Comments on: India Post: Innovation In An 150-yr Old Organization http://www.adospados.com/2008/04/15/india-post-innovation-in-an-150-yr-old-organization/ Around and About Entertainment, Media, Technology, Business and India Sat, 12 Dec 2009 14:05:40 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 By: Rama Sadasivan http://www.adospados.com/2008/04/15/india-post-innovation-in-an-150-yr-old-organization/comment-page-1/#comment-201 Rama Sadasivan Thu, 17 Apr 2008 02:51:20 +0000 http://www.adospados.com/2008/04/15/india-post-innovation-in-an-150-yr-old-organization/#comment-201 Ron, thanks for the additional info and best wishes for the venture. Ron, thanks for the additional info and best wishes for the venture.

]]> By: Ron http://www.adospados.com/2008/04/15/india-post-innovation-in-an-150-yr-old-organization/comment-page-1/#comment-200 Ron Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:09:08 +0000 http://www.adospados.com/2008/04/15/india-post-innovation-in-an-150-yr-old-organization/#comment-200 Hi Rama, Snail mail volume on a global basis is rising, albeit at a very slowed rate. First Class mail is declining 1%-4% per year depending on the country but advertising mail is generally on the rise, especially in developing countries. In Canada, for example, ad mail is rising over 6% per year. I was surprised to learn that India's mail mix is already 20% advertising mail, for example (it is over 50% in the U.S. on average; and if you earn $100K a year than it can easily be over 80%). Regardless of whether snail mail as a whole is rising or declining in any particular country, there are still 435 billion pieces of it delivered by 9 million workers every year, typically wearing the uniform of the largest employer in their respective countries. India Post, btw, has 515,000 employees to deliver 1 billion pieces of mail per year. The US enjoys automation investment and scale economies - USPS delivers 212 billion pieces of mail per year with "only" 800,000 employees. Our typical customer has already gone paperless with as many mailers as possible before they signed up for Earth Class Mail service, but they cannot control everyone who sends them mail, hence the opportunity for our service. Same goes for enterprise, military, and government customers. We seek to help the world convert to paperless faster, not slower... but Step One is to get them to move their paper mail to an online, electronic platform, so that the incentive and the connection point is there for more mailers to switch to secured electronic document delivery. This also allows them to increase recycling to nearly 100% versus the national average of 20%-30% rate. Cheers, Ron Wiener CEO & Postmaster General www.earthclassmail.com Hi Rama,

Snail mail volume on a global basis is rising, albeit at a very slowed rate. First Class mail is declining 1%-4% per year depending on the country but advertising mail is generally on the rise, especially in developing countries. In Canada, for example, ad mail is rising over 6% per year. I was surprised to learn that India’s mail mix is already 20% advertising mail, for example (it is over 50% in the U.S. on average; and if you earn $100K a year than it can easily be over 80%).

Regardless of whether snail mail as a whole is rising or declining in any particular country, there are still 435 billion pieces of it delivered by 9 million workers every year, typically wearing the uniform of the largest employer in their respective countries. India Post, btw, has 515,000 employees to deliver 1 billion pieces of mail per year. The US enjoys automation investment and scale economies – USPS delivers 212 billion pieces of mail per year with “only” 800,000 employees.

Our typical customer has already gone paperless with as many mailers as possible before they signed up for Earth Class Mail service, but they cannot control everyone who sends them mail, hence the opportunity for our service. Same goes for enterprise, military, and government customers. We seek to help the world convert to paperless faster, not slower… but Step One is to get them to move their paper mail to an online, electronic platform, so that the incentive and the connection point is there for more mailers to switch to secured electronic document delivery. This also allows them to increase recycling to nearly 100% versus the national average of 20%-30% rate.

Cheers,
Ron Wiener
CEO & Postmaster General
http://www.earthclassmail.com

]]> By: Rama Sadasivan http://www.adospados.com/2008/04/15/india-post-innovation-in-an-150-yr-old-organization/comment-page-1/#comment-199 Rama Sadasivan Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:27:50 +0000 http://www.adospados.com/2008/04/15/india-post-innovation-in-an-150-yr-old-organization/#comment-199 Ron, thanks for stopping by and update on the follow-up meeting with Indian Post. I'd be curious to learn if Snail Mail is indeed a growing market, as online substitutes become more common? Ron, thanks for stopping by and update on the follow-up meeting with Indian Post. I’d be curious to learn if Snail Mail is indeed a growing market, as online substitutes become more common?

