FedEx Delivers: How the World's Leading Shipping Company Keeps Innovating and Outperforming the Competition

Conclusion: Continuing to Lead the Way

At FedEx, leading the way comes naturally. We originated the modern air/ground express industry. We invented the concept of time-critical expedited delivery. We were the first to use bar code la-beling in the ground transportation industry and the first express company to offer time-definite freight service.

And yet, today, FedEx is so much more. More services. More technology. All backed by more than 214,000 employees and con-tractors who are more focused than ever on meeting customer needs—about five million times a day.

As today's FedEx, we're proud to be one of the world's most admired companies. We're proud to be recognized as a great place to work. Most of all, we're proud to continue leading the way for our customers, our investors, our employees, and our communities.

—FedEx 2002 Annual Report

The key to FedEx's continuing leadership has been its employees' understanding and application of the following principles, dis-cussed and illustrated throughout this book:

• Business models, strategies, and processes must be continually evaluated and enhanced to take advantage of changes in the business environment, particularly customers' needs, desires, and expectations.
• In today's highly competitive, global economy, maintaining the status quo is not enough. We must change to grow.
• Growth comes from anticipating and meeting changing customer needs in a competitively differentiated way. Competitive differentiation comes from designing and delivering ...