Many of the world’s postal services are moving from government-operated monopolies to at least semi-autonomous businesses. And as they start to compete with new competitors in more open global markets, they need to develop clear strategies to overcome legacy problems:

	Transformation. Postal services are usually among their country’s top employers – the U.S. Postal Service, for instance, has 800,000 workers, and China and India, more than a million each. That presents enormous organizational challenges as postal services have to respond to electronic delivery and other threats to their business. Consolidating assets is often necessary, but seldom sufficient; systems must transform their operations, performance management, leadership development, and most other work processes.
	Growth Platforms. Forced to compete for a shrinking share of their core market, many postal systems are at a crossroads. "Few companies in any industry have succeeded in a shrinking market," says Carl-Stefan Neumann, a director in the Frankfurt office and leader of the Global Travel & Logistics Practice. “Postal executives have to decide what their growth platform is going to be.” Some can focus on a narrower slice of the market – for instance, catering to price-sensitive business customers by incrementally reducing delivery frequency and slashing costs. Others will find opportunities in logistics, direct marketing services, or electronic communications. A CEO´s first step,” says Neumann, is “to fundamentally reassess what business they want to be in."
	Detailed Planning. Public and quasi-public systems often operate under hundreds of years of tradition and political sensitivity. They cannot be transformed simply on the strength of economic logic or executive decree. Along with a strong business case and strong leadership, it takes careful planning, transparent processes, and the support of regulators and constituents from the start. Even with all the pieces in place, the transformation can be a long process.

"These forces and others at work in the industry have the potential to destroy value," says Bernard Bot, a principal in the Amsterdam office. "There are some real success stories among parcel and post organizations, but there also are a lot of big challenges. In many cases, management systems must be rebuilt from the ground up. To get the necessary performance improvement, executives must improve transparency, accountability, and managerial skill – none of which are a given for the industry."