He’s Got Mail
Canadians love to hate it, but Canada Post’s CEO has plans to rebuild the service and keep it relevant and up to date
by Paul Brent photo by Tony Fouhse/KlixPix
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CEO Deepak Chopra: “unassuming, but very enthusiastic about the job he has”
EEPAK CHOPRA hardly looks like the bogeyman of senior citizens and postal carriers that he is oſten portrayed as in the media. Dressed for a Friday full of meetings in a gray suit and blue oxford shirt, the 51-year- old postal industry veteran has the air of a calm, competent midlevel executive. If Hollywood were to cast the role of an uncaring CEO out to
terminate thousands of jobs and end home mail delivery to millions, Chopra would not be called back for a second audition. Still, Chopra finds himself as the lead in the big-budget disaster epic that is Canada
Post. The $8-billion Crown corporation was showing early signs of obsolescence in 2011 when he began his five-year run as CEO. Since then he has dealt with bitter labour negotiations, a postal workers’ strike and lockout, a doomsday pension short- fall, ice storms, angry reaction to his decision to end door-to-door mail delivery and calls for his head from various local politicians and seniors’ organizations. Through it all Chopra, the accountant, has stuck to his numbers and core message:
Canada Post has to evolve. What’s threatening the national institution, he says, is a technology revolution sparked by the organization that laid low the once-mighty Canadian tech stalwart BlackBerry Ltd. Just as the iPhone exposed the BlackBerry lineup as hopelessly outdated, the 2010 introduction of the iPad tablet would prove to be a ready substitute for paper — and snail mail. “We saw a dramatic correlation to mail volume declines with what I would call a real competitor to paper,” Chopra says. Thanks, Steve Jobs, and welcome to Canada Post, Mr. Chopra. The previously worri- some but minor annual letter mail volume declines that still added up to more than
MARCH 2015 | CPA MAGAZINE | 29
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