FedEx

The corporations on our annual list of the world's 500 largest companies combined to generate $41.7 trillion in revenue over the past year.

Fortune Global 500

Almost $20 trillion in revenue—and a record-breaking $1.87 trillion in profits. Introducing the 2025 Fortune 500, the definitive list of the biggest companies in America.

Fortune 500

The 300 companies on this year’s list brought in over $12.6 trillion in revenue for the latest 12 months, with the median revenue figure at $22 billion.

America's Most Innovative Companies

Leaders in all industries rely more than ever on Big Tech—and appreciate the giants that deliver, at scale, without drama.

World's Most Admired Companies

The corporations on our annual list posted aggregate revenues of $41 trillion for the second year in a row.

Industries included in the sector are airlines, transportation equipment, logistics, mail and freight delivery, railroads, shipping, and trucking.

Fortune Sector Leaders: Transportation

The Fortune 500, in its 70th year in 2024, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

The 200 companies on this list are transforming industries from the inside out.

The 26th edition of the list shows how much esteem Big Tech giants command among other business leaders.

WMA-2024-FedEx

The 25th Fortune World’s Most Admired Companies list suggests that tech giants’ peers respect them as much as ever.

WMAC 2023-FedEx

The corporations on our annual list of the world’s largest companies delivered a record $41 trillion in aggregate revenues.

The 300 companies on this list are transforming industries from the inside out.

The Fortune 500, in its 69th year in 2023, ranks the biggest U.S. companies by revenue.

F500-2023-041-FedEx

The parcel delivery giant reported revenue of $93.5 billion (up 11.4%) and profits of $3.8 billion (down 26.9%). Rajesh Subramaniam succeeded founder Frederick Smith as CEO on June 1, 2022. 
<ul> 
 	<li>In February 2023, FedEx cut 10% of global officer and director jobs, a cost-cutting move prompted in part by diminishing revenue from e-commerce.</li> 
 	<li>Subramaniam announced in April 2023 that FedEx would combine its express and ground businesses. Smith had long defended keeping the units separate, even as analysts and investors urged their merger to simplify operations. Subramaniam says the move will help consumers understand pricing and shipping options more easily.</li> 
 	<li>FedEx is the fourth largest employer on the Fortune 500.</li> 
</ul>

Just as it dominates our economy, Big Tech now dominates Fortune’s annual ranking of corporate reputation.

WMAC-2022-16-FedEx

When it comes to supporting employees, flexibility, diversity, and a few extra paid days off go a long way.

100-Best-2022-FedEx-Corporation

As one of the largest delivery services companies in the U.S., FedEx has employed thousands of workers on the front lines of the pandemic. To support them, the company debuted a new health care advocate program called Choose Well Care Connect, which provides those workers with a single point of contact whenever they have a health care need, helping them navigate a complex system of vendors. It’s also made 24/7 confidential counseling available to all employees, eligible dependents, and household members, even if they aren’t actively participating in the plan. The company facilitates career advancement through the FedEx Learning Center, which offers over 25,000 online courses; Aspire, which provides hourly employees access to experiential learning, coaching, and development opportunities; and direct tuition assistance for higher education. “I greatly appreciate the mentoring and guidance the managers at FedEx offer to everyone,” says one staffer. “I feel there is a sense of caring from management to their employees.”

Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For

Aggregate sales hit $37.8 trillion last year—an increase of 19%, the highest annual growth rate in the list’s history.

Organizations on this annual list positively impact people and communities across multiple countries.

World's-Best-Workplaces-2022-FedEx

World’s 25 Best Workplaces

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 68th running of the list.

F500 2022-FedEx

The delivery services giant climbed six spots to No. 39 on this year’s Fortune 500. Thanks to an increase in e-commerce during the pandemic; the company predicts its deliveries could exceed 100 million a day in calendar 2022. FedEx will experience an epochal change in leadership on June 1, 2022, when founder and CEO Frederick W. Smith will step down after more than 50 years at the helm. Raj Subramaniam will succeed Smith, who remained the largest shareholder in FedEx as of March 2022, with a stake of about 7.3%.

After a year in which humanity leaned more heavily than ever on tech giants, see which companies topped Fortune's ranking of corporate reputation.

WMAC 2021-16-FedEx

Total revenue for the world’s biggest companies fell 4.8% to $31.7 trillion this year—the first decline in half a decade.

G500 135 Fedex

Second only to United Parcel Service in the U.S. package-shipping business, FedEx said COVID-19 affected “virtually all revenue and expense line items” during the final quarter of its latest fiscal year, which ended May 31, 2020, dinging revenues 0.7% to $69.2 billion versus the year prior. Despite the disruption, profits surged an eye-popping 138% to $1.29 billion, nearly rivaling much bigger UPS’s $1.34 billion in profits. The jump is mostly due to earlier costly investments FedEx made to revamp its historically business-centric delivery network so it can better cater to residential customers.

This year’s Fortune 500 marks the 67th running of the list.

F500-2021-45-FedEx

Second only to United Parcel Service in the package-shipping business, FedEx inched up two spots to No. 45 on this year’s Fortune 500 list. The company said COVID-19 affected “virtually all revenue and expense line items” during the final quarter of its latest fiscal year, which ended May 31, 2020, dinging revenues 0.7% to $69.2 billion versus the year prior. Despite the disruption, profits surged an eye-popping 138% to $1.29 billion, nearly rivaling much bigger UPS’s $1.34 billion in profits. The jump is mostly due to earlier costly investments FedEx made to revamp its historically business-centric delivery network so it can better cater to residential customers.

For an astounding 13th straight year, Apple claims the top spot in Fortune’s annual ranking of corporate reputation, based on a survey of almost 3,800 executives, directors, and analysts.

This year's Fortune Global 500 generated $33.3 trillion in revenues and $2.1 trillion in profits.

G500-2020-148-FedEx

Second only to United Parcel Service in the package-shipping business, FedEx grew faster than its rival in 2019. The delivery dynamo brought in nearly $69.7 billion in its most recent fiscal year, up 6.5% from FY 2018. Still, FedEx investors despaired over a once marquee customer, Amazon, turning to a competitor. Readying itself for the fight of its life, FedEx spent big sums to revamp its delivery network, known primarily for catering to businesses, to go the “last mile” and drop off boxes on residential doorsteps. Costly investments, in part, caused profits to plummet more than 88%, to $540 million. On a December earnings call, FedEx’s chief financial officer described the hit as “horrific.” But instead of slashing costs, FedEx has swelled its ranks, adding nearly 30,000 more employees over the past year.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 66th running of the list.

