This year’s Postal and Delivery Economics conference in Barcelona will be different. The founder, Michael Crew, passed away late last year and during his 25+ years at the helm with the late Paul Kleindorfer. The conference grew to amass the keenest minds in the postal world in wonderful locations around Europe (predominantly) annually to further the research on topics that affect every citizen of the world.
I’ve contributed to every conference in the last 10 years, where it has taken me on quite the professional and personal journey, developing and sharpening my intellectual scalpel, and filling my passport with immigration stamps from fascinating locations like Jersey, Bordeaux, Athens, and Rome. But this year is different. It’s been more difficult to focus my mind and put pen to paper, even though much of the research for my paper was finished weeks ago. I wonder…is there a subconscious hesitation, a realization this year marks the start of something entirely new for the conference? Indeed, change is often not easy.
Like any other year, after much reading and talking with colleagues and friends, I zeroed in on my topic for this year’s paper in November 2016 and submitted the abstract to the governing board for approval. While it is important to continue evaluating the impacts of declining mail volumes on the viability of the postal sector, it is equally important to examine the resulting effects of additional forces and their implications. Nascent last mile collaborative logistics arrangements, evolving customer expectations, changing demographics, entry for parcel delivery in the last mile by firms such as Uber, innovations in key technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), and other exogenous factors are causing tectonic shifts in traditional delivery models and challenging the viability of century-long roles of POs.
Research I performed with the USPS OIG last year on the Emerging Logistics Landscape and a recent McKinsey piece on focused my mind on this year’s topic, which has taken me down some deep rabbit holes and spun me in circles for days, trying to box in what is an otherwise massive topic. A dear colleague and friend who has also attended countless postal conferences offered to read my abstract and expressed one clear message: ‘Be careful…you understand how much you’re biting off here?’
With the paper due on April 25 and the conference beginning May 24, time is drawing closer. Stay posted to see when inspiration strikes in this very different year! #IBMAoT
houckOUT 