Overnight Success: Federal Express and: Frederick Smith, Its Renegade Creator

The wordplay in the title of this instructive business history cum biography is misleading, for Federal Express had immense difficulties procuring financing for its first official flight in 1973, and did not become profitable until 1976. Smith, the son of an entrepreneur who sold his bus company to Greyhound and who then ran a series of restaurants successfully, served with distinction in Vietnam before he put into operation the delivery company he conceived at Yale in 1970. In the process of raising money, he was accused of forging papers to save FedEx from bankruptcy; later he was acquitted on criminal charges of bank fraud. Once the company became established, its annual income moved into the stratospheric range, with a gross of $7.7 billion in 1991. There have been mistakes, especially the failed attempt to expand into Europe, but FedEx's future looks bright, in the view of Trimble ( Sam Walton ). Photos not seen by PW. (Feb.)