Project Report from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Operations Research, grade: A, The University of Liverpool, course: BA, language: English, abstract: The prevailing difficult business environment has adversely affected companies and institutions performances globally. Business entities are forced to devise innovative counter measures to curb negative effects of such difficult economic environment. Majority of companies are embarking on techniques of cutting down operational costs with the main aim of boosting overall performance. This hardly achieved as the adverse business environment has impacted on pushing up operational costs due to effects of inflation and desire for hire wages among employees. This means that, any attempts to lower operational costs will impact on reduced service level and consequently overall performance will have to decline. Attempts to raise price with the main aim of boosting revenues is also not realistic in the prevailing business environment. Customers will simply buy from competitor companies or alternatively use substitute goods and services. This due to the fact that, similarly to companies, consumers have also been affected by the difficult economic conditions and are always looking of ways of minimizing their expenses. Therefore, the targeted profit maximization objective is hardly achieved. To survive in such an environment, it is prudent to deploy alternative innovative techniques which will boost overall revenues and lower the cost without undermining the service level. It is also critical to transform public institutions to business entities. This is challenging and requires proper research on the market trends and full management dedication. This can be achieved through application of strategic management and selection which will ensure only the most optimal decisions are made. This paper explores US Postal service case as it strives to sustain business operations. Appropriate measures which can reverse the negative performance trend are also discussed. Introd
