FedEx

Today in class we discussed a case study, that contained an interview with the Chief Information Officer(CIO) of FedEx Rob Carter. The Interview was very insightful into the basic business model, and more specifically the operations, projects, and goals of the IT(information technology) department of FedEx. This left me wanting to learn more about this company, and its operations.

FedEx corporation is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee and was founded under the full name Federal Express by Fred Smith in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1971. The company was moved to Memphis soon after the company had problems coordinating with the Little Rock National Airport. Federal Express started out in the red ink for the first few years losing millions of dollars. However with the hard work of Fred Smith the company was able to grow substantially and increase its range while lowering its prices. They were also helped significantly in 1977 with the passage of the Airline Deregulation Act, which let them purchase 7 large Boeing aircraft, that they were previously unable to use under Federal law. The company went public soon after. In 1994 Federal Express officially adopted the name FedEx, three years later in 1997 FedEx merged with a number of small companies to form the FedEx corporation.

Since then the company has gone through many changes. The merger allowed the company to expand its operations beyond just airmail, as they absorbed many regional trucking/ground delivery services. This along with the merger with Caliber Logistics and Technologies, allowed them to establish FDX Corporation, later changed to the current FedEx Corporation in 2000. The change in 2000 also saw FedEx re-brand all of it subsidiaries establishing FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Custom Critical, and FedEx Logistics and Technologies. FedEx has had a substantial amount of success in the last decade since then, being listed in Forbes "Best Companies to Work For" 8 out of the last ten years. They have also had solid balance sheets, even during the recession. Although they did have to lay-off some workers because of the economic downturn, FedEx has seemed to have stabilized, and using new innovative techniques and technologies is poised to compete in the parcel delivery business for a long time to come.