Mechanisms for ensuring the sustainable development of postal companies based on their strategic competitive advantages

. The purpose of the work is to study the mechanisms used to ensure the sustainable development of the company based on the strategic competitive advantages of postal companies. The research uses: methodology based on the application of general scientific methods to ensure the sustainable development of the company and strategic management methods for the development of strategic competitive advantages; statistical methods for analyzing the state and development of the company and methods of expert assessments to determine the prospects for the development of the company, to identify the strategic competitive advantages applied in practice. The originality of the research lies in the fact that the proposed methodology and algorithm for the formation of a sustainable development mechanism allow for the sustainable development of the company under study. The identified and described basic components of the mechanism for the sustainable development of postal companies make it possible to analyze effectively, evaluate and implement the principles of their sustainable development. A scheme for compiling a list of tasks to ensure the sustainable development of the company and methods of forming a mechanism for sustainable development of the company based on the design of managerial innovations and benchmarking have been created.


Introduction
Currently, to ensure the development of the postal business, postal companies need to introduce new innovative developments that allow them to ensure their sustainable development based on strategic competitive advantages. For postal companies, it is necessary to solve the problem of ensuring a flexible and quick response to the dynamics of changes in the postal market and the problem of forming and developing competitive advantages for the long term [1]. The solution of the problems above is complicated by the inconsistency of tactical and strategic actions in its solution. Therefore, at present, studies of mechanisms and tools for ensuring the sustainable development of postal companies based on strategic competitive advantages and issues of their application are one of the most urgent tasks of the modern postal sector of the economy.
In the works [2,3], the contents of the mechanism for ensuring the sustainable development of the company are investigated and disclosed, the basic components of the mechanism for sustainable development and the sustainability of the development of machine-building enterprises are identified. Studies [4,5] consider the methodology of sustainable development, the potential for sustainable development of the fuel and energy complex and the assessment of sustainable development of oil enterprises.
The research [6,7] investigated the mechanisms of sustainable development of electric power enterprises and indicators for monitoring the sustainable development of the region. The author of the work [8] proposes the mechanisms of integral assessment of sustainability of development. The model of the mechanism of sustainable development of the company through the regulation of innovation activity is proposed in the work [9]. The concept of sustainable development of industrial enterprises is investigated in the work [10].
Modern scientific foundations and approaches to the construction of an integral indicator of enterprise sustainability are analyzed in the work [11], and the methodology and models for assessing the sustainability of various enterprises are investigated in the article [12]. The issues of formation of the mechanism of sustainable development of industrial enterprises are investigated in the work [13], and a model of sustainable development is proposed in the works [14,15]. The main factors that affect the sustainable development of enterprises and tools for assessing the level of their sustainable development are studied in the works [16,17], and the paper [8] outlines the main issues of the formation of the mechanism of sustainable development of the company.
The issues of formation of sustainable development mechanisms are considered in a number of studies, for example, [6,8,19], but these and other well-known works consider organizational design in general, not tied to the process of forming an organizational mechanism in the context of sustainable development. Just as the results of the analysis show, the studies mainly studied the mechanisms of sustainable development of enterprises in various industries, and did not consider the mechanisms for ensuring the sustainable development of specific companies providing postal services. In this regard, this paper examines the mechanisms for ensuring the sustainable development of the postal companies of the Republic of Kazakhstan, including the national postal operator Kazpost JSC.
The main provisions of the study are the research and formation of a mechanism for sustainable development of the company on the example of the national postal operator of Kazakhstan based on the theory of strategic management and ensuring the competitive advantages of the company.