]]> By: Vijay Anand http://www.adospados.com/2008/04/15/india-post-innovation-in-an-150-yr-old-organization/comment-page-1/#comment-198 Vijay Anand Wed, 16 Apr 2008 07:13:21 +0000 http://www.adospados.com/2008/04/15/india-post-innovation-in-an-150-yr-old-organization/#comment-198 Well, I am actually quite surprised and glad to know that a government entity is actually trying something new. As with all new ventures, one crucial element is the ability to try something radical and stick to it - long enough for the adoption curve to pick up. And that's something that the government can do quite well. In India today, broadband is an issue, but dialup connections are available anywhere and everywhere. There is a single unified number across the country, and as long as you have a landline with BSNL you can connect. Even more spiffier is the fact that GPRS over Mobile is dirt cheap and offer a pretty okay connection. Who knows, with the right mix, and especially if India post collaborates with the BSNL Mobile operator, they could do wonders. Well, I am actually quite surprised and glad to know that a government entity is actually trying something new. As with all new ventures, one crucial element is the ability to try something radical and stick to it – long enough for the adoption curve to pick up. And that’s something that the government can do quite well.

In India today, broadband is an issue, but dialup connections are available anywhere and everywhere. There is a single unified number across the country, and as long as you have a landline with BSNL you can connect. Even more spiffier is the fact that GPRS over Mobile is dirt cheap and offer a pretty okay connection.

Who knows, with the right mix, and especially if India post collaborates with the BSNL Mobile operator, they could do wonders.

]]> By: Ron http://www.adospados.com/2008/04/15/india-post-innovation-in-an-150-yr-old-organization/comment-page-1/#comment-196 Ron Wed, 16 Apr 2008 04:32:04 +0000 http://www.adospados.com/2008/04/15/india-post-innovation-in-an-150-yr-old-organization/#comment-196 Ramakrishnan, Thanks for writing about Earth Class Mail and the Startup Junkies episode. What the 30 seconds of footage on our encounter with India Post executives in our booth at PostExpo doesn't expound upon is the dinner we had that evening with India Post's management team, and Rajeev Dujari's (our VP of Product Management) trip to New Delhi which followed. Their interest was in the context of enterprise accounts like Microsoft and Accenture who have large offices in places like Delhi and Bangalore - not for the average citizen. The whole country only gets 1 billion pieces of mail a year... you can do the math. Many posts around the world offer digital mail services to enterprise customers... several billions dollars a year worth of such services. We have not moved forward on India at this time because there are several countries with much larger mail volumes who also engaged with us later on, and so we are focused on getting these (geographically closer) European posts going first. While we're not a "startup" anymore we still have to be judicious in allocated limited resources where there's the greatest leverage today. So far, so good :-) Glad you enjoy the show, and thanks again for writing about it. Cheers, Ron Ramakrishnan,
Thanks for writing about Earth Class Mail and the Startup Junkies episode. What the 30 seconds of footage on our encounter with India Post executives in our booth at PostExpo doesn’t expound upon is the dinner we had that evening with India Post’s management team, and Rajeev Dujari’s (our VP of Product Management) trip to New Delhi which followed. Their interest was in the context of enterprise accounts like Microsoft and Accenture who have large offices in places like Delhi and Bangalore – not for the average citizen. The whole country only gets 1 billion pieces of mail a year… you can do the math. Many posts around the world offer digital mail services to enterprise customers… several billions dollars a year worth of such services.

We have not moved forward on India at this time because there are several countries with much larger mail volumes who also engaged with us later on, and so we are focused on getting these (geographically closer) European posts going first. While we’re not a “startup” anymore we still have to be judicious in allocated limited resources where there’s the greatest leverage today.

So far, so good :-)

Glad you enjoy the show, and thanks again for writing about it.

Cheers,
Ron

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