How did UPS originally go global?
At first it was doing so well in the 1970s and 1980s that there was a movement in the company to stay domestic. But the founder, Jim Casey, who even in his 80s was still active in the company, went to West Germany and saw how inefficient the Bundespost (national post office) was. He saw an incredible opportunity—not in service between the US and Germany, but in domestic German service. UPS sent over four executives for a few months to gauge the climate and see if the country needed delivery service and how to respond. At the time, West Germany had its post office and a few mom-and-pop delivery services.