Author: Arend Pryor | Created: 10/09/2021
Details: Sharing content created as part of pursuing my MBA degree
Assignment Details:
Assess the external environment of the organization you selected (UPS). Based on your assessment and the strengths and weaknesses you identified in Part 1, evaluate opportunities for the organization to add economic, social, and environmental value.
Recommend an opportunity that meets the following criteria:
Best capitalizes on the organization’s valuable, rare, and hard-to-imitate resources
Is least impacted by the organization’s weaknesses
Takes the best advantage of the external environment
Create a 13- to 15-slide PowerPoint presentation to present your assessment, evaluation, and recommendation. Include the following:
Cover slide
Agenda slide
Description of the organization (1 slide)
Summary of the strengths and weaknesses of the organization (2 slides)
Key aspects of your assessment of the external environment that present opportunities for adding value, such as trends, unmet needs, unsolved problems, underserved consumer groups, and so on (2-3 slides)
Evaluation of opportunities to add economic value (1 slide)
Evaluation of opportunities to add social value (1 slide)
Evaluation of opportunities to add environmental value (1 slide). Note: Some opportunities may appear on more than 1 slide. For example, you may find an opportunity that adds economic, social, and environmental value.
Recommended opportunity to pursue first, with a rationale that shows how the opportunity capitalizes on the organization’s valuable, rare, and hard-to-imitate resources; is not much impacted by the organization’s weaknesses; and takes advantage of the external environment (1-2 slides)
Conclusion slide
References slide
Speaker notes to convey the details you would give if you were presenting
The slides themselves should contain only essential information and as little text as possible. Do not design a slide presentation made up of long bullet points.
Hi everyone and thank you for joining us today. My name is Arend Pryor and I will be taking you through our presentation today.
In this PowerPoint, we are going to be focusing on the fortune 500 company, United Parcel Service (UPS), and their approach to adding value to the organization via entrepreneurial thinking and value creation.
Looking at the agenda shown here, this will include the following:
In the overview section we will start by providing details about the history of UPS and the services they provide and tell you a bit about their strengths and weaknesses
Next we will jump into the evaluation section of the presentation where the entrepreneurship and value creation of the company will be covered over multiple slides. This will lead us to several slides where an opportunity evaluation will be discussed for the areas of economic, social, and environmental value.
In the summary section we will make a recommendation on the opportunity UPS should pursue and why it makes the most sense. This will be followed by a summary that hits the high points of the information covered during our presentation
Last but not least, we will finish up by taking some time to answer any questions you may have and for those who are interested, the references section will be briefly reviewed to show where some of the information for today’s presentation originated
With that, let’s go ahead and get underway
To kick things off, we are going to start with the Overview section where we will provide an overview of the company, identify strengths as noted by the company’s recent SWOT analysis and also share the company’s lone weakness
United Parcel Service, or as they are more commonly known, UPS, makes their money delivering packages around the world. The company has grown considerably since its inception in 1907 when it consisted of two young entrepreneurs and a basement office in Seattle, which steadily grew as these two entrepreneurs began to branch out (Our History | about UPS, 2021).
Today, the company employs over 540,000 employees in over 220 countries, working together to deliver 24.7 million packages a day and in turn generating $8.6 billion in annual revenue for 2020 (Our Company | about UPS, 2021).
Company operations consist of three distinct areas including that of domestic packages, international packages, and lastly supply chain operations (Reuters Editorial, 2021).
Based on the company’s 2020 SWOT analysis, the following areas were identified as strengths:
Integrated Global Network: UPS handles package and freight deliveries worldwide via air, land, and sea thanks to its extremely vast global network, making it the largest to do so in the world
Liquidity Position: UPS has improved the size and availability of its total liquidity giving the company an enhanced ability to fund its day-to-day activities
Revenue Growth: The company has continued to experience annual growth in revenue across all three of their business segments, which grew by 3.1% in 2019 (United Parcel Service, Inc., 2021)
As a side note, the company’s share of the express and courier market is 35 percent (Statista, 2021)
The company’s sole weakness is a heavy reliance on the US marketplace for its revenues. This leaves the company vulnerable to changes in the economy that negatively impact sales and operations (United Parcel Service, Inc., 2021). A good example of this impact could be seen when severe delays were experienced by UPS customers during the pandemic. Status updates on packages, which were normally updated on a consistent basis, left many consumers with no information and employees without a means of providing it (Finney, 2020).
In this section we will be covering several areas related to the evaluation of how the company acts with an entrepreneurial mindset as part of creating value and list some of their opportunities. Next, we will evaluate these opportunities by categorizing them as adding Economic, Social, or Environmental Value
One of the first areas showing the company’s approach to entrepreneurship and value creation is in the efforts being taken to redefine their delivery service. This undertaking is being carried forward by focusing on what the organization calls a, “Customer First” approach. Entrepreneur actions such as this are recognized as one of the four key elements of corporate entrepreneurship (Hisrich et al., 2021). Examples include showcasing small business customers and those making a difference in the world and highlighting how UPS is contributing to each of these sectors (Customer First | about UPS, 2021).