F500-2020-047-FedEx

Second only to United Parcel Service in the package-shipping business, FedEx grew faster than its rival in 2019. The delivery dynamo brought in nearly $69.7 billion in its most recent year fiscal year, up 6.5% from fiscal year 2018—thereby maintaining the No. 47 spot on this year’s list. But FedEx investors despaired over a former marquee customer, Amazon, flipping into a competitor. Readying itself for the fight of its life, FedEx spent big sums to revamp its delivery network, known primarily for catering to businesses, to go the “last mile” and drop off boxes on residential doorsteps. Costly investments, in part, caused profits to plummet 88.2% to $540 million. On a December earnings call, FedEx’s chief financial officer described the hit as “horrific.” But instead of slashing costs, FedEx has swelled its ranks, adding nearly 30,000 more employees over the past year.

Here are the World's Most Admired Companies for 2019 as ranked in their industries. See who made the list.

Our 2019 list of the 100 best companies as ranked by their employees. See which companies made the list.

This year's Fortune Global 500 generated $27.7 trillion in revenues and $1.5 trillion in profits.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 65th running of the list.

Here are the World's Most Admired Companies for 2018 as ranked in their industries. See who made the list.

Our 2018 list of the 100 best companies as ranked by their employees. See which companies made the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 64th running of the list.

We surveyed tens of thousands of young employees to create this list of millennials’ favorite workplaces.

best-workplaces-millennials-2018-FedEx

Employees say: 
 
&nbsp; 
 
"It is quite unique how well FedEx takes cares of its employees. I have never worked somewhere where I have been paid so well and been given so many benefits, even as a part-time employee. I feel taken care of and that the company respects what I do." 
 
&nbsp; 
 
"Since I started working for FedEx Freight as a part-time dock worker over four years ago. I have received nothing but great advice, as well as great opportunities to move up. I climbed my way to management with the support of my uppers. The co-workers I have met along the way have been the friendliest with my best interests in mind. I have never worked for a company that I've been so proud of." 
 
&nbsp;

100 Best Large Workplaces for Millennials

Here are the World's Most Admired Companies for 2017 as ranked in their industries. See who made the list.

Our 2017 list of the 100 best companies as ranked by their employees. See which companies made the list.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 63rd running of the list.

Here are the World's Most Admired Companies for 2016 as ranked in their industries. See who made the list.

This year's Fortune Global 500 generated $27.6 trillion in revenues and $1.5 trillion in profits.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 62nd running of the list.

Business insiders have spoken: Asked which companies they most admire, more than 4,100 executives, directors, and analysts chose these top 50 All-Stars.

The world's 500 largest companies generated $31.2 trillion in revenues and $1.7 trillion in profits in 2014. Together, this year's Fortune Global 500 employ 65 million people worldwide and are represented by 36 countries.

This year's Fortune 500 marks the 61st running of the list. Wal-Mart claims the top spot again. See who made the list.

Global business is back. After limping through a worldwide financial crisis and economic slowdown, the 500 largest companies ranked by revenues shattered all sorts of performance records in 2013: They racked up combined revenues of $31.1 trillion, up 2.5% from 2012, and profits soared 27% to nearly $2 trillion. China’s 95 companies (up from 89 last year) posted $5.8 trillion in revenues. The U.S. has four fewer companies on the list than last year but remains (for now) the country leader, with 128 corporations on the list—including No. 1 Wal-Mart Stores—reporting $8.6 trillion in revenues. 

Wal-Mart stayed on top as its sales crept closer to half-a-trillion dollars. Apple moved into the top five. And UnitedHealth Group continued its steady climb. 

Best Companies

Years on list

U.S. employees

U.S. job openings

Year founded

Perks

100% health coverage

Unlimited sick days

Telecommuting

Job sharing

Subsidized childcare

Compressed work weeks

Fully-paid sabbaticals

On-site fitness/subsidized gym

On-site medical care facility

Non-discrimination policy includes sexual orientation

Sick days for part-timers

College tuition reimbursement

Student loan debt repayment

Paid Time Off: Full-time Employees

# Sick days

Hiring/staffing (past 12 Months)

# of job applicants

Company Info

Industry

Founded

City

Sites

Web Address

Millennials In The Organization

# of millennial employees

Millennials as % of total workforce

Sector

Current All-Star Rank

Previous All-Star Rank

Industry Rank

Previous Industry Rank

Overall Score

Innovation

People Management

Use of Corporate Assets

Social Responsibility

Quality of Management

Financial Soundness

Long-Term Investment Value

Quality of Products/Services

Global Competitiveness

Culture rank

Process rank

Product rank

Previous rank

Key Financials (last Fiscal Year)

Revenues ($M)

Profits ($M)

Assets ($M)

Total Stockholder Equity ($M)

Profit Ratios

Profit as % of Revenues

Profits as % of Assets

Profits as % of Stockholder Equity

Earnings Per Share (last Fiscal Year)

Earnings Per Share ($)

EPS % Change (from prior fiscal year)

EPS % Change (5 year annual rate)

EPS % Change (10 year annual rate)

Total Return

Total Return to Investors (last year)

Total Return to Investors (5 year, annualized)

Total Return to Investors (10 year, annualized)

FedEx, founded in 1971, is a multinational delivery services company known for its overnight shipping and pioneering tracking systems. Headquartered in Memphis, FedEx operates in more than 220 countries and territories, providing an array of services including express transportation, freight, e-commerce, and business solutions.

Q4 2025

Q3 2025

Q2 2025

FedEx (FDX): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

legacy

fedex

FedEx, founded in 1971, is a multinational delivery services company known for its overnight shipping and pioneering tracking systems. Headquartered in Memphis, FedEx operates in more than 220 countries and territories, providing an array of services including express transportation, freight, e-commerce, and business solutions.

FedEx (FDX): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings | Fortune

Emma Burleigh

Ex-Applebee’s exec was told she’d never be CEO—she bought the chain and fired her naysayer: ‘We don’t need two of us, so I’m gonna have to let you go’

/2025/08/22/ex-applebees-president-ihop-ceo-julia-stewart-careers-fired-her-naysayer-boss-acquisition/

Gen Alpha may never have to write a résumé: Over 75% of employers are now using personality and skills tests in hiring

/2025/07/09/gen-alpha-may-never-have-to-write-resume-personality-skills-tests-hiring-fortune-500-soft-skills-ai/

Cailley LaPara

Bloomberg

FedEx warns of pain ahead with tariffs weighing on demand

/2025/06/25/fedex-earnings-trump-tariffs-china-guidance-demand-shipments/

The Associated Press

FedEx founder Fred Smith, a Marine Corps veteran who revolutionized package delivery, dies at 80

/2025/06/22/fedex-founder-fred-smith-obituary-marine-corps-veteran-package-delivery/

Susan Haigh

USPS’ new postmaster general is a FedEx board member and former Fortune 500 CEO. But union leaders say he’s the ‘last type of person’ who should be in charge

/article/usps-postmaster-general-steiner-fedex-fortune-500/

David Sharp

After postage price hikes and $87 billion in losses, critics of the USPS leader say latest gambit could lead to death spiral

https://fortune.com/2024/08/22/postage-stamp-price-hikes-billion-losses-usps-plan/?itm_source=parsely-api

