As the US enters an election season with two clear presidential contenders, it’s open season on their present and past positions. The media love to make a story out of an apparent “flip flop” on some issue, but most strategists will agree that changes are not only normal, they are necessary. Rigidly adhering to battle plan can bury an army (or a business) as conditions and circumstances change.

Just over a decade ago, DHL’s position in North America was that it could connect businesses in the US with global markets through its well developed networks in Asia, Europe and beyond. At the time, that was a smart choice, though there was less emphasis on global reach among US-based businesses. The fact was, FedEx, UPS, Airborne, BAX Global, Emery Worldwide, Roadway Package System and, to some degree, the US Postal Service were all contending for parcel and express business in the market. There wasn’t room for a seventh or eighth player.

At the time, TNT took a look at the market and even made some acquisitions that could help it start building the ground network that was critical to success for any operator seeking a market position in the US. In June, Marie-Christine Lombard, group managing director for TNT Express, said its small presence in the US was in some ways a great regret, but in others, “thank God we’re not.” The TNT footprint in 2008 looks much like DHL did 10 or 15 years ago and for the same reason-- building a ground network to cover the US is expensive, and the return if you are the newcomer facing large, entrenched competitors won’t support the position.

With the deep pockets of Deutsche Post and some changes in the US market, the time may have appeared ripe for DHL to enter the US through its acquisition of Airborne. With UPS and FedEx experiencing slowdowns in the domestic express market and issuing earnings guidance, being third in a shrinking market is anything but a growth strategy. It is clearly time to change tactics, but not necessarily strategies.

As global logistics providers, DHL and TNT both realize the importance of a presence in the North American market. The key is to stay in the battle and not lose the war. For DHL that means protecting a much larger investment against the day when the markets recover and being one of three major players offers potential for modest profit rather than massive losses.

TNT has little to change in its tactics as it pursues a strategy that has been evolving over the last four years. Its focus is on developing markets where a key acquisition will allow it to transplant its network design and operating expertise to become the number one provider in the market. Then, it can provide national, regional and interregional service and link to its global network. The principal difference in the two strategies being TNT isn’t interested in fighting with giants.

What makes the express wars a story for the age is that, in the cases of TNT and DHL, the two companies have a very clear global strategy with regional tactics that support it. Both have undergone major revisions in both strategy and tactics in recent years. As painful as it may have been to make these adjustments, they were clearly called for. If they had not changed, they could have ended up pouring increasing amounts of assets into battles which would have eventually resulted in unsustainable losses and ultimate defeat. The business leaders who had to make those changes were facing new realities and, we can only hope, choosing the better path. Call it a retreat, a flip flop or a decisive redeployment of resources, but when the situation changes, you have to change with it or give up your market position completely.