FliFast

3 sides, you bring up and excellent point which I brought up on our internal blog-the B&G (UPS). Our financials at UPS are very, very good. The strife and turrmoil that encompasses both the mechanics and the pilot group is terrible and not a day goes by that it doesn't affect us bottom 300. Unfortunately, there is little effect that UPS' actions towards both groups have emerged in the eyes of Wall Street.

The only metric that I forsee changing albeit subtle and insidious is market share vis-a-vis Fed Ex.

From that, the $64 question is who's strategy will work better.

Fred Smith's who is actively pursuing market share, spending money (increasing debt and costs) in order to differentiate his product as the one that is always available anytime, cheaper, and with more variety than UPS.

-or-

Scott Davis' contention that less debt, lowered cost, and increased effiiciency will drive customers to his product.

I have said it before and I will say it again, the lynchpin in Scott Davis' strategy is adapting UPS' product to meet the changing needs of the customer.


In a speech he gave he talks about why Filene's Basement and Circuit City failed..they failed because they forgot who they were and did not put themself in front of the customer like Best Buy did, respectively.

Footnote: http://www.ups.com/pressroom/us/spee...n..syndication

Well guess what, in order to achieve flexibility and nimbleness in the marketplace the burden in the end rests with the employees..that's just my opinion. Three hundred UPS pilots and many UPS mechanics have little or no loyalty to the company. They have been used as sacrifical lambs to "control costs"-one of four of Scott Davis' golden rules.

I often wonder if the number of disgruntled pilots went from 300 to 600 to 1500 to 2800. Some will argue that there are wayyyy more disgruntled employees than the bottom 300. I sorta gree, but two things I find sacred in the airline business: they are a pilot's seniority number and his paycheck. To use an analogy, if UPS shorts you $300 in a check, you're ****ed. If UPS shorts you 5 years worth of paychecks you go looney. So yes, many are disgruntled, I think we can agree there are varying degrees with the the bottom 300 leading the pack. Just my humble opinion, I have no problem with views that differ.

We have excellent, excellent, excellent solidarity with our contractually permited open time and JA ban. What would happen if 50% of our flights were cancelled during the week before Christmas.

I know it's just a perverted image, but how successful would UPS be at meeting the changing consumers demands if they were stamped as unreliable ?

In conclusion, and no matter your opinion, I truly believe most would agree that flexibility and adaptability needed to remain a world leader in any field rests with the efforts of the front line employees. The airline at UPS isn't necessarily the front line, but it does have an effect.

Now to try out my blender,

FF