Ex-Applebee's exec was told she’d never be CEO—she bought the chain and fired her naysayer: ‘We don't need two of us, so I'm gonna have to let you go’

https://fortune.com/2025/08/22/ex-applebees-president-ihop-ceo-julia-stewart-careers-fired-her-naysayer-boss-acquisition/?itm_source=parsely-api

https://fortune.com/2025/07/09/gen-alpha-may-never-have-to-write-resume-personality-skills-tests-hiring-fortune-500-soft-skills-ai/?itm_source=parsely-api

https://fortune.com/article/usps-postmaster-general-steiner-fedex-fortune-500/?itm_source=parsely-api

Chris Morris

Amazon is set to deliver 5.9 billion packages this year—more than UPS or FedEx in a big reversal

https://fortune.com/2023/11/27/amazon-delivers-more-packages-than-ups-fedex/?itm_source=parsely-api

Natalie McCormick

Nike’s CEO climbed from intern to the corner office. Here are 11 Fortune 500 CEOs who did the same—and how long it took

https://fortune.com/2024/10/28/ceos-climb-entry-level-corner-office-entire-career/?itm_source=parsely-api

https://fortune.com/2025/06/25/fedex-earnings-trump-tariffs-china-guidance-demand-shipments/?itm_source=parsely-api

Jon Chorley, Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Vice President, Supply Chain Management, Oracle Rudina Seseri, Founder and Managing Partner, Glasswing Ventures Rebecca Yeung, Corporate Vice President, Operations Science and Advanced Technology, FedEx Moderator: Verne Kopytoff, FORTUNE

Brainstorm AI 2023: Supplying Solutions for Industry

Conferences

on Chorley, Chief Sustainability Officer and Senior Vice President, Supply Chain Management, Oracle Rudina Seseri, Founder and Managing Partner, Glasswing Ventures Rebecca Yeung, Corporate Vice President, Operations Science and Advanced Technology, FedEx Moderator: Verne Kopytoff, FORTUNE

Jon Chorley, Supply Chain Management, Oracle Rudina Seseri, Glasswing Ventures, Rebecca Yeung, Operations Science and Advanced Technology, FedEx, Verne Kopytoff, FORTUNE

