10 Businesses That Failed to Adapt

This once illustrious organization is led by our Postmaster General, and was started back in the days of the Revolutionary War with Benjamin Franklin as its head. Unfortunately the US Postal Service just doesn’t make money anymore, and has been burning through cash for years. After several defaults on debt, and a scarily low cash flow (around the Government shutdown last year the USPS only had around 5 days worth of operational costs available), it’s obvious that the government isn’t letting the USPS shut down. That doesn’t mean that some major adaptation doesn’t need to go on. With UPS and a growing reliance on non-physical communication, first-class mail revenue is down 30% since 2007, and expected to drop a further 40% by the year 2020. While the agency pioneered many new mail delivery and organizational techniques (think the first national mail system, the pony express, or air mail), currently 80% of its costs are tied up in labor compensation, a much higher rate than FedEx or UPS. Some innovation needs to happen, or we need to suck it up and continue to let our beloved service leave its debt obligations unfulfilled.