Fred Smith

So have you ever really looked at the FedEx logo?

There's an arrow hidden between the E and the X, and most people never notice it.

But once you see it, you can't unsee it.

Designer Lyndon Leader created it in 1994, not Fred Smith.

But Smith loved it immediately.

That hidden arrow works on your brain without you knowing it.

It implies forward movement, precision, purpose.

Every FedEx truck is carrying a subliminal message about what the company does.

Two, why the money back guarantee actually worked.

FedEx promised overnight delivery or your money back.

And it sounds like marketing and it kind of is, but it's Fred's sneakiest management tool ever.

Every late package meant lost money.

No excuses, no blaming other departments, no hiding behind weather or traffic.

If you're late, you pay.

This one policy created more accountability inside FedEx than a thousand meetings ever could.

It turned every employee into an owner because failure hit the bottom line immediately.

It also signaled to companies that you could trust us to get your package there.

Okay, and finally, when UPS went on strike in 1997, FedEx employees voluntarily worked 16 hours a day to handle nearly 800,000 extra packages a day.

No overtime demands, no complaints, nothing.

Just people protecting their company.