Welcome back to the second day of fourteen's brainstorm A I conference. We hope you enjoy dinner. We hope you enjoy breakfast. And now let's get down to business today. So before we get started, I want to extend a really big thanks to our partners for their huge contribution to this event, our founding partner, Accenture and then our partners who are a ARP Amgen chat point hand show sales force and work day. And then we have our supporting partner, Felicia. Thank you so much to all of our partners. So a quick reminder before we kick off about our reporting and social media rules, anything that said here on stage or in the strategy session throughout the day is on the record and that includes the Q and A s but what's said over the table during a meal or on a break in a corridor that is private unless agreed otherwise by all of the parties involved. OK. So with that out of the way, let's get started with today's first session since its inception A I has been a helpful and powerful tool in making supply chain predictions with the help of A I organizations are now focused on optimizing the supply chain and ensuring it can be tailored to the needs of clients and customers. With the holiday season, fastly approaching supply chains, technologies and cost management abilities are as ever being put to the test. So here to discuss how A I is tackling the challenges of the supply chain. Please welcome John Chorley, who is the chief sustainability officer and senior Vice president of supply chain Management at Oracle, Regina Sri, who is the founder and managing partner at Glass Wing Ventures. Rebecca Young Corporate Vice President for Operation Science and Advanced Technology at fedex where she also oversees the company's innovations in robotics and they will be interviewed by my colleague, Fortune, senior editor, Vern K. Yep. Have a seat. Hello, everybody. I hope you had a fantastic dinner last night and thank you panelists for joining us. Let's first off, let's set the stage for uh the discussion and, and just give us a maybe start with you, John, uh an example of your favorite A I for the supply chain. Well, that's that's a tough question long continuum of A I being applied to supply chain, obviously the latest. So as it were is Ja I and you know, there's that, but the history of A I and supply chain is really looked at a lot of optimization problems and trying to help solve those. One of the things we've worked out on most recently is predicting your estimated time of arrival, more accurately using A I technology and in including in that other causal factors, weather, seasonality and so on. So that one, I think it is a great example of how we can continue to evolve the use of A I in supply chain. Well, I should go to Regina. I think I know what you're going to say. We'll get to that. Thank you and good morning everyone. So selfishly helping from one of my portfolio companies because we're very active investors, early stage investors in the application of A I for supply chain. And one of those companies being Verison based out of Atlanta, where they're focused on inventory optimization and particularly in direct parts. So not the parts that actually get embedded in the production of a finished good, but the parts that go into the machinery um there is an average of 60 to $80 billion waste pure, poor tracking um over stocking under stocking emergency ordering. And what this team has done is Jena is the wrapper, not the differentiator. They're actually leveraging recurrent neural nets with deep learning and some other architectures and technologies to fundamentally both harmonize the data. So you know exactly what you have in stock, harmonize it even if the data is inputted in perfectly, even if it's off off prem rather than just in the cloud. And then also give you visibility into optimization for when you order because they see the entire supply chain so super excited about that one. And Rebecca. Yeah, it's really hard question for me to answer because uh we our operations cover both the physical and digital side. And so putting the perspective of fedex operation, we just celebrated our 50th anniversary. Today, we move on average 14.5 million shipments on daily basis to 220 countries and territories. So as John said, for supply chain, it takes a lot on the digital side, actually optimize the movement of goods. And also we have think about we have 700 planes, we have 210,000 vehicles and 5000 locations. And so in order to um move the shipments in the most optimized manner, we use a lot of the A I tools, whether it's the JA I or like predictive analytics, etcetera. But what I most excited, I think we that's my answer is on the physical side. I mean we talk about Ja I always like joke with my colleagues like this is the language part of the A I. There's also a math part of A I, right on the robotics and auto technology side. And um we really see the convergence of underlining technologies from a sensor perspective. The the sensor gets a lot better. So robots actually see better today and also the computation gets faster. With GP U, the robot can think faster. And then the ultimate A I algorithms enable robots today to have the touch have the force control, have ability to actually move in efficiently in tight space. So in the past, robots are very much doing precision work and the secret is the imprecision, like more dynamic like movement is more difficult. So for our operations, you think about 14.5 million shipments on daily basis, it all vary in size, shape, weight, packaging material. And it's also randomized because they come down from sort and also have very high like high throughput needed because you all want your Christmas gifts to be on time. You don't want us to hold inventory. And so if you combine the randomized shipment, um real time decision making and also high throughput, we require very high advanced A I. So that's what I'm most excited about. And let's be specific. You have a robot that packs trucks with boxes, random sizes, random weights and what and what are the limitations of a robot like that? It's just an experiment, experimentation phase. They're not quite as good as humans yet, right? Yeah, we're still developing that because like, uh if we look at the history of robots like uh um like in the past, it's more like a very precise decision work and now we move towards making real time decisions. So the it's a lot of decisions to make because in the inside the trailer, you can have hundreds to thousands of packages and for robots to not only actually sense how heavy is the package. But also um you have to be cognitively playing the Tetris game where to place the package. So that uh a few factors you have to think about is put the heavier boxes at the bottom because you don't want the heavy boxes to be on the top, which to make the world less steady and also easy to cause damage because uh in our operations reliability, highest customer service are all important factors. So the robot basically is doing both the heavy lifting of moving the boxes as well as playing the 3D te at the same time. So that's the complication. And John um we had the uh the, you know, the COVID pandemic which upended the supply chain. What did we learn from that? And are we prepared for the next major disruption? Are we better prepared this time around? Yeah, I I think we learned that the tremendous amount we learned that you can become too lean, you can become too just in time. And that essentially injects risk risk into your supply chain. We learned a lot of breakdowns in communication between different parts of the supply chain. That information flow wasn't as smooth as it could and should be. Uh we learned that flexibility is important. And I think now that we've sort of come through the acute phase, the fever phase. If you like of the of the pandemic, we're now into the hangover phase. Maybe we've oversupplied inventory in certain cases and it's in the wrong place and we're trying to move that through the supply chain. But I think the longer term lesson is going to be around resiliency, how to build resiliency into your supply chain. And that I think means looking at flexible sources of supply, looking at different ways of hedging your inventory, multi enterprise inventory optimization techniques and those kind of things where mathematics can really and A I can really help, help give you an optimal solution. Um And I think we're also learning about planning that, that you know, a single answer plan isn't, isn't correct. And that you need to look at um a scenario planning where different factors possibly those more likely to change you per those and understand how that might affect your plan and get a range of outcomes with probability uh helping direct uh how you make your decisions. So these things are all evolving. Obviously A I has an enormous part to play in those processes. Computational power lets you do these things now. And I think as we emerge from this, that core aspect of resiliency is going to be is going to be central and Regina, you had a little midi announcement to make that not only deals with supply chain but all A I just go ahead. Sure. So basically this morning, we announced what we call the A IA I pallet. So my firm were an A I Originalist Fund and started investing in the application of A I in 2010. And through the years have developed proprietary model where one can start with the use case and try to figure out what are the best techniques, architectures ways to train the algorithms or you can start with, you know, I have this algorithm at hand, what kind of data do we need? So we provide a framework which has been proprietary to date and we have open sourced it as of this morning for whether it's a software founder that is trying to recruit, you know, a co founder, that's an ML expert. And he is trying to figure out what technology or what capabilities should they have or whether you're an executive and you're getting the three letter acronyms from all your techies and are trying to make head or tails and everyone in between. And we think this is important because even in our chat right now, two things have happened. We use A I as if it's a, you know, monolithic term. It is not, it's like saying technology behind it, there are literally hundreds of architectures and within those architectures, hundreds of techniques. And then we combine them in ensemble models and it's basically thousands of possibilities. So how do you and us as executives and investors know that we are making the right decisions in what we are building. Bless you. Furthermore, far more though even the sort of beyond that point, the second point is gen A I and A I are not the same thing. May I repeat that? Gen A I and A I are not the same thing. Gen A I is incredibly transformative. We have crossed the chasm to mass consumerization. Therefore, we all latch on that is what drives the, the optimization is we to mention it or we won't get any traction. But it's really because grandma now can hug the computer because it's cute in the responses. And my 10 year old why just get some help for a book report? And I'll tell her mom. So when it touches all sides of the spectrum, you know, that is mass consumer that is based on a very fundamental underlying architecture called transformers. Happy to talk to you about that that knows them. And I repeat it is very important because we will never interact with software in the same manner. Having said that there are many, many, many other architectures and you know, machine learning techniques that will drive a lot more value in the enterprise, whether it's on the central loan or on a combined basis. So I just want to make sure that in all these conversations, we don't miss the forest for the trees. OK, John um to sort of put on your sustainability hat does A I or generative A I also have a role in terms of improving sustainability in the supply chain. Absolutely. I mean the enemy of sustainability is waste. And clearly, if you can run an efficient supply chain where you're just making what you need, you're not wasting either fuel because you're having to expedite things because you made a mistake on your planning or you're putting moving material into the wrong place at the wrong time. If you can eliminate all of those wasteful activities, you know, better routing. For example, where A I has an enormous part to play. If you can use those techniques, you can significantly drive down the waste in your supply chain, the fuel, the carbon intensity in your supply chain. And we have many customers doing exactly that. So you know, you can obviously move that upstream and start thinking about network design, which can help you improve the structure of your network to be more suited to how your business is moving and changing. Beyond that, you can look at transform transformations in your business where you're moving from being a product company into a service company. How can A I give you insight into how your products are being used? Therefore, you can fold that back into the way you operate your business and design and, and support your products. So, you know, at the end of the day, we are going to solve this existential sustainability, environmental crisis through the clever use of technology. And A I is clearly a key component of that Rebecca at fedex, not only are you doing robots you're doing? Um autonomous trucks. Uh could you tell us a bit about that? Yeah, I think this is another form. I totally agree. Like for A I, it comes in different format and the key is to use the right A I technology to solve the strategic problem. So it's more like lead with the business values and they match the best technology. So in the A B space, we are actively testing with Aurora here in the Valley. Um um we actually have been testing since 2021. So over the last five years, it's actually correction. Last two years, we have been working together with Aurora and the pack up because we believe that for A V technology, the OEM redundancy is really important to lead with safety testing, the lanes and really focusing on the like safety and um the reliability of the technology. So, so far, we have been had a sound load and 250,000 miles. And uh uh literally like we move about half a million pounds autonomously every month. So it very much help us balance the business needs, which is imbalance the length as well as like length. We have driver shortage and Regina, what's the future of autonomy in the factory and on apparently on the roads as well? Big question. Um So I think I would articulate it as a two part, perhaps, perhaps process one, this notion of the co ploting dynamic that we will have with A I, whether we have it with the agents in our everyday lives as private citizens. But also in our professional setting, you can think of it as you know, it's ambient A I, it's everywhere and we have so much data that therefore our performance is, you know, intricately tied with what we do around A I and we may or may not need neuralink, we'll figure that out, but fundamentally, it will drive productivity and then there will be certain areas where we can have complete autonomy or at least one of those five stages of autonomy. But there will be other areas where I think the human given our creativity and inherent ability to reason will dominate but will be enhanced by our co ploting and ambient relationship with A I and uh to, to wrap things up, what, um, how do you choose which projects to pursue they're out of so so many, you mean as, as, as me as a developer or considering there's dozens of options you could, how do you choose? Yeah, I mean, I think I'm a believer in crawl walk run. I suppose that, you know, clearly solving supply chain problems is a journey. It's requires continuous focus. So, you know, begin, begin with a project that is tractable and which addresses a specific need and then gradually grow based on your experience with that. I think that, you know, obviously A I has changed enormously, uh with the advent of chat GP T um it's sort of, as you said, it's the sort of the, the, the liberal arts side, liberal arts side of A I, as opposed to the more mathematical algorithmic side that we've been used to up until now, actually, it is a mathematical just manifests as a Exactly. So, so look, I think, you know, you need to look at your own business, understand where some of the challenges are there, Look to see if there's A I techniques that can be applied to that that are approachable. Our, our approach within oracle is to deliver solutions, not, not just technology, we want them to be easily adopted. There's obviously a learning curve associated with getting data scientists on board, the extent to which you can find problems where you can minimize that you can move forward quicker. Uh So you know, get some experience, get some results and then iterate and move forward. Well, thank you to the panelists. You've had a fascinating discussion and uh well, the next panel coming up next. Thank you.

