Following college, Memphis, Tennessee born Frederick Wallace Smith joined the Unites States Marines in 1966 and was commissioned a second lieutenant. He left the military in 1969 as Captain after two tours in Vietnam and was decorated for his bravery and wound received in combat.
Smith was trying to land a major shipping contract with the Federal Reserve Bank, but that didn’t work out.
He then founded his start-up and named it Federal Express, just to sound big and important.
Though he was a graduate of Yale University, he later attributed the success of FedEx to his learnings from the Military and not really to his formal education.
FedEx started its operations in 1973 with a fleet of 14 Dassault Falcon jets with a vision to transform the shipping industry.
Today, the company is said to operate a variety of aircraft types, including the Airbus A300, ATR 42, Cessna 208, DC-10/MD-10, and MD-11 numbering over 700.
At a time when deliveries across the US would take a few days, Fred Smith created a “hub-and-spoke” model, by planning deliveries along flight routes.
This meant faster deliveries, paving way for overnight parcel deliveries, which became the norm over time.
Not only did Fred create the world’s frrst ever “Quick Commerce” model, he also created an industry which became popular in the 90s and early 2000s, with a massive emigration by people across the world mostly due to employment opportunities.
At the age of 80, Fredrick Smith passed away on 21st June 2025, according to a release by the company.
The low profile Smith made a cameo in the Hollywood movie “Castaway” feat. Tom Hanks, which was about a FedEx employee being stranded in an island.
Raj Subramanian, who joined FedEx 30 years ago became the CEO of the company in 2022, succeeding Fred Smith.
Born in Thiruvananthapuram, Raj holds a degree in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), a Master’s in Chemical Engineering from Syracuse University, and an MBA from The University of Texas, Austin.
Raj Subramaniam, FedEx President & CEO of FedEx said, “Frederick W. Smith pioneered express delivery and connected the world, shaping global commerce as we know it.
His legacy of innovation, leadership, and philanthropy will continue to inspire future generations. I will miss not only his visionary leadership, but his trusted friendship and counsel.”
Editor’s Note
From 186 deliveries on their first day as a start-up, FedEx now delivers 16 million packages daily. The company employs 500,000 people in 220 countries and moves USD 2 Trillion worth of goods annually.
The company’s annual revenues for 2024 was USD 87 Bn.
The “Hub and spoke” model created by Smith has been replicated mainly in the Retail and Automobile Industry globally and continues to be the norm till date.
Whether it is a consumer brand or a retail chain, all the way to e-commerce and quick-commerce companies, they always start with one hub (a region, a state, a geography) and penetrate the market as much as possible.
This goes in line with Marketing Professor Philip Kotler’s take on market penetration before market expansion.
After gaining significant marketshare in a locality vertically, the business should later expand horizontally to other markets.
One of the biggest mistakes that several brands in India do, is to open stores across the country during their early days, especially in top metro cities.
This is to build immense visibility in key markets and to be familiar with consumers holding higher disposable incomes.
However, such expansion comes at significant operating costs, coupled with huge rents that impact bottomline.
A few examples of brands which have done this well include McDonald’s, Starbucks, Benetton, D’’Mart, among others, which have and continue to focus on expansion on a geographical basis.
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