Changing How the World Does Business

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1 The Trail of Inspiration

FedEx originated the modern integrated priority package express industry, the first small-package airline to maintain direct control of shipments with a self-contained transportation system from pickup to delivery. Millions of people rely on FedEx every day for their most important business and personal deliveries whenever and wherever they must have overnight and time-definite service. The delivery service is so much a part of our lives that we can barely recall living without it.

It seems that FedEx has always been there, ready to respond to our most urgent needs, yet few people know how it was first conceived. When its efficient hub-and-spokes network was originally proposed, the concept was ridiculed as impractical. ...