Fred Smith
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
We got our heads handed to us, Smith later admitted.
The failure strung, but he didn't stop experimenting.
At one point, he seriously investigated using giant cargo blimps.
His executives thought he was joking, but he commissioned actual studies.
The economics kind of made sense.
They could carry 250 tons at about 100 miles an hour using cheap natural gas.
They never flew, but this showed something important about Smith.
He'd consider any idea if he thought it might work.
By 1988, Federal Express owned 45% of the U.S.
overnight market.
But Smith saw a threat nobody else did.
UPS was coming.
Reading the industry reports late into the night, he understood that domestic growth was slowing.
International expansion wasn't optional.
It was survival.
And the fastest way to go global was to buy Flying Tigers, the legendary cargo airline.
Flying Tigers had what money couldn't buy, the landing rights in 21 different countries.
These rights, negotiated just after World War II, were virtually impossible to attain today.
As Smith's analyst explained, you essentially can't duplicate these by just applying for them.
It would take you 50 years to get that stuff.