The Success of FedEx
FedEx almost collapsed during its startup phase. Fred Smith started the business in 1971 with an inherited sum of $4 million, and $80 million in loans and stock investments. In its first year of business, the company came dangerously close to going bankrupt, prompting Smith to gamble away his inheritance by playing blackjack in Las Vegas. He converted the remaining $5,000 into $32,000, which was just enough to pay salaries and sustain the business for another week.
With their active use of technology (such as barcode technology) and data analytics to better its operations, their key defining event was when they were successful in their effort to change the federal “Express Letter Statute.” The company may have seen its quick growth as a result of treating its employees properly and taking multiple calculated risks. Even though several of their ground-breaking ideas from the 1980s, such same-day document transmission services and “Zapmail,” were unsuccessful, it is nevertheless amazing how one of the most renowned and admired businesses in the world
