According to John Smart(2015),the three technology including communication technology, computing technology and nano technology has accelerated to change our world. The uprise of the new communication technology with the internet has been bringing our life drastic change in many ways. The society is changing at an unprecedented speed and complicity that many companies face on the issue of how to adjust themselves.
The long strike of Canada Post union reveals their severe situations. Canada Post has been a monopoly corporation in charge of mail delivery. Decline of mail volume stuck their revenue from the postal monopoly and forced them to an acute countermeasure. Based of the situations, Canada Post developed Five-point Action Plan in 2013 including using transit to using community mailboxes instead of door-to-door delivery, introducing tiered pricing, reinforce of the retail network by opening more franchise postal outlets that cost less than corporate post offices, more efficient streamlining operations, and decrease the cost of labor(Government of Canada, 2016). While the size of letter mail business has become smaller, the demand of parcel business has been growing rapidly due to growing the popularity of online shopping among people. (Government of Canada, 2016) Canada Post is trying to shift their main business from letter mail to parcels. Despite their efforts, their innovation is slow and still they need to seek further fundamental and transformational changes to catch up the world changing at the accelerating speed. However, reformation seems not to be easy for Canada post because of their labour costs, a large pension obligation, and most of all, their culture which is slow to change(Bickis, 2018).
John Smart states that “futures are blend of Possible, Probably, and Preferable. (2016). Possible contains knowledge management ideation and innovation in the organization on the evolutionary side. Probable contains foresight to deal with risk management to protect and prediction on the develop side. Then, leaders lead people to Preferable future using visioning and strategic planning. Finally, these three components blended each other to define the organization’s future (Smart, 2016). Therefore, when an organization has to change, leaders must have the ability of foresight as well as planning and visioning. Greenleaf also defined foresight is one of the ten abilities which leaders should foster as a servant leader(Northouse, 2018). Addition to it, certain framework is important to produce idea generation for organizations, especially small and medium size of business (Perkins, Lean, & Newbery, 2017).
I think the history of monopoly of Canada post for 200 years caused the deficient of framework of innovation prevent from their flexibility for changes. If I could add something for it is bringing the outside power to innovate because public organizations often hardly have the climate to bring innovation easily.
The change of modern society is so acute and revolutionary that we hardly predict and foresight to plan for the future but we should not forget to put the customer as the most priority following the lesson from Jack Ma (Cited by E-learnig, 2016, June 23) and be flexible to adjust the changes.
Reference
Bickis, I. (2018, November 21,). ‘Canada Post is dying before our eyes’: Strike exposes how postal service has changed in online era. Financial Post. Retrieved from https://business.financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/canada-post-strike-reveals-the-shifting-nature-of-the-postal-service
E-learnig. (2016, June 23). Keys to Success from Jack Ma | Self-Made Billionaire and CEO of Alibaba [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WjHZ5wLe6w
Government of Canada. (2016). Canada Post in the digital age: Discussion paper Retrieved from https://www.tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca/examendepostescanada-canadapostreview/rapport-report/consult-eng.html#a2
Northouse, P. G. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice. (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications
Perkins, G., Lean, J., & Newbery, R. (2017). The Role of Organizational Vision in Guiding Idea Generation within SME Contexts. Creativity and Innovation Management. 26(1), 75-90
Smart, J. M. (2015, April 8). John Smart – Leadership of Tech Change – WFS2013 [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhdWqLNUJns
Hi Hiromi,
Thank you for bringing up such a relevant topic to discuss with today’s current events! I’m with you on your quote where you state that typical barriers to government innovation are caused by “labour costs, a larger pension obligation, and most of all, their culture which is slow to change” (as cited in Hagesawa, 2018). Working in government myself, I also observe these tendencies first-hand. I just want to add that part of the reason why I think this may be the case is because of the lack of outside pressures to demand change from government.
As far as government agencies go, the accountability for their actions or spending habits really are in the hands of the people but I feel that the extent to people’s influence on government affairs are also limited because of the power and job security that comes with government jobs. Often for change to take place, we would have to see drastic efforts from the part of the people in order to get the changes we desire.
On the other hand, business creates conditions for innovation to take place due to the competitive nature that business breeds and the accountability structure that arises from natural business dealings. I would argue that businesses are more accountable for their actions than government because they’re held accountable by the values of their customers. Customers are what drives profit so when businesses aren’t meeting the needs and demands of customers, customers are often able to go elsewhere. Also, the fact that a free market allows for competitors to compete for market share means that businesses must continuously innovate for relevance in the market, or else run the risk of falling behind. This is where we start to see John Smarts’s IMF model come to play where in order for businesses to stay competitive in today’s ultra-competitive marketplace, leaders need to have foresight of the direction of their business and of the environment, must be able to innovate and adapt to change, and also possess a strong management team for the smooth and consistent operation of the business (Smart, 2015).
One of the key takeaways I learned from Jack Ma’s videos was his prioritization of whose needs to satisfy: first it was customers, then employees, and lastly shareholders (E-learning, 2016). His idea was unconventional to me because it was the first time I’ve heard a business prioritize in this manner but influenced me greatly nonetheless because of how sensical it seemed. Jack explained that customers were always number one because they are the people he serves and whom drive the business (E-learning, 2016). Employees were next on the list because they are what makes the business great and actually interact with the main revenue source, the people (E-learning, 2016). Lastly investors were the least prioritized because many won’t stay if things turn sour and they’re needed most, that’s the employees and the customers that the employees serve (E-learning, 2016). Because business leaders like Jack value the satisfaction and opinions of his customers, he ultimately holds himself accountable to them and is driven to innovate and meet their needs.
Going back to Canada Post, I imagine this is what led to their difficulty adapting to change. Because they’ve held a monopoly on postal services for so long, they had little incentive to connect with their customers’ thoughts, opinions, and values. When the technology allowed for other companies to distribute similar services, Canada Post had difficulty responding because they’ve lost touch with their customers’ values. Personally, I don’t feel that Canada Post will be able to recover the setback they’ve suffered from the hands of more efficient and innovative online retailers such as Amazon or Rakuten. Only time will tell if Canada Post is able to reinvent themselves in time to address the changing business environment.
-Ruiz
References
E-learning. (2016, June 23). Keys to Success from Jack Ma | Self-Made Billionaire and CEO of Alibaba [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WjHZ5wLe6w
Hagesawa, H. (2018, November 26). Learning Activity 2 [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://create.twu.ca/papagena163/2018/11/26/learning-activity-2-3/
Smart, J. M. (2015, April 8). John Smart – Leadership of Tech Change – WFS2013 [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhdWqLNUJns