Name: UPS CEO On Leading The Shipper's Overhaul: 'Moving Forward Fast'
Uploaded: 2019-12-19
Duration: 7 min 13 s
Description: The 112-year-old company is going through a massive transformation and tech makeover that also includes delivery drones.

[ MUSIC ] David a lot of people didn't expect that you would be the one to decide that it's time for UPS to go through a major transformation, afterall you're a major timer at UPS, you've been at the company for 40 years, How did you become the change agent? What clicked? It was clear to me that the business environment had changed and was gonna change even more so. We have this 112 year history and we're very proud of our past and our present. I just knew our future was not gonna be as bright as our past if we didn't embrace the times. And it meant that, once again, we wanna transform our business, we're gonna have to do things differently. But we were gonna seize the opportunities, versus trying to push things, and trying to keep status quo. Well, when you announced the plan to spend $ 20 billion to modernize your facilities, to add new airplanes and buy new technology, you told Your employees at UPS that they need to change drastically. What's the rush? We just don't have time. The world's changing so much. So if we measure ourselves based on a speed that we have done in the past, it's just still going to be too late. So we talked about moving forward fast. And then we're going to have to do things in a much quicker timeframe that we're going to have to embrace technology. We want to be on the leading edge of technology and not waiting until it's tried and proven because it can be outdated if you do that. So it's really about timeliness, is about embracing the times. Is about opening it up to various points of view to make sure we're going in the right direction. Yeah everybody's talking about the urgency and the pace of change. So you've been at UPS for four decades. How would you compare the timing of the changes you are doing now compared to a few years ago or a decade ago? The pace of the boy business is changing, it's just exponential compared to what it was. And so we can't think if we can only go 20 % faster. We've got to be looking at much much bigger waves so you just. It means sometimes you're going to fail. It means sometimes you're not going to have all the answers when you make a decision. But if you wait until you have all the answers and the decision, there's gotta be an outdated decision, and it'd be to late. Well, your company is huge, your 500, 000 employees and they're all around the world. So, how do you get the speed of change with everybody spread out? Our people want to embrace the feature. They want to be a part of something that they see is going to have a bright, positive future. We just have to continue to say the same message over and over again. And we really focus on our strategy, which is customer first. Everything we do has to be run around the customer. Led by people, almost 500, 000 people they play an important role. And then driven by innovation, because if you're not innovative in today's world you're not going to compete .>> And you made some key leadership changes. You created the position of. To really try to bring about dramatic change transformation. That'd be much better off to take one someone outside this already done this once or twice, and then have them work with us and lead us through. So I was convinced it's going to take a different perspective It has proven to be the right decision and it's, we are really right on track with where we want to be. So it looks like there are some big flashy changes to UPS. You recently got the okay to operate a fleet of commercial drones nationwide. You beat out companies like FedEx and Amazon for it. Tell us why this is a big win for ups. One of our strategic imperatives is healthcare and Life Sciences. We could see drones was going to be a big, big part of this. We knew there would be a lot of people competing for this first license. We felt like we should take the lead. We have an airline. We understand the importance of safety and F. A. A. guidelines. And so it was a challenge that we gave under transformation. And we were the first to get this license and now we want to make sure that we're the first to implement it. And we're already doing commercial flights over 1500 as we speak. We will continue to expand. You're doing commercial flights mostly for healthcare facilities and institutions like that. Right? That's right. We are already testing know along with one of our partners C- B- S actually doing residential deliveries from a C- B- S and have like a pharmaceutical prescription. To someone's home or to a retirement village, those types of things. So the future is going to be more and more along these kinds of lines. But you are moving so quickly. So how long is it gonna be before we get UPS drone deliveries at our homes? We're gonna have to see, How long it takes for the regulations to be finalized, we're hoping within the next year. We also expect someday that a package driver, with a drone docking station at the top of the car in drones constantly moving in and out of the car, with the driver in charge. Is gonna be a model of the future too, so we're real excited. So we're entering into a new decade. How do you want people to describe UPS ten years from now? 2030 seems like a long time away, but it's really not. We will be much more widespread throughout the US, throughout the US and the rest of the world. And so you'll see that as a change. And there will be industry specific verticals that we really concentrate on. Healthcare and life sciences is one of those, there will be others. So it's really following our strategy and our forced strategic imperatives, And then making sure that we keep the customer first in each of these areas. And David, what about your legacy? You started working at UPS right out of college. You were loading packages onto a truck. And little by little, you went up all the steps until you became CEO. What do you want people to say about your legacy? What I'm proudest of is the fact that we are embracing the changes that are coming and I couldn't be any prouder of where we are and where we're going to be and just thrilled to be a part of that. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

UPS CEO On Leading The Shipper's Overhaul: "Moving Forward Fast"

Leadership

The tech makeover includes delivery drones. 

UPS CEO On Leading The Shipper's Overhaul

The 112-year-old company is going through a massive transformation and tech makeover that also includes delivery drones.