Author: Greg Niemann

Publisher: Jossey-Bass

Pub. in: February, 2007

ISBN: 0787994022

Pages: 256

Measurements: 9 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches

Origin of product: USA

Order code: BA01350

Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0787994020

The subtitle, "the untold story," is intriguing. Does it disclose some previously unknown facet of the company? Or does the book fail to tell the whole story? Take your pick.

The book combines aspects of an anecdotal biography with aspects of a promotional corporate history. It begins with a biographical sketch of James Emmett Casey, who founded United Parcel Service as a teenager, delivering packages on a bicycle. It is a real-life Horatio Alger story. About halfway through, the book switches to a summary description of the present-day UPS. Throughout the book, Jim Casey is used to personify the company and to serve as the glue that holds the story together. The narrative moves with an uneven, sometimes fitful pace, often revisiting time periods that were covered earlier. The story is told in a conversational style, often switching to the first person when the author includes his personal observations.

Originally, UPS was a package delivery company for department stores. Over its first 50 years, it's operations spread from Seattle to the major cities on the west coast and the northeast U.S. During the next 30 or more years, UPS changed its business from department store deliveries to an all-points service for any shipper at any location. The present-day UPS operates on a global scale, using the very latest digital technology. Throughout its 100-year life, UPS has maintained a hard-working, semi-military culture and has to a great extent achieved employee-ownership. It is an interesting and informative story. However, it does have its faults.

In its effort to make Jim Casey the personification of the company, the book gives short-shrift to the second generation of managers, particularly the ones who guided UPS out of the department store business and into the common carrier world. Further, the book understates the importance of that shift; it is presented as merely following a lucrative opportunity. The fact is that the department store delivery business was dying. Had UPS not changed its operations, it is likely that it too would have gone out of business. The book also understates the obstacles to that change. Public service regulation existed, in part, to enforce government-established monopolies - and that enforcement included prohibiting companies like UPS from competing against the previously authorized carriers. The primary opposition to UPS' change of business was not the Post Office, it was the existing authorized carriers: Railway Express, the bus companies and the film carriers. Getting approval for nationwide rights in that era was viewed as impossible but the book does not even mention Preston W. Davis, the architect of UPS operating rights miracle.

Similarly, the book fails to mention two antitrust suits that could easily have nipped UPS' new business in the bud. UPS won one of them and settled the other.

With its faults, this is still a worthwhile read.



(From quoting Gerard J. St John, USA)

Target readers: Business readers keen on vision, innovation and entrepreneurship.

Better with Changing How the World Does Business: Fedex's Incredible Journey to Success - The Inside Story :

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