Sustaining excellence as a company and as a leader
Tom Schmitt,
President and CEO,
FedEx Global Supply Chain Services

● Visible signs
● Sustaining excellence for the long haul
● Sustaining personal excellence
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Visionary Leadership –
FedEx began as a term paper and grew into an industry we didn’t even know we needed.
● Fred Smith said it was possible to send overnight letters all over the world by routing them through Memphis, Tennessee.
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FedEx changed the face of business in America.
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Growing up fast – from start-up to a billion dollar company.
From start up to a billion dollar company
From an $84 million capital investment, Fred Smith purchased 33 Dassault
Falcon corporate jets and painted them in bold purple and orange colors.
 In less than 10 years, FedEx was a billion-dollar companythe first U.S. corporation to achieve that benchmark revenue without the benefit of a merger or acquisition.
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Moving from boxes to bytes.
 “… the information about a package is as important as the package itself.”
Frederick W. Smith
Chairman, FedEx Corp
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From Letters to Logistics.
● In April 1973, FedEx delivered 186 packages in 25 cities
● Today FedEx is a $35 billion corporation offering services to more than 220 countries.
● More than 6 million shipments every business day move by a FedEx company.
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What makes a product or a company become a household word?
● In the United States, Coca-Cola is synonymous with
“soft drink” and has been for more than 40 years.
● People say ‘Kleenex’ when they mean any brand of tissue.
● People say ‘FedEx’ when they mean overnight.
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The FedEx unique style of management did not go unnoticed.
● “World’s Most Admired Companies” - No. 7 (2007)
– Top honors in six of the eight reputation attributes: Innovation, People Management,
Use of Corporate Assets, Quality of
Management, Long-term Investment and
Quality of Products and Services.
● “America’s Most Admired Companies” - No. 6 (2007)
– FedEx was #1 across all companies in People Management and Quality of Products and Services
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Federal Express becomes FedEx
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● Visible signs
● Sustaining excellence for the long haul
● Sustaining personal excellence
The FedEx DNA
● Visionary Leadership
● Operational Excellence
● Customer Centricity
● People First
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Visionary leadership
Skating ahead of the puck keeps FedEx out in front of the pack.
● Flying Tigers
● Kinko’s
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Customer Centricity
Combining operational excellence and true customer centricity - a winning combination.
● FedEx achieved service excellence by going for root causes and managing in a service quality index from day one.
– WAR 1/10/100 operations style
– 10-15 scans for every package that moves through FedEx
– Sales dashboards to measure performance
– Same-day contingency plans for inclement weather or disasters
● More and more, the company began turning to its customer to ask how the FedEx experience could be better.
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The Customer Summit:
Bring on the customers – the grumpier the better.
● Every year FedEx executives – from the
Chairman on down sit for two days and get chewed out.
● We listen to the grumpiest customers we can find.
● We get feedback from customers on how we’re doing and how we can make things better.
© FedEx Corp. October 2005

People First
At the heart of the Customer Summit (as well as everything else we do) is a promise.
● You’ll see Purple in the logos of all our operating companies – it’s what unites us. It’s also a promise.
● We change the way the world works and lives when we do one simple thing: put customers at the center of everything we do.
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FedEx made it clear – its people came first.
And its people responded by putting the customer first.
● Legends were born in the early days of FedEx, fueled by the resourceful spirit of its employees.
– Pilots loaded packages onto planes
– Couriers sometimes used their own cars.
– Once a pilot used his personal credit card to refuel his aircraft
– A part-time courier pawned his wristwatch so he could fuel the delivery van.
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That passion lives on today.
● It’s what has kept that
1973 entrepreneurial spirit alive through four decades.
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● Visible signs
● Sustaining excellence for the long haul
● Sustaining personal excellence
● Balanced effectiveness
● Cycle of communications
● Keeping the balance in place
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Keeping the balance in place
Harnessing the power of passion and simplicity to get results
● Some people prefer leaders who think only with the rational, analytical left side of the brain.
● That’s not necessarily the right balance
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Keeping the balance in place
Harnessing the power of passion and simplicity to get results
● The ability to distill the most complex issues into simple, easy to communicate points is essential to success
– A strong correlation exists between simplicity and clarity of thought
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Keeping the balance in place
Management savvy: work smarter, not harder
● Think “what would have to be true …”
– Incrementalism is the deadly enemy of innovation
● Don’t fall into the “process over content” trap
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Keeping the balance in place
Be ambitious for your people and ‘the cause’
● Good ambition creates dedicated and highperforming professionals
● Bad ambition leads to the wrong path
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Keeping the balance in place
Put people first – every time and you will be rewarded.
High Will, Low Skill
Coach for performance
Low Will, Low Skill
Reassign
High Will, High Skill
Get out of the way
Low Will, High Skill
Boost energy around the will axis, motivate
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Keeping the balance in place
Leadership – leave a place better than you found it.
“I know the answer, but I can’t tell you.”
Hire leaders who are better than you in at least one key area that matters.
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Keeping the balance in place
Collaboration – think ‘one big team’
● Be wary of the dedicated
“devil’s advocate”
● Be inclusive from the beginning
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Keeping the balance in place
Vision – imagine the possibilities.
● A single vision can launch a company but only longterm vision can sustain that innovation
● Think breakthrough
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Keeping the balance in place
Time management – align time with the right goals.
● Time cards for managers and professionals?
What are you thinking?
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Keeping the balance in place
Focus – use a laser, not a floodlight.
Jim Barksdale former CEO, Netscape
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Keeping the balance in place
Execution – don’t sacrifice good for better.
– Instill a bias for action
• But you’ll need to be willing to take a few risks.
– Be directionally correct.
• Hold out for the perfect answer and you’ll still be looking while your competitor gets the business.
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Keeping the balance in place
Determination – stick to it.
● Hire people with optimistic outlooks and can-do attitudes over sheer talent.
● If you can dream it, you can do it.
● Check your inner compass and follow your heart.
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