DHL Global Forwarding failed on software, and that’s why it would come cheap

Given last week’s rebuttal from DHL that it was preparing to sell its forwarding unit, let’s rephrase the thesis slightly and ask: “Why did DHL appear to be considering selling Global Forwarding for such a knock-down price?” The answer posited in this blog by Flexport chief executive Ryan Petersen is that it failed to get its IT right – and without that it had no chance of being able to tie all of its numerous acquisitions, amounting to billions of dollars of investment – into anything approaching a unified whole. “It’s better to design a modern airplane from scratch than to install a jet engine on the Wright Flyer. DHL Global Forwarding acquired huge businesses and never really solved the technology puzzle – in the process, it destroyed a huge amount of shareholder value.”