Managing development
An approach to training senior postal executives by Erik Swars,
managing director, Executive Master in Postal Management
Unprecedented challenges require innovative solutions
The postal Industry is changing rapidly and facing unique and unprecedented challenges. Declining mail volumes, liberalisation, changing customer needs, the growing impact of information and communication technologies and increasing environmental awareness are all affecting the business of postal companies.
In order to face these profound challenges, and to lead companies successfully into the future, management training is a necessity. In these times of economic crisis management training is even more important. “Entrepreneurial skills and attitudes, risk-taking behavior, creativity, etc, will be crucial competencies in the economy of the future that need to be nurtured by more adaptive and innovative education and training systems” said the OECD in its latest report.
The International Executive Master in Postal Management
To meet this demand, the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) has created its International Executive Master in Postal Management, an innovative management training solution for the postal industry. Its global approach, a module based curriculum, a focus on the postal industry and
the highest level of participants and lecturers combine to make this Executive Master unique.
“If mail volumes continue to decline at their current rates, in 15 years the postal industry will need to look very different from how it looks today. This Executive Master Program from EPFL is exactly what is needed – to think ahead and to prepare our future leaders to face these new challenges” to quote Elmar Toime, former CEO of New Zealand Post.
The International Executive Master in Postal Management is a fifteen month part time programme that consists of five modules focusing on the most relevant topics for future leaders in the postal industry: business fundamentals and leadership, innovation, marketing, sustainability and technology. The five modules, each two or three weeks long, provide the participants with a solid foundation in all areas of management and also with the tools and insights as to how to tackle the specific challenges of the postal industry.
As postal leaders of tomorrow have to think global and to create an international network, modules take place around the world, in Australia and Canada with partner universities, in Belgium in collaboration with the International Post Corporation (IPC) and at the EPFL campus.
The participants, experienced high performing managers with at least five to ten years’ professional background and an academic degree, benefit from highly qualified international classmates that help build an international network of contacts. Furthermore they profit not only from first class professors but also from contact with industry leaders from postal companies such as TNT, La Poste, Belgian Post and Itella.
EPFL, a Cosmopolitan University
EPFL is one of the two Ecoles Polytechniques Fédérales in Switzerland with a campus of more than 10,000 people from over a hundred nationalities. Based at Lausanne on the shores of Lake Geneva, it is consistently ranked among the world’s top fifty universities. The university stimulates collaboration between students, professors, researchers and entrepreneurs. The Chair of Management of Network Industries (MIR), Professor Matthias Finger, has been working closely with the postal industry for many years and has outstanding experience in postal research and in management training.
Partnership with the International Post Corporation
In order to fulfill the needs of the whole postal industry, EPFL has entered into an academic and professional cooperation with the International Post Corporation (IPC). Based in Brussels, IPC represents the majority of the world’s mail. Its twenty four members deliver 80% of global mail volume, more than 330bn letters each year.
IPC contributes its extensive experience and know how in the postal industry, its specific expertise in areas such as postal operations and technology, innovation, market research, regulatory research, corporate social responsibility and quality of service, together with its ability to identify postal service providers’ needs and the key issues of the industry.
“We are proud to partner with the International Post Corporation which represents the postal industry’s most innovative operators worldwide. And we hope, in this way, to contribute to addressing the sector’s most pressing challenges” (Matthias Finger).
The cooperation consists of the promotion of common research activities, and a focus on management and leadership training opportunities, as well as partnership in the organisation of an academic postal conference.
“EPFL is one of the leading universities in the world and with its outstanding academic standing and scientific excellence the right partner for IPC and its members to commonly address key issues of the postal industry” said Herbert-Michael Zapf, President and CEO IPC.
Focus on technology
Technology is a crucial issue for the postal industry and therefore also a particular focus of the Executive Master in Postal Management. Technology is expediting the onrush of organisations into new modes of management: not only global, but interactive, innovative, collaborative, anti hierarchical, user friendly. But the technology and its suppliers are themselves changing at critical speed, which puts further intense pressure on management.
This means for the postal industry on the one hand a threat through e-substitution, but on the other hand also an opportunity to use new technologies to enter new markets. During the innovation module, held in Melbourne in collaboration with Swinburne University, participants learn more about the management of innovation process and new technology based services in the postal industry and involving customers, Australia Post and important players from other industries. In the technology module in Lausanne, future postal technologies, such as RFID interactive mailing and new web based services, are presented and discussed with postal operators and suppliers
