More Flat, Less Fat: UPS Celebrates 20 Years of Big Brown in Argentina

Lean & Mean: A UPS motorcycle parked in front of the Delta Airlines office in Buenos Aires.

As the worlds’ largest package delivery company, Atlanta-based UPS has been around for over 100 years and has constantly adapted to the changing demands of corporate clients.

UPS is so synonymous today with global commerce that Thomas Friedman held Big Brown’s insourcing model up as one of the 10 flattening factors in his 2005 best seller, The World Is Flat. This is even more amazing when you consider the company has only been operating in international markets since 1985.

UPS is now celebrating twenty years of operations in Argentina and, according to La Nacion, the company that used to provide just courier services today offers Argentine customers a wide array of logistics and transportation services and the necessary tools to connect them to the global marketplace. Global players like UPS have injected much-needed transparency, efficiency and competition in the BA marketplace.

If Friedman were to write a sequel focused on this phenomenon, he might consider calling it, The World Is Less Fat. In an interview with Wired magazine, he offered this explanation: “They’re incredible flatteners. For UPS to work, they’ve got to create systems with customs offices around the world. They’ve got to design supply chain algorithms so when you take that box to the UPS Store, it gets from that store to its hub and then out. Everything they are doing is taking fat out of the system at every joint.” And in image-conscious Argentina, “more flat, less fat” will always be a winning formula.

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