[pic]

Executive Summary

In the Express mail industry there are three major companies Federal Express, UPS and Airborne which make up 85% of the total market. Together the three companies shipped more than 5 million packages each day and over 98% arrived on time. Each company had different business strategies to achieve competitive advantage over each other but the basic infrastructure and activities among the companies were similar. Here Federal Express is the market leader which covered 45% of the domestic express mail and UPS took second place and covered 25% share .Federal Express and UPS always tried to copy each other’s action and when a competitor came up with a formula that attracted the attention of potential customers, the other were compelled to follow suit with similar services, or better yet, an improved version .On the other hand Airborne Express is the third largest and fastest growing international mail expresses company in America. It held roughly 16% of the domestic express mail market by 1997. The company has several advantages over its rivals, such as it provides delivery services at a lower cost of up to 20% over FedEx and UPS; it operates the nation’s only privately owned foreign trade zone in Wilmington; it is more flexible and provides more customer-tailored services. It charges lower price but still much guarantee delivery dates .In case of adapting or installing any technology Airborne competitive behavior was response and when there was a clear derived benefit for their customer that time they adapt new technology. Airborne chose to be being selective in case of targeting the customer and they selected to serve the business customer. In case of international operation Airborne did not invest heavily like Federal Express and UPS. They invested wisely and followed variable cost approach.