Strategic Planning at United Parcel Service Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Key elements of UPS’s approach to strategic planning

UPS charter

After united parcel service came into existence, it has revamped its charter after two years of its establishment. The company has redefined its mission and vision to provide a detailed statement of the company’s standards and policies. The new mission statement shows company’s leadership in the package distribution industry. The main theme behind this change is to move UPS in the international market.

The Charter has combined company’s core business with its international promotional goal which enabled the company to work efficiently on its supply chain network and as well as on its global promotional strategies.

UPS charter also includes detailed strategic statements that serves its springboard for an unforeseen series of events. The implementation of this charter starts with the company’s decision to go for initial public offerings and its five-year strategic planning.

The Centennial Plan

Centennial Plan had been designed to guide the company to its centennial anniversary by providing buzzwords and the far-reaching structure that aligns the company’s primary goal with its course of actions. However, the execution of centennial had been delayed until the development of the roadmap strategy. The Centenary Plan parted into corporate and regional plan.The company disjointed this plan in order to make the business process more efficient.The yearly plan had subdivided and translated into strategic plans that were handed down to the regions to execute.

UPS’s international journey did not seemed to be accessible from the management’s point of view. It was a huge question for the top management that whether global appearance would be advantageous for the company’s growth and profitability. Senior executives were spending days and night to develop a consensus to get rid of the potential risk; the scenario that later took the form of Centennial program.This program comprises of three essential elements, which states:

At first the company would highly focus on cost reduction and maximizing profit. The only way through which a company would be able to achieve these goals are customer satisfaction, operational efficiencies and limiting their expense.

In the next step, the company will plan for its global operations and develop a structure that will unite all business units through identical brand equity.

In the last step, the senior management will highly focus on the value creation process that is directing effect from the customer and also affects the business as well.UPS will be putting great efforts and time on the preparation of effective workforce. The company will continuously check its package-supply system and make continuous improvement to develop world’s efficient package transportation network.

Strategy Road Map

A Strategy Road Map is a map that highlights each and every milestone and hurdles of the road to plan for a prosperous future.This step has been structured in a way that each goal has to pass through the standards made for this level. For instance, if the company will aim at taking some initiatives in the future, then this goal will be subdivided into 24 other projects which deeply entertain every single hindrance and requirement of the project.

The road map is the most essential component that would be discussed in the centennial plan and after which the yearly plan would be executed slowly and gradually.Through an in-depth analysis, the officers would be able to identify potential uncertainties related to a particular situation. Project manager’s second important task is to develop various alternatives for these uncertainties and to present them in the centennial plan. This presentation of alternative is necessary because in the centennial plan meeting the senior management will decide which option to choose and which would be rejected..

This method eventually executes scenario planning in a shorter way, however, with the passage of time this strategic road has also been filtered with the help of senior management and project managers.

McDevitt’s Performance Evaluation

McDevitt has been working as a chief of the international transportation system of UPS and has shown great efforts throughout the development of the strategic plans for UPS. Starting from the participation in the preparation of a strategic road map. McDevitt has devoted his efforts in making teams aware and align with their task and respective responsibilities. On the strategic roadmap, McDevitt personally visited each and every board member to keep a check on the status of the work. He wanted to discuss every single off road map and also wanted to critically analyze it so that the process can refine further.

However, the CEO was partially convinced on McDevitt’s professional competencies as he offered McDevitt to join the advisory committee. The CEO’S opinion about his performance was due to his over efficiency related to his task. In a trade direct project, McDevitt had taken the in-charge of all the activities and was taking various actions to turn the project on track.Although McDevitt did this for the betterment of the company, but this was not an appropriate way to handle critical problems..............................

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