Natarajan Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Sons

Raj Subramaniam, President and CEO, FedEx

In conversation with: Clay Chandler, FORTUNE

 

Fortune Global Forum 2023: Reimagining Global Supply Chains And Manufacturing

Ok. Well, according to the Brookings Institution, the world now has 4 billion consumers. I think consumers are defined as people who have more than $12 a day to spend. That's about half the world's population. Uh Next year, 113 million more people will join the consumer class. And India and China will contribute much of that, that growing consumer class plus rapid advancements in technology. The transition to clean energy lessons learned from the pandemic. Those are all factors that are reshaping global manufacturing and supply chains. We're going to learn how now from leaders of two truly iconic companies on how to lean into these trans nations to foster growth and resiliency. In an organization, Mata Chandra Saccharin, we all call him Chandra, he's chairman of Tata Sons, the holding company and promoter of all Tata group companies and Raj Subramaniam, president and CEO of fedex, they're going to be joined by Fortune's executive editor for Asia Clay Chandler for a fascinating conversation. Please welcome them to the stage. Thanks Alan, welcome. Uh Thank you both for uh being here. It's such a, such a privilege to have you with us. You know, as Alan uh hinted it has, uh really been, the last five years have been a period of tremendous of people in global supply chains. And if you think about kind of the major business, uh, stories of the last five years, that's got to be one of them. Uh, we've had factor after factor kind of compounding uh on each other to, to drive this change. You know, there's been, uh, things like natural disasters, earthquakes, weather, some of them climate related shocks to the system. There's been the pandemic that caused disruption in ports, borders were closed. Uh Then there's this kind of rising uh geopolitical tension between the world's two largest economies that has complicated trade and investment. And then you've got all this technological change going on and on the positive side, you've had the rise of some smaller economies, uh you know, Southeast Asia and especially now South Asia that really opened their borders to business and investment. And so firms are all trying to capitalize that, negotiate that. Uh And it's, it's just a fascinating uh moment you two are both on the front lines of that shift. And so I'm, I'm eager to kind of hear your views on on what's happening. Raj, maybe I could start with you. I mean, Fedex famously launched in 73 with 400 employees and maybe 14 planes or something like that and has now got a fleet of 650 or more and 600,000 workers, which is amazing. Uh I think I read that you deliver 15 million packages a day. How have all these disruptions kind of affected your strategy and your business? Well, I think uh it's safe to say that uh the pandemic, you know, fundamentally changed the supply chain conversation forever. But, you know, before 2019, if I had mentioned supply chain and polite conversation, I heard have been escorted to the door and now it seems to be a talk show subjects, you know, uh I think uh you know, historically supply chains have seen this bull whip effects over time and uh because of uh you know, variabilities and so on and so forth. But over a period of 2025 years because of systems like fedex and because of technolo technological advancements, those you know, were relatively muted, of course, there were some swings but they were literally muted and then came the pandemic. And now we are seeing the supply chain BW effect of that we have been seen for ages. So it went up and then on the way down and it kind of normalizing post panem. But during the pandemic, it was um especially the issues when supply chains were twofold. One was lack of availability of parts for uh for manufacture, for manufacturing and second was simply bottlenecks, but particularly on the oceanfront, on the ports. And a lot of the issues were, I mean, when you look at the United States, there were, you know, 100 ships waiting to unload. And a lot of the issues were in that 1st 20 miles of the coast from the vessel operator to the crane operator, to the trucks to the warehouse. And the lack of information flow between all of these things. It once it got bottlenecked, it was, it was very difficult to unravel. And so that was what the issues were from a fedex point of view. We are flying over it and we were, we kept the, we kept the supply chains alive, so to speak, especially in doing, as you recover from the pandemic, we distributed almost a billion plus vaccines in the, you know, and so on and so forth. So, and we, you know, we moved so much P pe and uh you know, um other healthcare related stuff during the pandemic. So we've kind of kept it going. Uh But most of the issues were on the, on the port and primarily in the ocean side in, in a way that the pandemic was a boon to your business because there was this explosion of, of, of ecommerce and then as the pandemic. And yeah, how did you adjust to that? Well, I think uh I think one way to describe that in macro terms would be, I think from uh before the pandemic, e-commerce represented roughly about 16% of retail and during the pandemic, it rose to 22%. So that was a significant increase that's now down to about 9 19% and it's stabilizing. So, if you actually think about it, if there was no pandemic and you look post prepa emic to where we are today, the trend would be kind of OK, except that we went through this uh cycle here. Uh So, uh I think that's where we are. Uh I think uh we are kind of normalizing to levels. where would we would have been, had there been no pandemic, especially on e-commerce, but that was in the middle up and down. I wanna ask you Chandra a little bit uh if I could about, about India and where India fits into this equation? I mean, we have seen increasingly global manufacturers take a look at India that they haven't been willing to, to do uh in the past. Um you know, Apple, for example, has recently Apple, I think since the iphone launched in, was it 2007 that's probably produced about 95% of the those handsets in China. Uh you know, to the point where the, the slogan for Apple became, you know, sort of designed in California assembled in, in China. But Apple has recently come out and said that it wants to uh have 20% as many as 20% of the phones produced in, in India, which is remarkable. I think it's 10% now. Uh is that indicative of other opportunities that there are in in India for, for manufacturing and becoming sort of taking some of that China share uh as, as part of the global supply chain, I think um instead of uh looking at uh whether taking share or not, um we need to see the broader trends. Uh what the pandemic exposed is the failure of supply chains, which were designed for total optimization. Yeah. Uh we saw it in the car industry, we saw it in um um aerospace industry, we saw it in everywhere. Uh We saw it in chips, um huge shortage of chips um and many parts. So what is happening is diversification of supply chain. So I call this um as an India plus opportunity because supply chain is not a one country phenomenon. Supply chain is an ecosystem. So no one country can say that we are going to replace somebody or we are going to. So you need alternative uh ecosystem and India has a role to play because of the size scale and everything else. We are right in the middle of it. Um As start a group because uh we have announced a huge enter into electronics, precision manufacturing to uh semiconductor assembly to f similarly in batteries. We are putting together a 20 gigawatt plant in India and uh 40 gigawatts in the UK. So um and we are also into telecom equipment and many other uh many other opportunities. So I think the uh supply chain is getting diversified for resilience and India because of the size scale talent uh and the large domestic market uh definitely is attracting investments and will have a role to play. And it's, and it's not just that it's also uh some of the design and the, and the engineering uh uh product development as well. I mean, the thing that everyone is so excited in the Indian Financial Press uh this weekend, I guess is that tomorrow is it that Tata technology has its has its IP O Yeah. Yeah, see, I think you have to see this uh world um where many things are happening. At the same time. I don't know whether we know any point in history, whether we have had uh such kind of transitions happening. There is one which is the A I transition. Second is the energy transition. Third one is the supply chain transition. And then on top of that, the geopolitics and everything else that's going on. So India is kind of uniquely placed primarily because uh the digital infrastructure that India has put in place probably India is the only example where there is a very large scale public services delivery happening through digital primarily because we didn't have these systems, we didn't have the alternative. So you want the whole hog similarly in supply chain, it's a unique opportunity, energy transition. India's energy needs are going to quadruple in the next uh 2530 years. And all of this is going to be new energy. So unlike many other parts of the world where the uh new energy has to replace the thermal energy in India, it's all