Saturday, January 8, 2011

Donahoe, No Potter Clone, Quickly Making His Mark

With a radical management reorganization, including the break-up of the Intelligent Mail group, new Postmaster General Pat Donahoe showed once again yesterday that he won't just quietly follow in his predecessor's footsteps.

Exactly what the new structure means is not completely clear, but what is clear is that more change is coming.

"Today's actions and announcements are the beginning of a much larger process that will involve every level of the organization, including the closure of some Districts. As we continue our restructuring, we anticipate that Reduction in Force (RIF) and Voluntary Early Retirement (VER) processes will be initiated by the end of the fiscal quarter," Donahoe said in a memo yesterday to top Postal Service executives.

Because Donahoe was the right-hand man for his predecessor, Jack Potter, it was widely assumed that he would just follow in Potter's footsteps. But in addition to yesterday's announcement that includes a 16% reduction in the number of senior executives, the Donahoe-led Postal Service has already revealed an expansion of the Forever stamp concept.

What brought joy to many mailers yesterday was the apparent recognition that the Intelligent Mail program needs a management overhaul. Intelligent Mail has moved into the Information Technology department, with Thomas Day (who was Senior Vice President, Intelligent Mail and Address Quality), nowhere on the new organizational chart.

Perhaps the final straw was Day's recent article for Mailing Systems Technology, in which he made false claims about the use of Intelligent Mail barcodes, including that "both the sender and preparer of a mailing can be kept informed as the mailing is processed all the way to the point of delivery." Tracking an individual mail piece to the point of delivery is only available via the Postal Service's Confirm service, which existed before IM barcodes were implemented.

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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousJanuary 10, 2011 at 11:48 AM

    Donahoe is no different than Potter. Within 3 months of July 2001 Potter desolved the Midwest Area in St Louis. So this action was expected. The Area offices are disruptive to the organization - they create work and micro manage the field to the point of stagnation. The Areas threaten people and the real talent has left the organization. So this move is needed. Now if Pat is really a Change Guy - get rid of ALL the Area Offices. Amen.

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