The Vibrant Organisation

5 Discovering Insight

DOI: 10.4324/9781003396833-9

In 1965 it was almost impossible to reliably air freight goods to other parts of mainland US in fewer than two to three days. So when Yale undergraduate Frederick W. Smith wrote a term paper outlining a system to accommodate urgent, time-sensitive shipments of goods such as medicine, computer parts, and electronics, he was excited by the possibilities to address this unmet need. Unconvinced by the economic implications, however, Smith’s professor only gave the paper an average grade. Fast forward 56 years, and that average thesis changed the history of the courier services industry, resulting in the $84 billion behemoth that is FedEx.¹

From its earliest days, FedEx has had a strong sense of ...