Materials and methods of research
The research materials are the data of the analysis of the development strategy of postal companies of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the results of the study of mechanisms and practical tools that will be used to ensure the sustainable development of postal companies based on their strategic competitive advantages. The market economy and the globalization of the economy, which has a systemic nature, and the development of scientific and technological progress pose new important tasks for any companies, including companies providing postal services and communications, to ensure the sustainable development of the company. As practice shows, companies with a well-developed mechanism of sustainable development usually develop more successfully and achieve high results. This statement is confirmed by the results of the Harvard Business School (HBS) and various studies [19,20] is illustrated in Figure 1.  The concept of "sustainable development of postal companies" implies such a mode of operation of these companies when the strategy and other plans of its work are carried out through the regular implementation of such measures as: timely identification and neutralization of various threats that negatively affect the normal operation of the company and for the implementation of the development plan; monitoring and prompt elimination of deviations from the company's development plan that may be caused by these threatsThe term "mechanism of sustainable development" refers to the organizational subsystem of postal companies engaged in activities aimed at ensuring their sustainable development. Based on the above, it can be noted that the meaning of the formation of a mechanism for the sustainable development of postal companies is reduced to the design of their activities, which are aimed at providing sustainable postal services. Therefore, in order to solve the problem of forming a mechanism for sustainable development, postal companies should use well-known means and methods of organizational design.
Let us formulate a refined definition of the concept of "mechanism of sustainable development of postal companies (MSDP)" used in this article. MSDP is an organizational system consisting of a set of divisions, instructions, plans, regulations, which are mandatory prescriptions for all employees of the company, which ensure the sustainability of the company.
Functionally, MSDP is an activity performed by a group of employees of postal companies in accordance with the accepted rules, certain work to ensure high-quality postal services and the sustainability of the company's development. From a formal point of view, the MSDP represents an organizational system that produces, with the necessary frequency, plans of organizational and technical measures that are aimed at ensuring the sustainability of the company. This mechanism periodically implements the processes of accounting and analysis of the results of the implementation of these measures and consists of supporting and functional subsystems.
The supporting subsystems of the MSDP combine organizational, informational, technical and software. In the MSDP, the functional subsystem plays a leading role, since in this subsystem measures are developed and implemented aimed at preventing possible threats and crises, or at eliminating their consequences.
It should be noted that many postal companies have activities similar to MSDP that are not directly related to business processes and aimed at providing conditions for the safe and normal flow of these processes. Such activities include the activities of the fire department, the safety department, security services, the department of the quality management system service and others.
As experience shows, the following organizational formats of the MSDP are more suitable for the implementation of the sustainable development mechanism: -formation of a special unit in the company's management apparatus, for example, a department or department of sustainable development; -formation of an "interdepartmental" project group dealing with the issues of sustainable development of the company; -determination and assignment to an authorized official of the responsibility of coordinating work to ensure the sustainable development of the company; -creation of a commission or committee under the board of directors or the management board of the company to ensure the sustainable development of the company; The paper uses methods of forming a mechanism for the sustainable development of postal companies based on the design of managerial innovations and benchmarking, as well as methods of analyzing and processing statistical data.
Let us consider the forming method of MSDP. The proposed method for the formation of MSDP method is a kind of organizational design method and is obtained on the basis of a modification known in the literature, for example, called the method of designing managerial innovations.
The design logic of MSDP is reflected in the stages and composition of design documents that describe the sequence of work performed. The stages and composition of project documents generated by MSDP are shown in Table 1.
Thus, when developing the organizational system of MSDP, the following groups of documents are created: -regulation on the mechanism of sustainable development of postal companies; -a lot of provisions on the structural divisions of postal companies involved in sustainable development, job descriptions for employees of these divisions and for officials who will be involved in the development and MSDP implementation; -a package of technological instructions that are necessary to implement the methodology to identify and prevent threats and to implement the methodology to develop activities and work to ensure the company sustainability.

