Postal Industry looks to the future with special Focus on Innovation
The need for fresh thinking in the postal sector has never been greater, especially in driving innovation to meet the evolving demands of consumer and business customers. This was the main finding to emerge from the first annual ‘Trends and Innovation in the Postal Market (TIP)’ conference that took place 13-14 September in Lausanne.
The high-level two-day conference saw leading players in the postal industry look to the future with a sharpened focus on driving innovation within the sector, and gathered some 100 delegates from the postal sector, industry and business, regulatory bodies and international organisations. Contributors included leading figures from Post operators, consultancies, academia, the European Commission and the UPU.
Working sessions of the conference covered topics from innovative pricing to the concept of ‘open innovation’, and how to manage such innovation across postal and logistics markets. The conference specifically addressed the major challenges facing the mail market, and examined how innovative solutions could be critical in addressing and overcoming these: key among these was the focus on the different types of e-services which Posts could look to developing for business and consumer customers alike. A further topic of discussion was the need for innovative thinking in the regulation of the postal sector, in view of declining mail volumes and the transformation of Posts’ business models.
Commenting on the outcomes of the conference, International Post Corporation (IPC) CEO and President Herbert-Michael Zapf reiterated the importance of innovation across the sector, including on the regulatory side: “Too often regulators have tended to a fixed-target approach to market liberalization, which has meant reapportioning ever-smaller slices of an already-declining cake. Posts will of course need to innovate, rework business models and develop new revenue streams in order to guarantee their long-term viability, and regulators that adopt innovative thinking to encourage smart rules that help increase the size of the cake for all market players will play a critical role in supporting the industry”.
Chair of Management of Network Industries (MIR) at EPFL Professor Dr. Matthias Finger said of the first TIP conference: “This conference marks a new departure from others in the postal sector in that its focus is specifically on looking forward and innovating for the future. We need to ensure that the industry remains focused on innovation in these tough times, and that is why we are making this conference an annual fixture for the sector.”
The TIP conference was jointly organized by the International Post Corporation (IPC) and EPFL, and took place on the EPFL campus. To support the innovation drive within the postal industry, the annual IPC-EPFL TIP conference will allow delegates from within the postal industry and beyond can come to discuss progress and set priorities for the future.