New National Post CEO Talks to MIM-Kyiv Community
05 April 2017
Mr. Ihor Smilansky, the newly appointed CEO for the Ukrposhta (National Post Services) shared his vision of bringing the organization up-to-date.
Although bringing in today’s world governmentally owned obsolete company which has been in red for ages is a challenge, so far Mr. Smilansky can boast numerous achievements ranging from boosting up the traffic volume and improving trecking to partnering with Alibaba Group and launching eCommerce projects. Customers have already experienced the improvements: 78% of letters and parcels in Kyiv are delivered in one day instead of 3 as it was earlier.
Product portfolio diversification through enhancing financial services was paid a special attention. Ukrposhta covers 100% of Ukrainians against 65% of all banks combined coverage. For 35% of Ukrainians it is the only link to the outside world. Thus, negotiating with the National Bank of Ukraine the right to open postal accounts is only logical. If done so, cash free transfers like pensions or utilities payments could reduce the cash volume by one billion dollars per year nation-wide. “I am sure that Ukrposhta could bring our e-commerce activities out of the shadow,” Mr. Smilansky said. He also mentioned that combination of the postal and financial services was widespread in the world. “Two billion postal accounts are opened in the whole world. E.g. 80% of the Italian postal services revenues are generated by financial services. It is a good way to fund “dying” classical postal services,” told he.
However, the company is facing numerous challenges. Red tape, low level of computerization, and high share of manual labor are just the most pending ones. Hardly a surprise that Ukrposhta’s obsoleteness caused losses for many years in row. It needs immediate changes as it cannot afford to develop slowly” Mr. Smilansky said. “Those speedy changes require a lot of efforts.” People and salaries are another troubled area. So far positions of branch managers are open throughout of the country and candidates are being selected for the second round competition. So, the new people and new ideas make us hope for the brighter future of the national postal service”.
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