Dhl

Executive Summary

Deutsche World Post Net is the world's leading provider of express delivery and logistics services but on the US market the Express division DHL is only the number 3. The stratgic plan for the Express division DHL of Deutsche World Post Net explores how DHL can

become the leader on the US market within the five years.

Within the strategic plan the internal and external environment are reviewed and evaluated to define a grand strategy

to accomplish the goal. A SWOT analysis shows strenghts, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and trends of the DHL operation on the US market. The generic strategie which should be defined for the grand strategy are to lower the operation costs and to differentiate from the competition to gain a competitive advantage. Build on these a grand stratgey is defined which should be market development, this is one of the least costly and least risky strategies. To accomplish the long-term objective of become the leader of the industry several short-term objectives are defined and their implementation is described. The main short-term objectives are to reduce the operating costs by 5% each year, and to increase the efficiency of the network each year.

Critical Success Factors are that DHL does not accomplish the defined long-term goal because the US operation is not rentable and not profitable. Further on can DHL loose market share and is perhaps no longer the number 3 on the US market. Control and evaluation is an important point; therefore that the parcel business is dependent to several regulation and laws, like FDA, union, and flight restrictions. Further more heavy cost driver of the operations like insurance, gas prices, and others have to be observed. Since 9/11 the regulation and laws for the transport companies became tighter and have to be observed. Other issues are the increasing gas prices which increased the operating costs, and the strength of the US dollar to other currencies as. Deutsche World Post Net is ISO 14001 certified the operations have a continuous improvement process to be able to adjust to changes in the operations environment.

At the end recommendations are made for DHL how to become the leader of the US parcel market. DHL should explore new technologies to increase the efficiency of the operations and for cost savings. Further on DHL has to differentiate more to the competition by changing DHL brand awareness. Important for DHL is to focus on the core business to transport a parcel from A to B. The available resources give DHL the possibilities to offer worldwide deliveries of parcels in a short time, which is in today global market important.

Situation Analysis

Company Background

Deutsche Post (DPWN), which does business as Deutsche Post World Net, is Europe's largest postal services provider. Through its DHL unit, the company is also the world's leading provider of express delivery and logistics services. The company operates in 220 countries. It is headquartered in Bonn, Germany and employs about 380,000 people (Datamonitor, 2005). Deutsche Post World Net competes worldwide against UPS and FedEx whereas the market shares differ in the countries, for example, Deutsche Post World Net has a competitive advantage in China against UPS and FedEx but is on the US market the third largest express and logistics provides because of the strong competition through UPS and FedEx. In recent year Deutsche Post World Net build a global competitive network through mergers and acquisitions.

Vision and Mission Statement

In 2002 Deutsche Post World Net started a program called the Star Program which will support the vision and mission of Deutsche Post World Net to become the leading provider of Mail, Express/ Logistics, and Financial Services to their customers on a worldwide basis. In the annual report of 2003 Dr.Klaus Zumwinkel, chairman of the board of management at Deutsche Post, stated, "Deutsche Post World Net aims to become the leading global logistics provider by 2005. That is both my personal objective and our overriding common goal. We will only have reached this goal when we are the number one, not only in terms of revenue but also in terms of service quality and customer satisfaction. I am firmly convinced that we have the potential to achieve this" (Datamonitor 2005).

On the homepage of Deutsche Post World Net the following Corporate Strategies are stated: creating value through international standards, strategic answers to logistics market trends, seizing the opportunities provided by liberalization, driving forward the reinforcement of our networks, strengthening information technology, and further developing outsourcing solutions. Deutsche Post World Net defined seven guidelines which should be a challenge and a help for the success of the operations. The defined mission to be the worldwide leader of express and logistics is an ambitious goal.

Values Statement

On the homepage Deutsche Post World Net stated, "Our new Corporate Culture creates added value and leads us on the way to become stronger than our competitors. This is an obligation that we also have to fulfill to our shareholders. Our Corporate Culture unites the excellence of every subsidiary and their unique company cultures to produce a shared strength. An active, open Corporate Culture enhances our worth as an attractive employer of top talents and strengthens our position as a responsible corporate citizen in this world. We commit ourselves to adhere to the values defined in this Corporate Culture. They constitute both a challenge and a help, they support the evolution of our business while we and they continue to develop." The seven guidelines are defined as followed: to deliver excellent quality, to make our customers successful, to foster openness, to act according to clear priorities, to act in an entreprenerial way, to act with integrity internally and externally, and to accept social responsibilities.

Environmental Analysis

Internal Environmentt

Management

The Deutsche Post World Net is traded on the stock exchange and has a board of management which consist of 8 member, who are responsible for the different divisions. The Deutsche Post World Net is divided