Strategies to Help Royal Mail Maintain Its Competitiveness - Case Study Example

The paper "Strategies to Help Royal Mail Maintain Its Competitiveness" is a good example of a case study on business. Royal Mail was a government-run mail service provider for many years until its recent privatization. The universal mail service provider was privatized on October 1, 2013, to help improve the efficiency of the company in the provision of services and to ensure competitiveness (Umunna 2013, p. 11). The decision to privatize Royal Mail was prompted by a sharp decline in the number of letters sent via mail services following the increased used by e-mail and internet services. Therefore, to maintain the financial viability of the company, the U.K. government found it necessary to privatize the company in 2013, effectively transferring the ownership and management of the company in the hands of private investors.

Despite the success of the privatization of the company, Royal Mail is not yet off the hook yet and has to deal with a number of challenges in the industry. The biggest challenge that Royal Mail will face is the strong competition in the U.K. postal services. The U.K. postal industry has been very competitive since January 1, 2000, following the move by the Ofcom to open the market to competition (Royal Mail Group Limited 2014). The competitiveness of the postal market went a notch higher following the passage of the Postal Service Act, which lifted a ban on conveying certain mails without a license. In fact, currently, the law gives any U.K. citizen the right to offer postal mail services provided they inform Ofcom of their intention to do so and comply with the law (The Huffington Post 2014, p. 1). This makes the U.K. postal market open to the entry of new competitors, which Royal Mail must be prepared to compete. Presently, the U.K postal market has two forms of competition, namely access competition, and end-to-end competition that Royal Mail has to deal with effectively to maintain a competitive edge. Some of the major postal service providers that Royal Mail must compete against include TNT and British Telecom, all of which have a wide presence throughout the U.K. (Croucher 2014, p. 4). Additionally, Royal Mail also faces indirect competition from the internet and e-mail services, which has resulted in a significant reduction in the number of letters that people send today.

Despite the competitiveness of the postal market in the U.K., Royal Mail there is a number of strategies that the privatized Royal Mail can adopt to maintain its competitiveness. Firstly, to maintain competitiveness, the management of the privatized Royal Mail should focus much on improving the quality of postal services. Currently, the U.K. postal services have many players that offer postal services, which customers can choose (Royal Mail Group Plc 2013; Stanley 2014). Therefore, to draw many customers to the company, the management will have to ensure that the quality of services delivered is beyond reproach. Secondly, the management of the privatized Royal Mail can ensure that the company maintains its competitiveness by charging competitive prices for its stamps. Charging competitive prices will help lure many customers to the company because the industry is currently saturated with competitors (Hope 2013, p. 8). In fact, because the stamp prices are expected to drop to £1 in three next few months, Royal Mail should take advantage of this prediction by making the first shot by dropping its prices. Thirdly, the company can maintain its competitiveness by diversifying its market portfolio beyond mail services. Currently, we live in a digital edge where most communication is done electronically (Parliament 2013). Therefore, the best way for Royal Mail to maintain its competitiveness to diversify its market portfolio by introducing new products and services, such as broadband, emailing and other internet services, just as its major rival British Telecommunication has done. Lastly, Royal Mail can maintain its competitiveness by exploring new market opportunities beyond the U.K. market. This might include expanding the service provision to Africa, Asia, and the Caribbean countries, which present a huge market opportunity for the growth of postal and telecommunication services. Implementing these strategies will no doubt help the privatized Royal Mail maintain its competitiveness in the market.