Competitiveness Creation and Maintenance in the Postal Services Industry

This book examines the changing business and

economic environment for postal services in Lithuania and the upcoming

challenges for this industry. Postal services continue to play a central part

in the development of national economies. However, the economic and social role

of postal services has changed rapidly and fundamentally over the last two

decades. In most industrialized countries, paper-based communications are in serious

decline, while the demand for parcel delivery services is rising steadily with the

continuing development of e-commerce, just-in-time production techniques, and

global supply chains. For the postal sector as a whole, the centre of gravity

has shifted dramatically from letters and documents to parcels. The authors explain how the organizational

paradigm has inexorably shifted from that of a national, government-owned

postal administration providing the basic delivery services required by society,

to a system of interdependent local and regional undertakingsthat both compete

and cooperate with one another. The book argues that there are no indications that

the postal sector has stopped changing, and that it seems most probable that

the European Union¿s postal sector will look quite different in 2035 than it

does today. In closing, the book explains how the shareholders of postal

services companies have recently confirmed that the time has come to rethink

the strategy of creating and maintaining competitiveness in the postal services

industry.