“The Commission finds that the Postal Service has shown the recent recession to be an exigent circumstance but it has failed both to quantify the impact of the recession on its finances and to show how its rate request relates to the resulting loss of mail volume; therefore, we unanimously deny its exigent rate request,”

The PRC noted that in 2009 the USPS created and fulfilled cost-reduction measures to save over $6 billion. Per the PRC “these results indicate that the Price Cap is working and providing the right signals for the Postal Service to reduce costs and improve efficiency.” They also mention that although the $6 billion in cost reductions were less than the resulting revenue loss of the volume decline in 2009, the USPS cost reduction plans are “producing results and work hours have declined faster than volumes in 2010.”

Postmaster General Jack Potter released a statement shortly after the ruling citing his disappointment in the ruling but applauding the PRC for acknowledging the large-scale financial risk brought on by the drop in mail volume and the mandated prefunding of Retiree Health Benefits. The USPS will now turn its attention to even more cost-reduction strategies, new product offerings, and legislation to address its mandated financial obligations.

How is optimization being applied in new and innovative ways today?  One way is known as cloud services.  What are cloud services, you might ask?  Here’s an example:  Say you’re a small business owner with a chance to take on a project for a large client; much larger than you’re used to.  You require a huge amount of additional server capacity to handle the storage, analysis, and interpretation of the client’s data.  In the past, the only way to secure the business may have been to invest heavily in expensive hardware and personnel to install, maintain, and upgrade it.  Today, there are cloud providers that store the hardware and employ the personnel at their locations which their customers can then remotely connect to.  In our small business owner’s situation, he may simply contact a cloud services provider, obtain the exact resources he needs, and complete his client’s project.  Once he goes above and beyond for his client and secures regular business, the small business owner may decide to make the capital investments necessary to have his own servers necessary for the work.  And guess what, he’s already got a consultant contact for such a purchase.  A more in-depth look at options and capabilities for cloud services was written by IBM here.

How could flexibility in your IT department help you?  How could your valuable, skilled IT workers better be applied locally if they were freed up from ‘just’ backing up hard-drives?  It might make more sense than you’d think to find out and see what cloud services can do for your firm.  And hey, while we’re at it, maybe we’ll do away with the negative connotation of the statement ‘he has his head in the clouds’ once and for all.

This year, St. Nick and his elves are going wireless.  Did your son just mention how much he loved Ironman 2 walking out of the movie theater?  Get on Amazon.com’s app and pre-order it, pay for it, and be done.  Know that your husband has always wanted his very own deluxe grill?  Use a barcode scanner app in the store and search for the lowest prices around town.  As I have written before, mobile apps are becoming ever more popular, prevalent, and easy to use.

I envision folks using mobile apps to streamline their brick and mortar shopping trips.  This is especially important on a day like Black Friday, where nerves are frayed and time seems increasingly short.  I see a world where consumers can use their mobile devices to compare prices for a specific product on the fly and decide where to spend their time in line to get the best deal.  Since companies are developing apps to be ready for Black Friday this year, customers can expect yet another avenue to receive notifications, deals and coupons for the products they are most interested in (i.e. from stores they have specifically downloaded apps from).

Mobile commerce continues to grow in scope and application, so get with the movement!  Oh, and feel free to bring your Zubaz, too.

What does this all mean?  Essentially it means that there are more ways than ever for people to meet, converse, argue, stay updated, and of course, shop.  Want to check your bank balance?  Download your bank’s app.  Feel like watching the replay of Landon Donovan’s golden goal?  Use your favorite sports site and watch on the go.  Prefer to stay ahead of the crowd and get first crack at a new seasonal lineup?  Go ahead and grab the Tommy Hilfiger Mobile Storefront app.  The world is seemingly at our fingertips like never before.  Major retailers are taking this trend seriously, and are responding with capital investments into mobile marketing (M-Commerce) to take full advantage of the general public’s desire to be able to perform all of their daily tasks; even when not at a computer or physical storefront.

J.C. Penney, for example, has set goals of increasing their internet revenue by 40% over the next 5 years.  An essential component of the marketing mix to achieve their goal is the development of ‘full-scale mobile commerce technology’ including ‘more couponing and support multiple wireless device operating systems, including iPhone and Android.’  This technology will ‘also feature full shopping cart capability and ratings and reviews.’  Basically, you will be able to buy a new pair of shorts while on the subway, riding in the passenger seat of a car (no web-surfing while driving!) or lying on the beach.

One could envision using your smartphone as a coupon book in the way that one can use their smartphone as a boarding pass.  Simply scroll to the coupon you wish to use and have the cashier scan the unique barcode on the device.  This way, you would not be able to use the coupon more than intended and wouldn’t have to keep a pile of clippings in your purse, wallet, or pocket.  Ease of use will be key in the growth of these M-Commerce marketing channels and it will be exciting to see what the different retailers come up with.

The future certainly seems to become the present awfully quick these days, and before long, it appears that the only thing missing from your mobile shopping experience will be an app that shows how good you look in your new pair of shorts.

Some KPIs are easy to identify and are publicly available.  Baseball players, for example, have hundreds of thousands of fantasy sports fanatics checking their KPIs every day.  Batting average, home runs, and runs batted in are a simple KPI that we may see every day but not realize what it is exactly we are looking at.  Large firms will announce their quarterly goals for earnings per share on their publicly traded stocks and an easy way to assess success or failure of that firm is whether or not they met, exceeded, or fell below their announced goals.

KPIs can be on as large of a scale as a nation’s GDP or on as small of a scale as customer response cards received at your local bookstore.  The important thing to remember is that whatever aspect of your business you are measuring, you have to pre-determine your parameters and goals within those parameters; you should not create a KPI to make your existing data look good!

So what are your KPIs?  What are you measuring that allows you to gauge your business’ performance?  Have you had this discussion with your team?  If not, try an impromptu meeting and ask what your team feels their department’s KPIs are.  You may find that you have important KPIs that you’re not measuring that you should be.  And as we all know, if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it!