QUESTIONS 1. If you had to identify one of those companies as excellent, which company would you choose? On what basis did you make your decision? More generally, what is excellence in business?

2. Prepare to describe in class the competition in the overnight package delivery industry, and the strategies by which those two firms are meeting the competition. What are the enabling and inhibiting factors facing the two firms as they pursue their goals? Do you think that either firm can attain a sustainable competitive advantage in this business?

Competition in the express delivery Market
The $45billion US domestic delivery market could be categorized into 2 segments. These consisted of letters weighing 0 to 2 pounds, …show more content…

The company acted as a market maker in its own shares, buying or selling shares at fair market value determined by the board of directors each quarter. In November 1999 UPS initiated a 2 for 1 stock split, whereby the company exchanged each existing UPS share for two Class A shares. The company then sold 109.4 million newly created Class B shares on the NYSE in an IPO. Class shares were convertible to Class B and could be traded or sold accordingly. Both shares has the same economic interest, however class A shares had 10 votes per shares while class B shares were entitled to one.
Until the stock split and IPO in 1999, the financially and operationally conservative company had been perceived as slow and plodding. Although larger than FedEx UPS had not chosen to compete directly in the overnight delivery.
After going public UPS initiated an aggressive series of acquisitions, beginning with a Miami based freight carrier operating in Latin America and franchise based chain of stores providing packing, shipping and mail services called Mail boxes with more than 4300 domestic and international locations.
The UPS of the new millennium was the product of extensive re-engineering efforts and revitalized business focus. While the company had traditionally been the industry’s low-cost provider, in recent years the company had been investing