additive. So given that I think India is uniquely well placed and as you said, design and, and uh engineering skills are plenty and other technologies which is one of our IP OS after 20 years. Um I mean, just uh even surprised me in terms of the level of interest. Uh I mean, it, it is kind of uh bit in the charts, the single largest retail applications of any company. It's a small IP O comparatively. Mm And the number of times it's been more subscribed in every segment. Um It's just remarkable. It is astonishing. Um I wanna come back to this energy and sustainability question but just to dwell a little bit more on the on the India Point. Um I mean, from a logistics and, and kind of delivery uh point of view, Raj, I, I know you've been looking a lot at what the opportunity is there for, for Federal Express. Um And I'm fascinated by that, you know, I have been going to India for for many years and you know, you mentioned that sort of ships backed up outside the US ports. One of my kind of most vivid memories of India is the line of ships and trucks backed up behind the ports in, in Bombay, which was kind of a regular everyday thing for so long. Uh And, and you kind of think of India as a place that has kind of unique logistic challenges, transportation challenges, not enough roads, that's all really changing very rapidly. And I was struck by your um announcement recently that you are, you are setting up an advanced capability community in uh in Hyderabad. Uh I wonder if you could tell us a little bit about what that is and, and why, what, what the opportunity is you see in India? Well, thank you for bringing it up clay because it very important for us. India is an extremely critical market for fedex. And um we talked about supply chains a minute ago, you know, we are really the practitioners of supply chain at a very granular level from the bottom up, especially in high value trade. So uh we're kind of in everybody's business and we see it from the bottom up. In fact, every day is a reference, those 15 million packages you talked about is a referendum on global supply chains that we see every single day. India represents 2.8% of global manufacturing today. And I I think there is every chance as the supply chain patterns are evolving and changing, that number goes north and as manufacturing goes so goes fedex. So that's why fundamentally it is a core business opportunity for fedex to be especially, you know, India, in and India out um segments of that manufacturing uh you talked about infrastructure. So one of the things that we have talked about, you know, before um is the cost of logistics as a part of GDP, I mean, in fact, relatively quite high in India. And I think so I'm very encouraged by the national launch of the national logistics policy and what the PM Gti Shakti plan in India to actually go hand in hand with uh with manufacturing, to make sure that the logistics infrastructure keeps space so that the overall cost of logistics as a personal of GDP comes down. So those things board for well for our core business. But there are two other aspects that are important for us. One is simply talent, uh fedex is, you know, and the fedex 2.0 version, so to speak, the technology and digital play a significant portion in our future. We are literally sitting on data about supply chain and insights every single day. So we are we should be able to figure out, you know, how do we create value for all our stakeholders based on both on the insights and technology plays a key role and talent plays a key role. So that's why you know this announcement of this advanced community center in the community uh capability, the community in Hyderabad. Uh it is very critical for us to launch that there's also a third element of it is the innovation part. And again, Chandra's point, I mean, I'm, I'm really struck by the amazing move move that India has made in the digital infrastructure. And uh and I think uh we think that, you know, making sure that we have innovation for our globe, you know, to be able to be seated in India is an important thing. So we have a three pronged strategy, our core business, our talent and our innovation. And that's what we're pursuing this talent innovation point is a really interesting one because we're at this moment where we're getting these real uh explosive breakthroughs in in artificial intelligence uh that people are discovering all kinds of, you know, fascinating ways that they can be applied. I mean, Raja, I know in your business that uh route optimization is an absolutely crucial thing uh for uh uh you know, I mean, I take this point that uh people are, are more willing to uh you know, shift from just in time to just in case and they'll tolerate a little bit more inventory and, and are not prioritizing efficiency as much as before perhaps. But it's still a crucial thing in your business. How does A I help you to play into to that imperative for you? Well, I think it's uh it's absolutely critical for us and I, I would, I would uh mention a couple of things, the high level. Firstly, we talk about supply chain, you know, diversification andrei well, residency by definition makes it a little bit more expensive. And so the only way we become resilient and efficient is technology. And um the second point I would make is that in the space of A I and ML, you know, especially as we go into predictive models, we have now built a digital tone of fedex. And so we are going going from reactive to predictive. And what that means for a consumer's perspective is our ability to predict that estimated delivery date and time window is better and better and better with deep learning models every single day because it's got so many different, those 15 million packages have so many different ways to go. There's weather, there's traffic patterns, there's network conditions, you know, it's so, but all those know, factors are being dialed in to get predictive, high, higher level. But even one step further is this whole talk about uh GP T and things like that. I mean, you know, the chat GP D being trained on public data but the, you know, private data, the company level data is also a place where, you know, that's not been tapped at all. And I think everybody has recognized that, but the first step is to organize that data. The good news for us is we have spent the last three or four years really building up in the latest up to date data platforms. So we are able to now, you know, use some of these modern technologies and you know, learning models on some of our data to see how we can create more value for our customers. And again, moving into that digital trend in a predictive way versus a reactive way. Uh So, Chandra before uh taking your, your role as chairman in 2017, I guess it was you were CEO of T CS, which is uh India's largest software firm filled with a lot of these kind of bright uh engineers and, and software uh experts as well as was mentioning, where do you see the A I opportunity for India? I'm just curious, I think the opportunity is huge for every business and it's a huge opportunity for India, primarily because of the talent. Um and also uh the infrastructure that we are putting in place in India, both the public and private infrastructure uh and the number of start ups that are emerging in the air space is just humongous and uh as a group, um we are uh in both traditional businesses and the new businesses and we have deployed digitally across the spectrum. So for example, take the battery plant, we have not even started the construction, ok. We've just announced the battery plan. We're going to start the construction in early 2024 and we got a 24 month schedule and April 26 we want to go production, but already we have built, we are, we are building the digital trend from CS to batteries to the supply demand, all engines in place. So that we can do the simulation uh real time. Take Tata steel, all the Tata steel plants, which was a very old company of the group more than a few years and already uh uh totally digitized. And World Economic Forum uh ranks uh Tata Steel as a light of steel plant uh for um industrial 4.0 all all technologies there. It's iot whether it is data, um um cloud analytics, everything is in place. And so we fundamentally ask every business uh one question, what is that? What is it that you're gonna do in the next generation A I? So you used to ask, what are you going to do in data? How are you going to digitize your business? Now we moved to, what is your A I plan? That's the question. But I think in India coming to the larger point, there is going to be a lot happening in the India Us Corridor with the both the governments have also announced a number of policy measures and number of joint working groups. Uh I also charge the U SDS co forum and uh we are pushing the envelope on A I. Um So there will be a lot of a lot of convergence of technologies between uh India and leveraging the West Coast. We will set up um uh large scale um cloud data centers using platforms like in media. So we want to actually democratize A I. So we are putting together um E I cloud infrastructure, not the traditional infrastructure so that companies can innovate. Uh fascinating. Well, we will, we will watch with keen interest to see how India's trajectory uh evolves and how global supply chains continues to shift. I want to thank you both for your, your insights and your perspective. Thank you very much and.

