smart money is now backing strategies for sustainability – which commonly refers to the triple bottom line of profit, people and planet. So this is not just cutting costs and driving margins to stay in business another year, nor is it inexorable efficiencies that reduce employment or de-humanise our business. This is also about recognising the real environmental challenges we face, including learning how to live and work together for the longer term (for our children and their children) in businesses that are interdependent, which will remain physical and durable, long after the digital revolution has come – and gone!
Derek Osborn is an international postal expert. He has co-edited a series of three books, entitled “The Future is in the Post” and has also edited a further two book with contributions from thought leaders in the sector, entitled “Reinventing the Post”. The third volume, sub-titled “Building a sustainable future”, will be published in Paris in September at Post Expo.
You can contact Derek under: derekosborn@whatnext4u.com
