Table Of ContentPo Chung and Roger Bowie
DHL
Po Chung and Roger Bowie
DHL
From Startup to Global Upstart
PRESS
ISBN 978-1-5015-1592-7
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-1-5015-0755-7
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-1-5015-0744-1
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A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2018 Po Chung and Roger Bowie
Published by Walter de Gruyter Inc., Boston/Berlin
Printing and binding: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
♾ Printed on acid-free paper
Printed in Germany
www.degruyter.com
Acknowledgments
Po Chung:
A very special tribute to three special persons who contributed to the success,
wealth and significance of my DHL journey: the late Adrian Dalsey, the late Larry
Hillblom and the late Robert Lynn.
My thanks to Roger Bowie who agreed to co-author this book and for his ded-
icated commitment to the completion of this book over the past 18 months.
I am grateful to Ken Allen and his team; without his endorsement, we would
not have had the opportunity to create the last chapter.
I also extend my gratitude to my old DHL team: David Allen, Bill Robinson
and Bill Walden as well as K W Bae, Paul Chan, Rod Feliciano, Neil Ferguson,
John Kerr, Pat Lupo, Bill Robinson, Ken Sato, Vivian Tsang, Andy Tseng and
Bruce Walker.
I am also thankful to Jeff Pepper and his team at De Gruyter for helping this
book see the light of day.
Last but not the least, my lasting gratitude to my dearest wife, Helen, and my
three daughters, Yana, Anca and Yangie who always stand by me through the
ups and downs of my leadership entrepreneurial journey.
Many thanks to you all.
Roger Bowie:
This has been a labor of love. I had my last days of employment with DHL in May
1995, which coincidentally was exactly the time Larry died in a plane crash off
Saipan. Revisiting and reliving those early DHL days has felt like I never left, and
the intervening years have just been a holiday.
Many people have helped with the book, so there are many people to thank.
First and foremost, my collaborator and partner in this project, Po Chung,
who called me up one day and asked if I could help. Once I got started, Po asked
me also to finish it, and so a big vote of thanks to Po, not just for his memory and
insights, but for entrusting co-authorship to me.
Thanks also to Po’s team in Hong Kong, and specifically Fanny Sze, Shela
Chan and Kingsley Smith.
To those DHL Pioneers who provided information, anecdotes, early feedback
and encouragement, thank you: Ross Allen, Alec Ang, Geoff Cruikshanks, Ste-
phen Fenwick, Neil Ferguson, Les Hales, Neil Henderson, Brad McElroy, Malcolm
https://doi.org/10.1515/97815015927-001
vi | Acknowledgments
Rees, Chris Reid, Graham Roberts, John Steuart and Steve Waller. And many oth-
ers I have chatted to along the way.
To the current DHL Express teams and their advisors in Germany, Canada,
United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand who have been enthu-
siastic supporters and providers of collateral in writing the final chapter, many
thanks: Faruk Akosman, Ken Allen, Paul Daley, Charlie Dobbie, Mark Foy, Rick
Jackson, Joe Joseph, Mike Lipkin, Dan McGrath, John Pearson, Owen Rees, Su-
sanne Reinecke, Francis Saldanha, Sue Stoneman and Herbert Vongpusanachai.
Thanks to Mark Daniell, John Gattorna and Graham McEwan for their in-
sights, input and advice.
To Pat Lupo, Pete Donnici and Jim Campbell, the three lawyers I would defi-
nitely want to hire, and with whom I worked closely during my years with DHL.
Thanks Pete for saving DHL in its early battles; thanks Jim for all the good times
fighting the postal battles, and for the extensive work on those years which is
generously now in the public domain. And thank you Pat for being an inspiring
and inspired leader and boss.
I echo Po’s acknowledgment to the other DHL Founders: Adrian Dalsey, Larry
Hillblom, Robert Lynn, Bill Robinson and Dave Allen.
Lastly, thanks to Jeff Pepper and the team at De Gruyter.
Finally, a dedication to those heroes who are no longer with us: My great
mentor Bill Walden, my great mate Bob Parker, and two great characters, Errol
Gates and Martin Black.
About the Authors
Po Chung, Co-founder of DHL International, is passionate about the nature and
values of superior service required for the success of global centers of commerce,
as most developed communities have shifted from manufacturing robotic work-
ers to a people-service economy. His professional life has been dedicated in large
part to understanding how to provide superb service, how to educate others as su-
perior service leaders, and how to design and operate service sector organizations.
In 1972, Po co-founded DHL International Limited, a Hong Kong based com-
pany that, together with DHL Airways Inc. USA, owned and operated the DHL
Worldwide Network. The success of DHL is a vivid example of a global people
centric network for service.
Currently, as Chairman of Hong Kong Institute of Service Leadership & Man-
agement, Po is a champion of the effort to develop service-oriented courses and
executive education programs for Hong Kong’s eight UGC-funded universities
and corporations.
Po is also author of the Service Masters Editions: The First Ten Yards (Chinese
and English versions), Service Reborn, The 12 Dimensions of a Service Leader and
25 Principles of Service Leadership. Another title under this series, Pillars of a Ser-
vice Hub, is coming soon.
As a thought leader, Po is Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British
Empire (OBE), a board member of many corporates and organizations and in his
leisure time, a skilled calligrapher and semi-professional painter, voracious
reader and avid student of entrepreneurship, personal and professional develop-
ment.
viii | About the Authors
Roger Bowie joined DHL as a courier in London in 1976, and went on to manage-
ment roles in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia.
From 1980 through 1988, as Regional Manager, Africa, Roger led the growth
in the DHL Africa Network from 5 countries to 55. In 1988 he was appointed Re-
gional Director for Southeast Asia and Australasia, based in Singapore.
In 1993 he became Worldwide Services Director based in Brussels where he
joined Po and four other senior executives on the Global Management Board un-
der CEO Pat Lupo. He resigned and returned to New Zealand in 1995 for family
reasons.
Roger’s career henceforward has primarily been in healthcare, starting as
CEO of Southern Cross Healthcare from 1995 through 2002.
Po and Roger therefore have a unique insight into the history of DHL and
what made it successful. Both are featured on today’s induction program for new
DHL employees.
Contents
Chapter 1: Born Global | 1
The Little Company Which was Seen as Illegal in Every Country | 1
Chapter 2: The 70s | 5
Chapter 3: The Start-up Years | 9
Chapter 4: The Start-up Years: Business Innovation | 13
Door to Door, Desk to Desk | 13
Just Like Taking It There Yourself | 14
Still Expensive, However, for a Start-Up ... | 15
... and Increasingly Complex | 16
So, Try and Keep It Simple | 17
So Simple, Almost Too Good to Be True | 18
Proof was Needed, and So Proof was Provided | 19
With the Airlines as Friends (Albeit Fair-Weather) | 20
Chapter 5: Innovation and Its Broader Impact on Business Dynamics | 23
The Infectious Nature of Speed | 23
Size Doesn’t Matter, Content Does | 24
Keeping It Dense | 25
But Keeping It Simple | 25
And Everyone Sells | 25
Service Is Not Servitude | 26
Creating a Time-Based Value Proposition | 27
Challenging Traditional Work Habits | 27
And in the Spirit of Partnership | 28
Chapter 6: Cultural Dynamics: What was Going on Here? | 29
Against All Odds | 29
Ahead of its Time | 29
It was also the People | 29
An Emerging Company Culture | 33
The Nature of the Business Helped | 33
But it Wasn’t Just the Business | 34
