This morning, before I sauntered into the teeming hub of control for the Linux Developer Network, I performed what has become a semi-weekly ritual here at the Proffitt home: the return of a watched DVD to its home company. But today, along with the movie, I also placed two envelopes with empty printer cartridges and a survey about my auto repair shop in the mailbox as well. And it struck me, as I closed the mailbox door and put the flag up, that there has been a remarkable sea change in the way the US Postal Service has had to do business in the last few years. And I wonder how many folks even realize it?
What prompted this thought, as you might guess, is the fact that I didn't have to pay a cent for any postage for these outbound items. The companies who were receiving the postal items were. At the same time I noticed this, I also realized that I did not pay very much for shipping my recent online purchases to my home, since I ordered gifts early enough this year to take advantage of free shipping. And, with the exception of Christmas stamps for cards, I haven't had to pay for stamps in quite some time, because all but one of my monthly bills is now paid online and I hardly ever send letters out to people.
Now I know the USPS is still making money, because someone's still paying the mail carrier to drive by the house and drop off the mail. The difference is that these days, it's less and less consumers like me paying the post office and more and more shipper companies like Amazon, LL Bean, Netflix, and Blockbuster footing the bill. This has led to a shift in how the post office is doing business. When I go to the post office these days (usually to mail a personal package to a family member), I am always asked what other items or services I might need. And the big in-store marketing push is always for getting your package delivery done with the USPS as opposed to FedEx or UPS.
This is not all the USPS has done. Since the reduction (again, save for the holidays) of personal mail, the post office is looking for a lot of alternate revenue streams. Delivery confirmation, direct mailings, stamp collector kiosks in post offices... these are all some of the ways the USPS has changed its revenue streams over the years in response to changes in consumer habits.
Is it enough? It seems to be workiing so far. Despite the age-old complaints about the speed and accuracy of the postal service, in truth the USPS is still one of the best delivery organizations in the world in terms of price and service. 2009 looks to be a rocky year, as direct mailings (largely from the US credit card companies) are predicted to have a huge drop.
What fascinates me about this is the quiet way in which the USPS did all of this. These changes have taken place over a number of years, and implemented in such a way that many consumers may not have even noticed how drastically the USPS has changed from the ways it operated 20 years ago. And here, I think, is a lesson for software vendors and users who find themselves resistant to the Linux platform.
The lesson is, it does not pay to maintain the status quo just for the sake of not changing. In fact, it could kill you.
If the USPS had stayed the course in the face of e-mail and stronger competition from the other big-box shippers, it is very likely that the organization would be a shadow of its former self today. If it even existed at all. But even though we don't think of the post office as being a big agent for change, that's exactly what they did: they looked at market realities and adapted.
Meanwhile, on the software side, we're looking at companies who still think putting their collective IT eggs in one vendor's basket is a good idea. Not only that, they're willing to sign up for restrictive licenses and forced upgrade programs just to keep that status quo going.
And while I am not advocating that organizations change just for the sake of change, surely the business and financial events of 2008 are an immediate example of how single-minded attitudes are really a bad idea in the long term. Looking at the USPS is a clear indicator of how change in the face of your environment is a much better plan.
