FedEx Corporation is a leading logistics services company, based in the United States. The previous names were Federal Express, Federal Express Corporation, and FDX Corporation. FedEx was found in 1971 by Frederick W. Smith in Little Rock, Arkansas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedex).
The company officially began operations on April 17, 1973, with the launch of 14 small aircraft from Memphis International Airport. On that night, FedEx delivered 186 packages to 25 U.S. cities from Rochester, New York, to Miami, Florida. The FedEx headquarters then move to Memphis, Tennessee, and now the company had employed more than 290,000 workers. FedEx was the pioneer of the express transportation and logistics industry. In fiscal year 1983, Federal Express reported $1 billion in revenues, making American business history as the first company to reach that financial hallmark inside ten years of start-up without mergers or acquisitions (http://about.fedex.designcdt.com/our_company/company_information/fedex_history).
2. DESCRIPTION OF FEDEX’S STRATEGY CONTEXT BETWEEN 1973 - 2000
2.1. THE INDUSTRY CONTEXT
“Know the other and know yourself: Triumph without peril. Know nature and know the situation: Triumph completely” (by Sun Tzu). If strategic management is concerned with relating firm to its environment, then it is essential to know this environment well. While the entire outside world was taken into consideration, emphasis was placed on the direct environment in which a firm needs to compete –its industry context (De Witt & Meyer 2004). The change drivers in the contextual environment in which FedEx compete can be divided into three categories:
Rising inflation, slow market growth, and global competition gave rise to greater pressure on business to minimize the cost of operation including implementation of just-in-time inventory…...