Tenure Frederick W. (Fred) Smith

¶ … tenure Frederick W. (Fred) Smith Chairman, president, and CEO at FedEx Corporation. While this paper will not just be a report Smith's tenure, but it will actively analyze his leadership of the FedEx Corporation and how he has affected the placement of the company in the market against its competitors such as UPS. We will see how he has combined the best of Yale and the Marine Corps to give the company a leading edge in the package delivery business.

Analysis-Literature Review-Biography

Fred Smith, is the founder CEO of FedEx, the first overnight express delivery company in the world, and the largest in the nation. To really grasp the concepts that he used in the formation and launch of the company, we really should examine the story in his own words. A former Marine Aviation pilot in Vietnam, Smith founded Federal Express. In 1973, the company began offering service to cities, beginning with small packages and documents. The focus was upon developing an integrated air-ground courier system something that had never been done before. What guided Smith more than anything else according to his own words were the leadership qualities that he developed as a Marine officer in Vietnam that have guided his company from the beginning. These principles, plus his days at Yale came together in FedEx. In his philosophy, he tells his managers to rely on their subordinates, delegate and to praise in public for a job well done ("Frederick w. smith:," 2012).

II-Example and Explanation of Leadership Qualities

According to Smith, FedEx places a great amount of stock what he terms its fundamental business strategy, that is fulfilling a large (and previously unmet) need in the express, overnight shipment of courier packages by air. This strategy has affected the key marketing decisions that the company has made and also the innovative operational concepts that the company has developed. FedEx began this way as a small startup firm with just eight airplanes. From there, the philosophy grew the company into a global transportation company that brings in more than $38 billion a year, employs 300,000 people, serves 220 countries and delivers millions of shipments per day (ibid.).

The key to FedEx has been and always will be a leader in delivery vehicle technology. As Smith said in an interview for FORA TV that this command of technology in ground and air gives the company an edge. This includes pushing the technology in hybrid and electric ground vehicles. The company uses technology to cut costs, stay in conformity with government regulations and thereby leverage more share this way (Smith, 2010). Innovation in other areas as well ensures that the company keeps an edge over its competitors.

One thing that has allowed Smith to decisively put his company out front is vision. Interestingly enough, Smith identified the need for a company like FedEx as a business student at Yale before he entered the Marines. At Yale, he wrote a paper on the unmet need for a reliable overnight delivery service company in a computerized information age. The unnamed professor found Smith's premise improbable and according to Smith's recollection and memory, he only received a C. On the paper. The idea remained with him and consumed him until the end of his Vietnam tours when he could put the concept into practice. The military was a natural school for movement and delivery procedures that also served him in good stead later. Another thing that Smith took from the Marine Corps was a hands on management quality based upon fairness in evaluation and treatment. This quality has never failed him ("Frederick w. smith," 2012).

Another thing that Smith has not hesitated to do is to cut the perks for the top executives in the company when profits are low. A good example of this was Smith's own compensation which dropped by two percent due to the economy. While it may seem to be common sense to cut costs from the top down in a company during a recession, it has in recent American history been a rarity for American CEOs who have continued to rake in large perks while their lower ranking employees felt the pain exclusively. This flies in the face of Smith's lead from the front attitude in which he believes that it is necessary to set a consistent example for his subordinates and not ask them to do anything he would not do himself, including accepting smaller pay raises and perks (Bomkamp, 2011).

III-Level Five Leader or Not

In short, Smith has exhibited outstanding leadership qualities that combine the best of the Yale business school and of the U.S. Marine Corps. He exhibits many the same qualities of leadership as Darwin Smith in our classroom text. In the opinion of this author, he was a fully developed Level 5 leader who embodied all five layers of the leadership pyramid. As the text states, the first four of the five layers of the pyramid are self explanatory. However, our review of Smith exhibits that he has what it takes to be on the pyramid at level 5 due to his humility and leadership qualities. This is because he believes in hands on management, leadership from the front, delegation of authority, public praise of a good job and fair treatment for employees in order to get loyalty to the company.