SUMMERVILLE, S.C., Oct. 21, 2024 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Thomas Padlan-Malm, an American Postal Workers Union presidential candidate, has launched “If I Were Postmaster General” ( ifiwerepostmastergeneral.com ) to exhibit the strategic thinking and planning mistakes most make. The union advocate uses the United States Postal Service’s activities from 2019 to 2024 as a case study to show a cascade of common strategic planning flaws.
Photo caption: Thomas Padlan-Malm for APWU President.
“The baseline I use for gauging Delivering for America’s success is 2019,” Padlan-Malm says. He notes that the Fiscal Year results in 2019 posted $8.8 billion in losses caused entirely by unrealistic pricing restrictions and arbitrary funding requirements imposed by the elected lawmakers in the United States Congress. Padlan-Malm emphasizes, “These causes were removed through the April 2022 Postal reforms, leaving no blame for future losses on those we elect.”
“In 2024, the American mail delivery system posted a $6.1 billion loss in the first three quarters of Fiscal 2024. Added to the $6.5 billion in losses during Fiscal 2023, Delivering for America has delivered $13 billion in losses during years in which breakeven financial performance was expected,” Padlan-Malm states. “These losses are mystifying when noting that none of the Congressionally inflicted impediments managed before 2022 existed during these last two years.”
Beyond financial failure, in 2019, first-class letter mail arrived on time 92% of the time within three days in the continental United States. In December 2022, Padlan-Malm informed leadership that the on-time delivery achievement for First-Class letters has only approached the 92% baseline score of 2019 through “enhancements” of delivery results (despite 18% more grace). Padlan-Malm informed them of a “Metrics Enhancement” program launched in Philadelphia at the start of the Fiscal Year 2022. This program ordered letter carriers to bring undelivered letter mail, sale flyers, and periodicals back to the post office when package delivery volume was too great to manage.
“When reassigned to South Carolina, I saw the policy was not isolated to the Philadelphia District. I explained this to Chairperson Roman Martinez and President Biden in letters sent in December 2022.” It was not Padlan-Malm’s first communication with Postal Service leaders.
When the ten-year plan DELIVERING FOR AMERICA was launched in 2021, a cover letter accompanying Padlan-Malm’s alternative approach to planning was sent to Postal Board of Governors Chairperson Ron Bloom. Padlan-Malm cited the “dearth” of consumer product experience among the Postal Board of Governors. Copies were mailed to key decision makers from the White House to Capitol Hill and all postal governors and Regulators.
The website will show that in 2021, the job-defending union member predicted no success for the plan. To Chairperson Bloom he wrote, “Unfortunately, lessons learned from investment banking, trucking logistics, union advocacy, and contract manufacturing apply to the strategic planning needs of the citizen-owned United States Postal Service with the same value as one’s accrued success in the game Rock, Paper, Scissors.” The labor union presidential candidate said, “Like the schoolyard game, we can expect the whole of this plan to succeed with similar probability (34%).”
In 2022, when Mr. Bloom was replaced as Chairperson of the Postal Board of Governors, Padlan-Malm offered MISSION POSSIBLE: A PLAN TO ASSURE ENDURING RELEVANCE TO THE UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE to the third Chairperson to preside over Postmaster General DeJoy’s strategy in as many years. He also shared the ideas with President Joe Biden, asking to be appointed to the Postal Board of Governors to help fill this critical planning experience gap among its members. This correspondence is shared on the website, including the reply from the Postal Board of Governors on behalf of the Chairperson, Roman Martinez.
From his earlier career in the private industry (where he wrote strategies that elevated Brother International to be the only consumer typewriter company from among its competitors to thrive four decades later), Padlan-Malm shares tactical marketing tools that expand and sustain success. From other experiences as a mail-service-dependent Vice President of Marketing for South Carolina’s busiest COD shipper in the 1990s and his current role as a postal clerk serving the diminished values of American mail delivery since 2020, Padlan-Malm discusses the overlooked consequences that can come when the central problems are not mitigated. “The core of my plan has been to create better bosses and a think-like-owners mentality among the workforce.
“ZIP Code by ZIP Code, from the mailbox through the workforce, I know that success can only come from being important to Americans. This depends on leaders who understand the needs of the American people and the motivations of the postal workers who serve them daily,” Padlan-Malm says.
The website, https://www.ifiwerepostmastergeneral.com/, shares what Padlan-Malm would have done differently between 2019 and 2024 if he had been Postmaster General.
Padlan-Malm adds, “If I were leading America’s mail system, I would do it knowing the hurt I see in the businesses that depend on the U.S. mail today. I would understand the reciprocity laws as they apply to the DELIVERING FOR AMERICA and the Postal Service’s increasing inability to hire and keep customers and new employees.”
Padlan-Malm declared himself a candidate for his labor union office to expand his opportunity to discuss proper planning from the mistakes most businesses make when creating strategy.
MULTIMEDIA:
Photo link for media: https://www.Send2Press.com/300dpi/24-1021-s2p-Padlan-Malm-300dpi.jpg
Photo caption: Thomas Padlan-Malm for APWU President.
News Source: Thomas Padlan-Malm
