FedEx

“When UPS went on strike in 1997, FedEx employees voluntarily worked 16 hours a day to handle nearly 800,000 extra packages a day.”

“FedEx sold his European ground operations, fired 6600 employees, and took a two hundred and fifty-four million dollar charge.”

“The lesson he took away from his time is that loyalty is earned through shared sacrifice, not money.”

“Years later, when FedEx nearly died, employees would work without pay to save it. They'd use personal credit cards to fuel planes, not because they had to, but because Fred Smith had learned from Sergeant Jack how to earn that kind of loyalty.”

“By 1991, FedEx posted its first quarterly loss since going public. One hundred and five million dollars. International operations lost six hundred and twenty nine million over three years.”

“Revenue exploded from 7.8 billion in 1992 to nearly thirty billion by 2005.”

“When UPS came back, FedEx kept 15% of those emergency customers permanently.”

“The professor gave it a C.”

“Fred Smith died on June, 21st, 25 at the age of 80. By then, FedEx operated in over 220 countries, employed half a million people, and moved seventeen million packages daily.”

“While FedEx built its satellite network, fax machine prices crashed to 300 dollars.”

“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.”

“Zapmail burned through hundreds of millions before Smith would admit defeat.”

“Under new leadership, FedEx finally merged express and ground operations, something that Smith had resisted for decades.”

“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 a hundred miles an hour using cheap natural gas.”