Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 7, 1993 TAG: 9303070209
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Reviewed by KENNETH LOCKE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
FEDEX STORY: FROM SHAKY TAKEOFF TO SOARING SUCCESS
OVERNIGHT SUCCESS: FEDERAL EXPRESS AND FREDERICK SMITH, ITS RENEGADE CREATOR. By Vance Trimble. Crown. $25.If you haven't heard of Federal Express, then you probably haven't heard of Kleenex or Xerox.
Even if you have never used Federal Express, you know that it delivers packages "absolutely, positively overnight" in those funny looking purple airplanes. If you have ever wondered how "FedEx" came to be, what it takes to create an industry literally from nothing, or if you just enjoy good histories of people and companies who single-handedly have changed the way Americans do business then "Overnight Success" is for you.
Federal Express certainly was not an overnight success. Its first night of operation yielded five letters and one pile of dirty laundry. It was in fact the product of years of agonizingly late nights, constant begging for funds and a very serious run-in with the law by its maverick founder Fred Smith.
By now, the highlights of Smith's life are well known. Yale graduate, member (along with George Bush) of the prestigious Skull and Bones fraternity, proud Marine, civic leader, visionary businessman - Smith's image is so clean it almost squeaks. The story of how he received a grade of C on an undergraduate paper outlining a way to deliver packages overnight via a hub-and-spoke airline is almost legendary in business circles.
What is not so well known, and what author Vance Trimble does not hesitate to spell out, is that Smith is a brilliant but almost fatally flawed entrepreneur. Trimble recounts in graphic, almost sensationalist style Smith's trial for bank fraud, the two auto-related deaths in which he was involved, his desperate scramble for financing that led him to all but plunder his siblings' trust fund and the gross business naivete that almost doomed Federal Express from the start.
As if those were not enough, he also shows Smith as a totalitarian ruler who will follow any idea that intrigues him (blimps, pro football, stock cars), reverse his principles on a dime and lie to his family.
Had it not been for some excellent early associates who knew the importance of details and how to raise money - associates Smith later would force out when they began to question his wisdom - and the discipline of a seasoned board of directors, FedEx would have crashed long ago. Instead, it set standards for the express-mail industry and continues to fly high above its rivals.
Trimble has compressed dozens of interviews with Smith's relatives, financiers and former associates (Smith and Federal Express would not comment) and months of meticulous research into a book that reads with the frantic pace of a sort-hub processing thousands of packages in a few desperately short hours.
He takes us behind the advertisement facade and explains how FedEx is so much more than airplanes and packages. It is also thousands of salespeople, mechanics, accountants and state-of-the-art tracking systems all working together with the precision and controlled excitement of a hundred 747 jets landing on a clear night.
Many would-be successes doubtlessly will see themselves in this book. "Overnight Success" will not teach them how to be transportation moguls, but it will provide fascinating insights into the express-mail industry and its creator. It also shows just how exciting and expensive the flight to success can be.
Kenneth Locke once worked for one of Federal Express' competitors.