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Strategic Plan for the United States Postal Service

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1. Executive Summary
2. Company Background
3. Vision Statement
4. Mission Statement
5. Values Statement
6. Environmental Analysis
a. Internal Environment
b. External Environment
7. Long Term Objectives
8. Strategic Analysis and Choice
9. Plan Goals and Implementation
10. Financial Projections and Analysis
11. Critical Success Factors
12. Controls and Evaluation

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A strategic plan for the United States postal services is discussed.

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1. Executive Summary
USPS mailing services are sold through almost 37,000 Post Offices, stations, branches, contract postal units, our website www.usps.com, and a large network of consignees. They deliver mail to about 148 million city, rural, Post Office box, and highway delivery points. In this paper we have suggested strategic plan for USPS on the basis of internal and external environmental analysis. We have also suggested balanced scorecard for the implementation of the strategy.

2. Company Background
The United States Postal Service (USPS) is an independent establishment of the executive branch of the United States government responsible for providing postal service in the US. Within the United States, it is ordinarily referred to as the "Post Office", "Postal Service", "U.S. Mail" or "USPS". It is one of the largest employers in the United States and it operates the largest civilian vehicle fleet in the world, with an estimated 260,000 vehicles. As a quasi-governmental agency, the USPS has many special privileges, including sovereign immunity, eminent domain powers, powers to negotiate postal treaties with foreign nations, and an exclusive legal right to deliver first-class and third-class mail. The top competitors of the USPS are; DHL, FedEx, and UPS (USPS.com, 2008).

3. Vision and Mission Statement
As per the USPS website; OUR MISSION: Provide trusted, affordable, universal service;
OUR VISION: Be profitable to deliver for future generations.

4. Values Statement
Values describe what your management team really cares about. What it holds dear. What "makes 'em tick." How do your managers respond to a trade-off between product quality and profit? That's really a question of value. Value statement of USPS can be:
? Demonstration of integrity, faith and team work
? Full of enthusiasm and courage
? Providing innovative solutions to make people healthy

5. Environmental Analysis
An environment analysis is a comprehensive analysis of the internal and external environmental factors affecting an organization. A wide range of influences surrounding businesses can affect organizational decision making powers, strategies, process and performance. Knowledge and review of these drivers of change in business environment are very important to companies.

The USPS is part of the public sector. Public organizations operate for social and other purposes. Their main goal is to provide social service along with maintaining its financial prudence. Government responsiveness to the interests of society as a whole is fundamental to service delivery and performance. Government agencies are surrounded by 360 degrees of stakeholders whereas businesses are not.
a. Internal Environment

The USPS mailing services are sold through almost 37,000 Post Offices, stations, branches, contract postal units, our website www.usps.com, and a large network of consignees. They deliver mail to about 148 million city, rural, Post Office box, and highway delivery points. The operations are primarily in the domestic market, with international operations representing less than 3% of the total revenue (USPS.com, 2008).

STRENGTHS
? Leaders in Technology
? Economies of Scale

WEAKNESS
? Public sector department
? Rigidity

Hence Strengths for the organization include; being a trusted household name, being one of the largest employers in the U.S., and the ability to see that the organization needs to change and diversify in order to succeed. Weaknesses for the USPS include; technology, the inability to raise rates without governmental approval, and monetary stability.

b. External Environment
Key Economic Influences
US Markets

According to the International Monetary Fund, the United States GDP of more than $13 trillion constitutes 20 percent of the gross world product. The GDP projections indicate that the average annual growth rate of GDP was 2.9% during 2003, while GDP per capita grew at 2% in the same year. There has been growth of 3.3% in 2006 and it's slightly better than 2005 but worse than 2004. Thus the GDP growth is moderate. This is due to, the increase in imports, a decrease in exports, and a decrease in spending by the Federal government. In the first quarter of 2007 US Economy Grow .7% at the Annual rate. In 2007 there was moderate growth which restricted the growth in our industry as per GDP forecasts (Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2008).
(Economy Watch, 2007)

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) is a measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a market basket of consumer goods and services. The CPI is also used as an economic indicator. As the most widely used measure of inflation, the CPI is an indicator of the effectiveness of government policy. In addition, business executives, labor leaders and other private citizens use the index as a guide in making economic decisions and can be a deflator of other economic series. The CPI and its components are used to adjust other economic series for price change and to translate these series into inflation-free dollars. The inflation in 2007 is moderate as per the CPI (Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2008).

Unemployment
Low Unemployment is the key competency that stimulates the market for increase in house sales. The housing market has many variables that can affect the purchases of new homes. Unemployment affects the housing market by slowing down the purchases of new homes. The rising unemployment in theory should slow the housing market while the falling interest rates should strengthen the housing market. The relationship between interest rates and unemployment and might give a better view of the overall macro environment. From macro theory we know that if unemployment is rising then the economy is slowing. There are other variables to consider but we might suspect that the housing market suffered as unemployment rose but that the expansionary fiscal policy (lower rates) spurred spending and home purchases (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008).

The unemployment rate, 4.9%, and the number of unemployed per- sons, 7.4 million, were little changed in December. The unemployment rate ranged from 4.9 to 5.1% since March (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008). Total employment, at 142.8 million in December, was little changed over the month but was 2.6 million higher than a year earlier. The employment-population ratio held at 62.8 % in December, 0.4 percentage point higher than a year earlier. The labor force participation rate, at 66.0%, was unchanged over the year. Thus there is little change in unemployment indicating that there is little growth in economy. Therefore, high unemployment means moderate growth in this industry (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2008).

Government influences on business environments
The main political risk factors that could jeopardize business operations are a part of an external audit. The main political factors for the USPS are political climate and stability. If the political situation is unstable then the environment is unfavorable for the business. Similarly higher Government debt, Budget deficit or surplus is also unfavorable. The more transparent the laws and less regulations, the better it is for the business. On the other hand stringent regulations jeopardize business opportunities. If there is political instability, inefficient governance and judiciary system may also affect the business of the USPS. The US is a member of regional alliance of NAFTA. NAFTA is a comprehensive agreement between US, Mexico and Canada to liberalize trade in goods and services, remove barriers to investment, strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights; and establish a framework for further trilateral cooperation. The benefits of NAFTA are that the member countries of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) form the world's largest trading bloc, with a gross domestic product (GDP) ...

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