Innovativeness is another key element supported by the organization as part of identifying opportunities to pursue. This is being accomplished via the company’s Global Advanced Technology Group (GATG), which is responsible for carrying out testing of new concepts that seek to meet the diverse needs of their customers. From robotics to experimental delivery drones, ideas are quickly tested to determine their feasibility for use in real-world scenarios so those that show promise can be implemented in the field (Innovation Driven | about UPS, 2021).
On a larger scale, the company is also exploring the use of new types of aircraft to be used to fulfill package transport and delivery. The thought is that this may help with improving operational efficiencies and reduce harmful emissions, but also, could result in the company’s ability to offer new services. This is a great example of corporate entrepreneurial thinking by way of identifying a new opportunity that involves a certain level of uncertainty, but also has the potential to create a positive new service (Hisrich et al., 2021).
The last example showing the entrepreneurial thinking of the company as a way of creating value can be seen in their recent partnership with eBay to offer sellers additional shipping options for products sold via the eBay platform. This partnership will allow UPS to expand their portfolio of products, increase the company’s customer base (United Parcel Service, Inc., 2021). To put this in perspective, the eBay platform has 19 million registered sellers and as of today there are 1.5 billion active listings available to be purchased (EBay Inc. - Fast Facts, 2021).
Next, let’s evaluate some of the opportunities we just mentioned in order to identify the economic value they can provide, which is another way of saying, the value that customers place on a good or service, which is directly related to the benefit received (Estevez, 2020).
One of the first areas to be discussed is the work being done by the company’s global Advanced Technology Group, which looks to quickly test innovative ideas for meeting the needs of customers. My assumption is that some of these innovations would go unnoticed by most consumers as they more than likely deal with improving efficiencies with the supply chain. For those areas that include customer touchpoints, the difference may be more noticeable, however in both cases, customers will potentially experience faster service times, which should bring plenty of satisfied smiles.
The second area to be discussed includes the strategic partnership with eBay, which looks to add UPS delivery services as an added option. Speaking from personal experience, the shipping rates offered by USPS can be tough to beat, but it would be interesting to see what UPS has to offer as part of being competitive. My guess is that they will be able to outshine the competition on large ticket items as this is more of their specialty.
For the area of adding social value, we will focus on the opportunities mentioned above that the company provides that add additional value to consumers or the community as a result of being provided (The Importance of Social Value in Your Bid Responses -, 2021).
The Customer First program mentioned previously definitely falls into this category as the company has taken special steps to highlight the stories behind the customers whose packages are trusted for delivery with UPS. One example of this included small businesses who had to switch from in-person shopping to offering their products online, which required business owners to establish enhanced relationships with the company. Another example that’s more common are the many businesses whose products are shipped via UPS and are a vital part of a supply chain (Customer First | about UPS, 2021).
In terms of adding social value, the focus here is on previously mentioned opportunities that the company provides to consumers and the community (The Importance of Social Value in Your Bid Responses -, 2021).
The Customer First program definitely falls into this category as the company has taken special steps to highlight the stories behind the customers whose packages are trusted for delivery with UPS. One example of this included small businesses who had to switch from in-person shopping to offering their products online, which required business owners to establish enhanced relationships with the company. Another example that’s more common are the many businesses whose products are shipped via UPS and are a vital part of a supply chain (Customer First | about UPS, 2021).
This now brings us to the “Conclusion section where we'll talk about recommendations and then summarize the highlights of the information covered today
Based on the details we have covered thus far, it makes sense to now propose a recommendation for the most advantageous opportunity for the company to pursue.
After careful consideration, the company should focus on their Customer First approach and continue to showcase the relationships that are making a positive impact on the world. With the company’s vast network of delivery and supply chain services, this approach has the ability to continually uncover story after story showing how the company is helping move businesses forward and encourage more customers to do the same. As previously mentioned, this network spans over 220 countries, which removes a small portion of the organization’s reliance on the US marketplace, however, the majority of it would still remain in the US.
As a recap to keep things fresh in your mind, let’s review some of the highlights from today’s presentation.
With 24.7 million packages being delivered on a daily basis and over $8.6 billion in annual revenue, UPS is on a path of continued future growth. This combined with their innovative thinking and new initiatives will help the company to continually expand into new markets and offer new services in order to diversify their portfolio of products and services.
As previously shown, the strengths of the company include the massive size of their global network, the growth of their liquidity position, and the continued increases of their revenues. From the perspective of weaknesses, the company’s main point of vulnerability is in their reliance on the US marketplace to generate the majority of their revenues.
In terms of their approach, the company utilizes an entrepreneurial mindset by seeking out new innovative opportunities and pursuing the ones that make the most sense for the company. This includes highlighting the positive impacts the company has on their relationships with the businesses they serve. This can be seen in the pursuit of innovative technologies and solutions, as well as in partnering with companies such as eBay to add additional value to the platform by offering their tried and true shipping services.
For the future, the company should continue to focus their efforts on putting customers first and cultivating more of these relationships as part of building customer loyalty and increasing the number of those who do so.
This now brings us to the conclusion where we will answer your questions and take a look at the references used for this presentation
Before concluding this PowerPoint presentation, I wanted to thank everyone again for your time and attention in reviewing the information covered here today.
Are there any questions or feedback you would like to share based on what’s been covered here today?
Last but not least, the following pages include reference information for the origins of information included in this presentation. The following is the first page of two.
Here we have the second and final reference page.
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