Richard Evan postulated that "Very few organizations recognize and act on the premise that to succeed a company must position itself not only for operational excellence, but also to distinguish itself by being seen to be better and different from the competitors. That is the essence of branding and marketing’’.
The Nigerian postal system has the mandate for the posting, receipt, sorting, handling, transmission or delivery of mail. Post office also offers mail related services such as post office boxes, postage and pack- aging supplies and other sundry services.
But with development in courier business in the developed world which saw the business evolve from the late mid 60’s which would be said to be the beginning of modern courier industry in Europe to the 70s which impressed improvement in communication. NIPOST veered off into Express mail delivery through its EMS Speedpost to keep afloat in business as the point of activity changed from not just sending a mail but security and urgency became the issues.
The usual surface mail could not guarantee the security of goods even as speed was nonexistent. The registered mail was also cumbersome.
The 80’ witnessed the boom years for the courier industry. Many new companies started up in the UK with a growing demand for new services. The era gave birth to early courier companies in Nigeria.
The 1990’s brought improvement in Information Technology and mergers of companies in Europe. The need for training also crept in as couriers needed top level skills to compete in the gathering market. Many local entrepreneurs who were former employees of the multinational courier firms set up local companies with delivery capabilities.
The bottom line is that competition in the postal sector in Nigeria has become fiercer and NIPOST a quasi- government agency to still remain relevant in the system must adopt strategies to do so.
In the emerging development, NIPOST management has discovered that marketing is important in the new dispensation and has done much in making financial and material resources available to the Marketing Department to enable it use the money among other things in organizing seminar and other events where participants would brainstorm and rub minds to deploy modern marketing strategies and other innovative ideas to take the organisation to newer heights.
Such deliberation in the past had covered issues of quality of service of products, product development and re-packaging, bartering through Public Private Partnership (PPP) process, the post-cash, Airport Express, Repackaging of Postal Office Boxes, etc.
The essence of the whole re-engineering effort is to help the outfit achieve financial goals in order to make the organization become a viable and independent entity.
On product development and acquisition, Osadolor Eboigbodin, senior assistant postmaster general (marketing) of NIPOST had during the first marketing officers three -day conference held in Jos, Plateau State mentioned that with the gradual acquisition of ICT infrastructural facilities by the organisation that new products were being developed while old ones were being repackaged largely through Public Private Partnership (PPP) process. He mentioned post cash as already being introduced as part of e-services deployed by the organisation and also hinted that post cash was about introducing Post Office Cash cards into the market.
Part of the new face of NIPOST also included the drive to re-engineer the work force to adapt to the changing postal market that can meet new demands and enhance competition.
Some of these strategies are already yielding positive results. It therefore was not unexpected when Mallam Ibrahim Mori Baba, postmaster general announced during last year’s Pan African Post Day in Abuja that between October and December last year the new NIPOST staff intercepted letters and parcels containing various international currencies and passports, digital cameras and high grade GSM handsets.
In the windfall according to report, over 400 scam letters and parcels which were for shipment to Britain, Germany, France, China, Japan, Russia, Canada and the US were intercepted through the track, trace and scan exercise carried out by NIPOST.
The interception saved the country the further tarnish of her image.
Now that Nipost is responding to demands of the time, the organization should make sure that it doesn’t revert to the old ways of doing business. All hands should therefore be on deck to realize making Nipost a profitable venture.