Results
The paper proposes an algorithm for the implementation of MSDP, based on comparing the postal company with the best companies in the direction of activity and developing actions aimed at eliminating the gap between the company and the leading company through the formation and implementation of the MSDP. The block diagram of the algorithm for implementing this technique is shown in Figure 2. The applied approach to the formation and implementation of the MSDP based on the methods of organizational design and benchmarking, when used for a particular company, should be adapted taking into account the characteristics and working conditions of this company. In further studies, the authors plan to adapt the proposed methods for application to the national postal operator of the Republic of Kazakhstan. Investors and stakeholders are interested in companies in their positioning in the field of sustainable development, the presence of the MSDP, development strategies and programs, etc. There is a strong connection between the sustainability of a company's development and the main performance indicators of their work. On the basis of the MSDP, it is possible to objectively assess the level of sustainable development of companies and make a decision on the need to reorient the development and management strategy of the company to form its sustainable development.
The intra-organizational system of the MSDP consists of the following mechanisms: management organizations; innovative; financial; technical, corporate planning; formation of investment resources of the company; self-sufficiency; and information mechanisms. Moreover, individual mechanisms are focused on solving specific tasks of the company, and their system is the MSDP. Thus, the MSDP system is a complex of interrelated internal structural divisions of the company, which ensure its viability and increase economic efficiency, taking into account possible threats and various external factors.

Discussion
On the basis of the conducted research and analysis, it is possible to identify the main elements of the mechanism of sustainable development, which are the basic components of the MSDP. The basic components of the MSDP are shown in Figure 2   3. Principles of the MSDP. These principles are intended to ensure the effectiveness of the functioning of the the MSDP and are divided into the following principles: independence and self-financing of the company; responsibility and interest; mechanism adequacy and flexibility; creation and implementation of innovative technologies; variety of services provided and customer orientation.
4. Factors of influence on the mechanism, determine the conditions for the development of the company. These basic components are important circumstances in the process of effective operation of the company. The selection of these factors is caused by the need to address the issues of ensuring sustainable development and ensuring the life of the company.
5. The assessment of the level of sustainable development of the company is also one of the important components of the MSDP. When assessing the level of sustainable development of a company, the influence of economic, environmental and social internal and external factors is mainly taken into account.
6. Operational management, coordination and adjustment. This mechanism of the company's sustainable development takes into account aspects of the organization and management of the company's activities and, as a means of coordination, greatly simplifies the work of company managers.

Conclusion
The main results obtained from this study include: -the analysis of research on the formation of mechanisms of sustainable development is carried out, the concepts of "sustainable development", "mechanism of sustainable development" are clarified; -a scheme for compiling a list of tasks to ensure the sustainable development of the company has been created and described; -the method of forming the mechanism of sustainable development of the company based on the design of management innovations is proposed and an algorithm for implementing the methodology of sustainable development based on benchmarking is created; -the main elements included in the basic components of the mechanism of sustainable development are highlighted and described; -the basic components of the mechanism of sustainable development of JSC "Kazpost" are defined and described.
The proposed method for the formation of the MSDP based on the design of managerial innovations and the algorithm for implementing the methodology of the MSDP based on benchmarking are recommended to form and implement the sustainable development mechanism for various companies, including JSC "Kazpost". At the same time, these methods should be adapted for a particular company, taking into account its characteristics and working conditions.
As can be seen from the results of the study, the basic components of the company's sustainable development mechanism include: the company's strategic goals; methods and tools of the mechanism; the principles of the MSDP; factors influencing the mechanism; assessment of the level of sustainable development of the company; operational management, coordination and adjustment. To implement the economic methods of company management, it is necessary to apply such instruments of state regulation as: taxes; duties; licensing; budgetary financing, price regulation, etc. Moreover, depending on the type of components of the sustainable development mechanisms, all instruments are divided into groups: instruments aimed at the economic component of the MSDP; tools that are designed to activate the social component of the MSDP; tools aimed at the formation of the environmental component of the MSDP.
In order to form a mechanism for the sustainable development of a company, it is necessary to analyze its activities, identify the main trends and directions for the development of the company under study, and also study the dynamics of the main indicators. The results of such an analysis and study of the company's activities and dynamics allow us to determine its goals and objectives, as well as to highlight the main directions for determining sustainable development, and form the MSDP.