From humble beginnings, FedEx has literally revolutionized the way business is conducted. Not too long ago, overnight shipping was barely an option for even the largest companies. Today, thanks to FedEx, it’s available to every living room start-up. With annual revenues of $30 billion, more than 250,000 employees, 600 aircraft, and 70,000 surface vehicles, FedEx handles nearly six million shipments a day in two hundred countries. FedEx has become a household name, and has been named one of the top ten of America’s Most Admired Companies by Fortune magazine.
But it wasn’t always easy. From his inside vantage point as the company’s first general manager and chief operating officer, Roger Frock reveals the remarkable details of how Fred Smith and his team endured their tumultuous early years—fraught with a seemingly unending series of legal, financial, and operational crises that continually threatened the company’s ability to stay in business—and, in the end, created an entirely new industry.
Frock chronicles the dramatic last-minute saves and turnarounds the company engineered from its inception to the present. He entertains with stories of the trials and tribulations of the company’s early struggles and victories—from Pilots using personal credit cards to fuel planes, to the courier who hocked his watch to put gas in his delivery van, and, one of the most memorable episodes, the time that founder Fred Smith literally gambled the company’s last remaining funds to keep the planes flying.
Frock’s story introduces all the players—FedEx’s resourceful and resilient leaders and employees—and shows how these remarkable individuals gave Fred Smith’s original concept wings and, through flexibility, creativity, and commitment, made a fledgling startup into one of the great success stories in modern business. Changing the Way the World Does Business is an inspirational tale for leaders and entrepreneurs everywhere.
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