The last time I saw Fred Smith was a few weeks ago during a meeting in Nashville. We took a quick break with an intense dialogue with the leaders through the political spectrum. Fred had called for a dialogue, for common ground, for a path to follow. The room was noisy, full of opinions. While we got up, Fred took me aside to coach me, as he often did: “It is now time to lead with our values,” he told me.
It was Fred: clear in his convictions, generous in his vision and unshakable in his conviction that business could – and must – be a force for good in the world.
Fred Smith is of course a giant in the history of American affairs. His vision and audacity revolutionized world trade and connected the world in an unprecedented way. But for those who knew him, Fred was something more rare: a leader whose values are even deeper than his ambition.
I saw this moral compass in action during the first chaotic weeks of the COVVI-19 pandemic. Hospitals were desperate for protective equipment, and in Salesforce, we were running to find and deliver what we could. A breakthrough occurred when our team located 500,000 surgical masks in Los Angeles, but we had no way to quickly bring them to the Hospitals in San Francisco. I called Fred. Without hesitation, he and his son Richard, a senior executive from Fedex, offered help, and in a few hours, the masks were on trucks and on the way. This shipment saved lives. And this moment told you everything you needed to know about Fred: decisive, humble, always in mind with a goal. It should be noted that Fedex was ultimately responsible for the successful distribution of about half of all COVVI-19 vaccines in the United States.
Fedex, under the supervision of Fred, was an innovative and ethical company, among the first world leaders in business responsibility and philanthropy. This heritage came from the summit. Fred believed that it was a question of delivering with excellence, acting with integrity and putting people first.
Over the years, I have seen Fred often like another member of the Business Council, as a guest in Dinners that I organized and elsewhere. He was not the most common speaker of these parameters, but when he had something to say, the room listened to. His wisdom was based on experience and offered without ego. This is what made him a leaders’ leader. A CEO of CEOs.
Fred and I have also shared a deep devotion to our natal cities – mine, San Francisco; Son, Memphis, the city he loved and helped to transform himself into a world center for commerce and through decades of quiet generosity for education, health care, arts and community development.
I also thought of how Fred did not just build a business. Fedex has redefined what was possible, which makes the world smaller, faster, more interconnected. In his own way, he joined the ranks of the largest technological breakthroughs – the telephone, the Internet – in the time of collapse and geography. It is a heritage that few people can claim.
Fred will miss Fred greatly: his voice, his example, his values. But I know they live – in his family, in the direction of the company he built and, in all of us, quite lucky to have learned from him.