FedEx and others are leveraging the power of A.I. to make sure your gifts arrive on time.

Holiday package delivery gets some help from A.I.

Tech

you order something online as a consumer and you expect the delivery next day, maybe in two days. But what's going on behind the scenes is actually quite phenomenal. The holiday season. A lot of things can go wrong and there's a huge demand and everything needs to be there at the same time. And on time here artificial intelligence machine learning can really help. Let's think about the last mile achievement. It's all about data and bringing data together then really using optimization, ai Ml type of technologies in order to drive the efficiency and really drive the value and these artificial intelligence algorithms is learning. So it's not just optimizing starting always from scratch. It's learning, it's taking all these data sets into account and think about all the datasets we need. Right? So we need the weather, we need the traffic, the current traffic situation, we need a route which is the most sustainable one or the most efficient one. In many cases that's the same. We need to have optimization done with all the trucks which are on the way if one day breaks down, I need to have another one picking it up. So there we use actually this artificial intelligence are written to cross the fleet and optimize constantly. The more historical data sets I have, the better the output is right because I can actually say with these circumstances this might happen and this system is actually learning. This is how artificial intelligence can make a big difference in order to still deliver even if things go wrong. The interesting piece around AI and how you get application out of it is to find real life problems to solve a company the size of Fedex has lots of interesting opportunities that we come across every day just by the size and scale of the nature as well as the complexities that our customers have that they want us to solve. Our mission is to make supply chains smarter. The supply chain used to be here, right, it would deliver a lot of goods to a location and then it would go on shelves and people would come in and buy it. You've lengthen that and the expectations and experience that consumers have today requires understanding so much further in the supply chain, creating visibility to where a package has been and where it's gonna be. So how do you predict the future is really important for creating consumer confidence. The very first pieces, just wrangling the silo data, how do you bring in really important data assets that you can use over and over again to create exponential value. One of those is very simplistic and probably one of our most important assets is our scan data as a package moves throughout the network. We learn a lot about what's happening geographically as well as what we anticipate in how we plan for volume is entering the network throughout a global, pretty large scale network. Once you start creating actions out of those insights, you start to chip away at opportunities throughout the entire end to end supply chain. I think we're early on in that journey. Um I think we've been enlightened and inspired about how powerful our data is, but I'll say, I think we're just scratching the surface and really look forward to the future.

Raj Subramaniam says that working with FedEx Founder Fred Smith is "one of the greatest things that happened to me"

FedEx's New CEO: "We have significant upside and great potential"

Leadership

FedEx CEO: "We have significant upside and great potential"

