FEDEX CORPORATION: STRUCTURAL TRANSFORMATION

FedEx Corporation: Structural Transformation through E-Business

Executive Summary

FedEx has always been associated as a legendary company that pioneer and innovate along with the advance of technology. FedEx invented the air-ground transportation industry and overnight express delivery in 1971. And along the years, FedEx continues to bring out new innovations to the industry that offers value to customer and FedEx itself. FedEx also has grown much with its active acquisitions of companies that serve transportation and the supply chain of goods. In 1998, FedEx acquired Caliber and its subsidiaries. The acquisition gave FedEx a sure advantage that it is now capable to providing more transportation services to other segments upstream in the supply chain. Along with internet and e-business, FedEx seize the opportunity to collaborate with customers in providing full supply chain management system. However, in the midst of acquisition and maintaining competitive advantage on technologies, FedEx's profits have not been as per expectation. To maintain its competitive advantages, FedEx also sees its cost soaring upwards. Fierce competition continues to plague FedEx. Thus, in handling these challenges, FedEx had in 2000 re-organised and consolidate its subsidiaries under one single global brand name FedEx. FedEx has to re-look into its acquisition and business integration strategies. Technologies pioneered by FedEx which gave them advantages quickly erode away. FedEx has to continue and beef up its effort in the technological pursuit as to maintain its competitive advantage in this area. The internet offer much opportunities in e-business, improvement in service and innovation that better serve customers, from individual to businesses and all along the supply chain. FedEx has to capitalise on these opportunities. FedEx global branding has been its strength and customer relationship has to be improved with new customer centred services.

FedEx Corporation: Structural Transformation through E-Business

Introduction

The ability to keep up with e-businesses will depend on how well a company can keep up with new emerging technologies. FedEx has transformed into an e-business by improving several of its core competencies. On January 19, 2000, FedEx announced a new branding strategy that resulted in the change of the company's name to “FedEx Corporation” and extended this FedEx name to four of its five subsidiary companies. FedEx's strategy was to take advantage of its brand image, the name that customers have counted on for reliable service and cutting edge technology. The transformation created an integrated set of business solutions. Customers will only need to deal with one company for all its supply chain, logistics, and delivery needs. This provided a single point of access to customer service, billing, sales and automation systems. Each company under the FedEx umbrella operates independently but competes collectively. The new organization is geared to help businesses of all sizes in achieving their goals.

Problems

FedEx's strategy was to capitalize on the growth of e-business and aimed at integrating its physical transportation with its virtual information infrastructures to create a large matrix of systems that meets the needs of businesses ranging from transportation services to complete supply chain management ...