Leading Through Change: Lessons from a Founder Who Revolutionized Global Business

Fred Smith, founder of FedEx

Few entrepreneurs reshaped global business as profoundly as Fred Smith. When he founded FedEx in 1973, the notion of overnight delivery was unimaginable. But Fred saw the future before others could — and then built it. Through a combination of vision, conviction, and the willingness to take risks others avoided, he transformed that idea into a global logistics powerhouse that today moves more than 17 million packages daily.

“I was very sure that what we were doing was extremely important and was destined to be successful,” Fred said. “So, that’s the definition of an insane person or a zealot. And most entrepreneurs, I think you would find, have that sort of green wire laid in there just a little bit crosswise.”

Fred, who passed away in June at age 80, left behind more than a multibillion-dollar enterprise. He left a blueprint for leadership in times of uncertainty, innovation in the face of skepticism, and conviction when others doubt your ideas. His lessons resonate deeply with entrepreneurs striving to build businesses that endure and evolve.

Below are four lessons from Fred’s journey that can help guide any founder seeking to create lasting impact:

1. Build on Bold Instincts

Entrepreneurship often begins with discovering inefficiencies and imagining a better way. Fred’s instincts were shaped early: As a young charter pilot, he often flew computer parts in half-empty planes. “I would sit in amazement, saying, ‘They’re hiring me and this whole airplane to carry this little part,’” he said.

Watching inefficient systems in action, he realized technology was advancing faster than the infrastructure supporting it. Where most saw hassle, he recognized opportunity. While at Yale, he wrote a paper detailing a new logistics model that could move high-value goods quickly and reliably with ground and air transportation. His professor was unconvinced, and the paper earned a mediocre grade.

Looking back, Fred described his experience in simple terms: “What I was seeing was the first stages of automation of our society.”

FedEx began with just 14 airplanes and limited financial reserves, and industry observers doubted it would last. Still, Fred pressed on, knowing that conviction often precedes proof. For founders, that conviction is often the bridge between risk and reward. Success demands not just a good idea, but the stamina to stand by it when others can’t yet see the path ahead.

Fred during FedEx's early days. 

2. Make Innovation a Way of Life

Fred built FedEx around a relentless pursuit of improvement. He often reminded his team: “If you don’t like change, you’re going to hate extinction.” That mindset kept innovation central to FedEx.

In 1978, he articulated the true value of supply chain visibility: “The information about the package is as important as the package itself,” he said. That key insight led to the launch of COSMOS, a pioneering real-time tracking system that gave customers and businesses an unprecedented level of visibility.  

“Many things in business are obvious, but you can’t see them. Keep twisting that kaleidoscope, and ‘wow, there it is.’ That conceptual leap is at the center of most innovation."

- Fred Smith

Fred believed that once you could see a package in motion and at rest, you could run much smarter systems. He anticipated what the world would need before others recognized it, pushing FedEx into automation, robotics, and AI platforms that kept the company at the vanguard of logistics.

Fred often described this foresight as kaleidoscopic thinking: “Many things in business are obvious, but you can’t see them,” he said. “Keep twisting that kaleidoscope, and ‘wow, there it is.’ That conceptual leap is at the center of most innovation.”

3. Understand Human Impact

For all his focus on technology, Fred never lost sight of the human side of the business. He often reminded people that every delivery had the potential to make a significant impact: “The profound effects we have on people’s lives — whether it’s an e-commerce package, a defibrillator arriving at a hospital, or an aircraft part that enables a plane to fly — the things we do are so essential to society that sometimes people don’t realize how profound FedEx is. But the people on the inside understand this and take great pride in it.”

Fred recognized that purpose fuels progress: Employees care more when their work creates real impact. Customers stay loyal when they see how profoundly a service shapes their lives.

As Fred put it: “Keep the emphasis on the front-line employee, provide great service, and profits will come as a natural function of that.”

4. Strive to Move the World Forward

FedEx began with 186 packages on its first flight from Memphis in 1973. That number has grown exponentially in the decades since: “FedEx moves about $2 trillion worth of goods every year—about 6 percent of U.S. GDP,” Fred noted in 2024. “We see the economy at a granular level, almost like no one else.”

Beyond the numbers, the achievement lies in what those shipments represent: opportunities, connections, and progress. Fred’s journey is a reminder that transformative businesses often start with ideas others dismiss as impossible. His willingness to bet on conviction, seek innovation, anticipate change, and anchor everything in human impact turned FedEx into one of the world’s most recognized companies.

For entrepreneurs, Fred’s story is an invitation to think bigger. It is a challenge to “twist the kaleidoscope,” embrace change, and create solutions that move society forward.

FedEx is a regional partner of Entrepreneurs’ Organization, helping EO’s members move the world forward.