Why does UPS exist?
Obviously UPS cannot exist without share owners, employees and customers. The question is not how does UPS exist or what makes it work or who is more important.
Why does UPS or any other business exist? What is the purpose?
a) to serve the needs and desires of it's customers
b) to serve the needs and desires of it's employees (hourly and management)
c) to serve the needs and desires of the owners or share owners
d) something else
Check out the concept of a balanced scorecard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_scorecard
Looks like you had 3 of the 4 right. You needed to include focusing on increasing internal efficiency as well.
However, a company exists to make money above all else and each item is a means to that.
-Serving the needs of customers leads to (theoretically) more customers which results in more sales of whatever it is you are selling.(In UPS's case, service)
-Serving the needs of employees allows you to recruit and retain good employees. Despite what UPS upper management seems to think, YOU HAVE TO HAVE GOOD EMPLOYEES to be successful long term. GOOD EMPLOYEES are where innovation and good ideas come from. Innovation is what sets you apart and ahead from competition.
-Serving the needs of owners is a requirement because otherwise the owner of the capital takes their money and goes elsewhere. In the case of the stock market and being public, the stock price would plummet and someone would buy enough shares for a take over, change the BOD, and then change the management committee.
-Improving internal processes helps to save money and make you more efficient. You have to focus on this since everyone else is also doing the same.
To ignore any of these factors is to set yourself up for failure long term. You can crap all over customers by suddenly lowering quality while charging the same price (which would give BIG PROFITS) but you wont have customers much longer. You can crap all over employees by lowering their wage and treating them like crap to make your short term profits higher (sound familiar? ) but you wont have good employees for long and then when it comes time to innovate and implement you'll only have morons which will lead to a quick downward spiral of your company. You can also crap all over stock holders, but sooner or later a hostile takeover will happen or the BOD will get replaced with someone that WILL take care of stock holders.
This is all taught in every business school in the nation. I've no idea why UPS upper management has decided to ignore this and treat its employees badly, the company is already seeing the brightest of its workers leave to go help other businesses.
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