CORPORATE INTERVIEW
POSTAL CORPORATION OF
KENYA: SUSTAINING RELEVANCE
IN CHANGING TIMES
T
he Post Office is a service
business whose model has
been upended by the many
technological innovations that have
emerged in the recent past and made
most of the revenue streams they
depended on obsolete. The service has
however re-invented itself by adapting
these new technologies and using
them to do their business better.
Marketing Africa Magazine spoke to
Dan Kagwe, Postal Corporation Of
Kenya’s Postmaster General and CEO
on how the Post Office is staying
relevant in a rapidly changing world.
Tell us about the postal business
The postal service begun in the
1800s as a result of the need to
communicate which was driven
more by the progress of urbanization
and movement of people to further
locations. Formally it became
recognized as a United Nations and
human rights concern in the 1800s.
The service has kept improving and
with technology change, the way
mail was delivered changed and
has kept evolving. Initially it was
land then it went to air and sea and
eventually it came to the phone
and modern technology involving
computers which brought email and
the internet. where because of our advantage
of brick and mortar outlets that is
present across the whole country we
have an advantage and have a whole
range of products that covers the
financial and communications areas.
So the postal service is the oldest
communication company in the
world which must change itself to
compete with modern technology.
There has always been the mail that is
delivered via post office with stamps,
money orders, telegrams which have
evolved to the modern technology
based tools. How is the business doing in
comparison to the past and now with
the advent of these new technologies?
The challenge for us and going
forward into the future is to keep
delivering mail, documents and
parcels with the assistance of these
modern tools.
We have innovated and have
introduced a suite of brands that can
take advantage of these technologies
to deliver social and corporate mail,
the courier business which falls
under EMS, the bulk mail service,
the parcel business, agency banking
‘‘ Our courier wing, EMS, which stands for
Expedited Mail Service, is an international
company that operates like any other courier
business such as FedEx, DHL, TNT Express
and others. It falls under the Universal Postal
Union and all countries that are members of the
postal union have the service. It is one of our
fastest growing wings.’’
14 MAL 17/17 ISSUE
Worldwide there is a decline in
social mail which is interpersonal
communications between individuals
because you can now send emails, text
messages, WhatsApp messages from
multi screens including telephones,
laptops, and computers.
Shockingly this ascent of
technologies is happening much
faster in the third world than in the
first world. This is due to the higher
levels of penetration of mobile
phones. The corporate mail business
is also declining because bills like
bank statements are now being sent
via soft copy on mail.
At the same time e-commerce is
now growing because you can order
anything in the world and it is
delivered to your doorstep. So there
could be a drop in the mail section
but a tremendous growth in the
e-commerce business. The future for
the postal business is to build and
further enable the e-commerce line.
Are you into the delivery side of
products or are you planning to also
enter the e-commerce business with a
website and products where purchases
can be made directly from your site?