
Fred Smith on the Birth of FedEx (2004) - elbigbad
http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/stories/2004-09-19/online-extra-fred-smith-on-the-birth-of-fedex
======
HillRat
Interesting bit about ZapMail -- prescient but also completely impractical in
retrospect, a bit like Iridium.

As an aside, having been involved with negotiations slightly removed from Fred
Smith, this is a guy you _really_ do not want to tick off -- when you have
something he wants, even incidentally, then just give him a price and cut a
deal. I can't tell any of my stories (in a public venue, anyway), but there
were several times when FedEx (which had, to be fair, moved mountains for our
client) just got (reasonably) exasperated with our client and pulled (what I
considered unreasonable) tricks to force them to a decision point. By the time
I called off our involvement I felt like I had pissed off a Bond villain.

~~~
keville
> Q: So why didn't it succeed?

> A: Because the Challenger blew up in 1986.

Holy Hell, this is the most interesting bit of the whole article. To think
that a company like FedEx in its young prime could have an endeavour* like
that completely disrupted by such a _force majeure_... great tidbit in what is
otherwise a bit of a stale article.

*Shuttle humor

------
nickpsecurity
One of my favorite businesses. Another thing they've always done is invest in
their workers and expect innovation from within. At one point, they even paid
people a percentage of what their ideas produced. These days, they just use
regular rewards, recognition, promotions, etc. Even their cost-cutting was
different than most: paying people to leave rather than laying them off.

Such things send a powerful message that lead to mostly loyal, hard-working,
innovative people. Well, at least at the levels where one can be innovative.
The positions like Ground drivers and people moving stuff on conveyor belts
probably impose limits. They still work hard for decent pay or hours relative
to other companies in their areas.

I'd love to see more companies take a page out of Fred's book.