thank you so much for joining us to talk about Fedex, it's almost two months now since you became Ceo. And already you're unveiling your plans to, to grow the company. In fact, you met with a large investor group recently and the first thing you told them, We are at a pivotal moment in our 50 year history. What's the message you want to get across to everyone as the new ceo? That's indeed exactly right. We have a built a very strong foundation over the last 50 years. Building networks is not easy at all and it takes a lot of time and patience to build these networks. And so now we are at a pivotal point where we can build on that foundation and create more value for all our stakeholders. The second part of the story is the fact that we have such a strong physical network, but it's also got a strong underpinning of digital network and going forward, we're going to create value not only from the physical aspects of our network, We're also on the digital aspects of our network. We're here to create the legacy of the next 25 years. And with that as the backdrop, you laid out your plan for 20, and what's going to happen over the next three years. And you told everyone that earnings are going to grow as much as 19% a year. Uh you're expecting double-digit operating margins and an adjusted dividend payout ratio of at least 25%. Sounds like you are setting a very high bar for yourself roger, we are in the middle of a fast growing aecom Merce market, we have a strong portfolio and uh, and then in the fact that we find ourselves in the center of the e commerce ecosystem there. In fact critical infrastructure for e commerce. So the question is, how do we balance our growth going forward? How do we improve our operating margins of our individual operating companies and then deliver the returns that that we talked about? We believe we have significant upside and great potential for Fedex going forward. Some people were kind of surprised that you took such a bold action so early in your tenure. Um, as Ceo, did you feel that you needed to be bold right away because of all the pressure that Fedex has been getting from the activist group D. E shaw and your agreement with them to add three new board members directors to the Fed export. Did you feel a sense of urgency that you have to show that as the new boss, you're really doing things to make a strong, even stronger company? Uh, the short answer that when, that's not that that's not, that was not the motivation. In fact, we've been planning for this event for almost a year and that these plans are already in place over the last several months, well before any conversation that we had with the show the message that I'm trying to get across here is that the networks that we have taken time to build over this time is very valuable. And you know, it's really that pivot that we're now doing is to make sure that we create value from the networks. What will it take for Fedex to reach your goals? I mean, what are the key things that the company needs to be doing? But it's not doing right now? It's about execution now. And um, and the fact that we have to make sure that we have a balanced growth in our portfolio. The fact that each of our operating companies have to improve their efficiency in their operations using technology and driving the operating margins. And you know, we also be very disciplined in the way we, you know, spend our capital and improve our return on invested capital when you put those three things together, it drives significant value uh, to to all our shareholders. You told investors that you don't think a recession would weigh down all the plans that you have talk us through that. Because just about every economist we talked to these days is warning about a long recession to be very clear. That's not exactly what I said. I said, what I said was what our plans did not assume a deep and prolonged recession. And if we have a deep and prolonged recession, then it's a different matter altogether. We are, you know, we have weathered different storms before and we are able to flex our networks and we are able to manage through this time period usually. So I'm not, you know, any particular quarter or any particular six month period, we're talking about three year time period where the economy might go down but also might come back up and so there are opportunities that you know, again, I don't manage this company for any particular quarter as much as I manage it for a period of time and this is this is a three year goal I'm very confident of. What about some of the other pain points to what extent are you factoring in a continuation of supply chain disruptions for example or are you figuring that the supply chain issues are going to go away and it's not much of a concern. Well, the supply chain factor the two issues one is the lack of semiconductors for example and the other one is the transportation bottlenecks. On the first point, I think we are a few maybe a year or two away from that getting sorted out because of the classic supply chain bullet effect on that on the transportation side of the equation, I expect that to get sorted out much sooner. But meanwhile, while you're planning this new growth trajectory for your company, what impact supply chain have on what you're trying to do? Well, you know, we have dialed in some of those impacts, but I think, you know, to the extent that the supply chain impacts manufacturing and that manufacturing impact, demand for our services obviously will be impacted. So we are we are we have been conservative in our volume growth levels in this next three year timeframe. Uh and uh and it dials and some of those things into into into into effect here. Consumer spending also has to be an important component in your success. I mean up until now people have been coping with price hikes, but now everybody's complaining about higher gas prices, higher food prices. Uh you know, what's your take on how the consumer is doing and how a belt tightening on their part could mean a slowdown in package volumes at Fedex when you're trying to do just the opposite increasing them, those things are again obviously way against us in the short term. So we have to deal with these issues in the short term. But again, over a three year period, if you think about the e commerce aecom worse represented about 16% of retail prior to the pandemic at the peak of the pandemic represent 22% and now it is 20%. So it's been, is being reset but still significantly higher than 16%. So we expect e commerce as on a secular basis to continue to grow. Once this research is over. So again, over three year period were very comfortable. Once again, we're dialing in pretty conservative volume growth in, in our forecast. Well, we can't talk about Fedex without talking about UPS, people are always making the comparisons as you know, and UPS has been making changes in the past few years and the results have been a strong performance. Whether you're talking about profits, operating margins, even the stock has gone way up. Are there any takeaway lessons for Fedex and all of this? Well, financially, every, you know, almost every company is trying to achieve those kind of goals. I think what we have doing is again, to make sure that to build on the foundation that we've created and that's very important. And we, you know, Fedex prides itself on entrepreneurship. We pride ourselves on uh, differentiation and those are the kind of things and, and customer experience and then the diversity of our customer base and that's what's driving us and that's ultimately sustainable for a much longer period of time. Let's turn Roger and talk about leadership and talking a little bit more about you personally, um, you've been working aesthetics for 30 years now, in fact, It was your first job out of college. Um, but at the time you thought you wouldn't be hired, it was a long, a long shot. Um, but you did, so tell us what happened? Well, that's, you know, one of those things where it was in the month of August in 1991, in the middle of the recession. And uh, I just finished my M. B. A from the University of texas. Austin, I was walking into my apartment, my apartment made was on the phone talking to Fedex and he basically said I'm leaving the country and not interested or not. He put the phone down and said who are you talking to? And he says Fedex and they're coming to campus said give me the number, let me call them. So I called him and said you just talked to my roommate, he's he's leaving the country but I'm still here. Can I send you back to my resume? Which I did? And then they said, okay, well we'll do the interview. Well the rest is history after that. And so it was almost, you know, it was a uh serendipitous event that that made it happen. But if someone had told me back in 1991 when I walked into Memphis at the lowest level possible in the staff role In Fedex that this is what I would be doing 30 years from then had a much better chance to play for the Memphis Grizzlies. Well, when you did walk into the Fedex headquarters and you took that new job, you didn't know anybody uh in Memphis. And I guess it was kind of lonely and you could have just as easily gone back to India gone back home, but you didn't what motivated you to tough it out? Well, I think the right away. You know what, you know what got me into the garden to Fedex is the job was very interesting. We were expanding into international and I was even though, was that the the the lowest level in that the marketing function, I was put in the middle of this incredible project of international expansion and it really was fascinating. And so I got to see it, you know, emerged from that level onwards, you know, Fedex was much smaller companies. International business is much smaller and to develop a new whole new business area and opportunity was so great and it just kept going from there. Well, exactly. And you, you know, it paid off and you worked your way to the top with a lot of leadership roles along the way. And for the past few years you've been working very closely with fred smith, the founder and Ceo of Fedex. And from what I hear, fred was treating you as sort of the last couple of years as an understudy grooming you to be his successor. What are the most important leadership lessons you learned from him at that time? Well, I'll tell you what I mean. Working with fred has been just one of the greatest things, you know, that that has happened to me. You know, you know, there's so many things and especially in the last two or three years after I was appointed C. E. O. And the succession plan was pretty clear, especially during the pandemic when the company did one of some of the most important work in the history of our company to be working really closely with him. So it's not just see your school, it was history school, it was geography school, it was humanity school. So you put everything in context and perspective. It was just amazing. And you know fred has got the unique ability to connect this grand vision to the strategy, to the execution to the tactics in a way that very very few people can. And uh you know, I've just learned a whole lot from him and you know, it's just a matter of great honor and pride for me that that that I that I get this opportunity but also that that I'm succeeding somebody like him. Well you're clearly the boss now, although fred is still the largest shareholder of Fedex and he stays on as executive chairman. How often are you updating him now or checking in with him or asking his opinion on something? What are the sorts of things that he tells you to do? I mean obviously he's available on the phone anytime I want him. And uh so we make it a point to at least sit down once a week uh and you know, just chat and it could be about anything. And uh and so it's it's a it's a it's a great relationship. And so you know, I look forward to those conversations because there's so much one can learn from him. Well the job description of any ceo running a Fortune 500 company has changed dramatically in the past few years. Um There are so many new demands and expectations of C. E. O. S. Whether it's from the employees or customers shareholders, even sometimes from the public knowing all of that. How would you describe the way that you want to leave Fedex? First of all, I want to be true to the core of Fedex and that's what attracted me to the Fedex in the first place is the whole people culture. And so for me, it is to make sure that that that culture continues going forward. That we have the people first culture that we, you know, that we have respect our folks and we make sure that we reward and recognize the right behavior and you know, and and and then give the right expectations and doesn't matter where you are and cuts across humanity. So for me, it's building on that bedrock and then creating uh, you know what we want to create in the digital front, on the networks and so on. But don't forget where we came from.

FedEx

FedEx in Fortune Rankings

FedEx stock chart

Videos