UPS, Leader in Shipping and a Leader in Learning

This article will cover the best company experience that I had when visiting China. I will cover why UPS was not only the best, but also the most insightful company to learn from.

As with every trip that IBS has to offer, our tour to China included meeting with multiple companies and picking their employees brains on how to work with the Chinese markets. Some of the companies included in our tour were Ernst and Young, Grant Thornton and UPS. As great as some of the other presentations were, UPS stood head and shoulders above the competition. The delegation that met with us were very hospitable, knowledgeable and simply fun to hang out with.
The UPS employees that hosted us were led by Echo and Scott. I honestly doubt that UPS could have found two better representatives for their company to interact with our tour. They joked around that because they held the #1 and #2 accounts within the company, Apple for Echo and HP for Scott, that was why they were selected. To be fair, there seems to be some truth to that statement.
A fun fact about China is that they tend to plan 10, 15, even 30 years in advance for most every project they have. UPS adheres to a similar time frame since it helps them stay competitive in and ever-changing delivery market. Echo and Scott were able to both answer all questions asked and provide a detailed, in-depth reasoning behind those answers. They were knowledgeable about the future of the company since that is how many Chinese companies operate.
As a nation that is continuing to develop a stronger transportation system, China is looking to reestablish the Silk Road. The Silk Road in ancient times was the trade route from China to Rome and all nations in between. Many companies and governments will be interested in using this new resource to expedite the transportation of goods across Asia and beyond. Yet with how productive UPS has been over the last 20 years, they will not be as reliant on the Silk Road as others might be.
Based off of the presentation that Echo and Scott showed us, we were able to see some of UPS’s distribution channels. These routes are so extensive that it would have taken years of planning and years of implementation to get them to the extent they are at today. Even with the Silk Road making its way back, UPS is already well situated within the distribution market. This preparedness will help keep them as a top option to ship within China and all across the globe.
As part of the presentation, our group was led on a tour of the UPS facility. During the tour, many of the processes were explained to us about how the inner workings of a supply hub operate. As we were walking around Scott and I shared experiences and got to know each other better. He went above and beyond what a host would have to do, and I appreciated the opportunity to get to know more about the people we were learning from.
I was such a pleasure to learn from this company since they offered such a detailed view on the inner workings of UPS. Not many companies are as prepared or even willing to offer up such a display. It helps that the presentation was done by a prepared and intuitive group of UPS employees. That is what truly made the difference. UPS could have been very boring without Echo and Scott leading the charge.
All of this is made possible due to IBS and I will always be grateful for the opportunity.