Paul Orfaleo - Kinko's

The Kinko's Story begins with founder Paul Orfalea's belief in the power of the entrepreneurial spirit and a strong commitment to values and corporate responsibility. The concept was sparked when Orfalea, while a student at the University of Southern California (USC), noticed a copy machine in the library and realized that few people had easy access to this new technology. Orfalea, a Los Angeles native, moved to Santa Barbara to make this happen.

In 1970, with $5,000 borrowed from a local bank, Orfalea rented a 100-square foot space next to a hamburger stand near the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) campus. This tiny Kinko's featured a single copier with 2.5-cent copies, an offset press, film processing and a small section of school supplies. He named it "Kinko's" after his college nickname attributed to his curly hair.

This retail concept quickly caught on. By 1975, Kinko's had opened its 24th store with locations scattered throughout California, and that number more than tripled in the next four years alone.

Orfalea's belief in creating a company culture built on common goals and trust helped grow Kinko's into a world-class global business. From 1999-2001, Kinko's earned three consecutive spots on the Fortune Magazine list of "America's Best Companies to Work For".

At Kinko's, co-workers were always partners in the truest sense of the word. From the beginning, individual branch managers shared in the profits of their branch, keeping them focused on excellent costumer service to build sales and tight financial control to manage costs. Later, profit-sharing was expanded to include in-branch co-workers as well.

Another example of creating a unique company culture involved Kinko's approach to its environmental policies. Over time, many of the young, idealistic co-workers who worked at Kinko's shared a concern over the impact of American businesses on the environment. Rather than hide from the issue, Kinko's chose to embrace the opportunity to become an environmental steward. In 1997, Kinko's adopted an Environmental Vision Statement that identified environmental performance targets that the company aims to reach as it serves customers. As a result of these efforts, Kinko's continues to earn recognition, including three awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency/U.S. Department of Energy in 2001, 2002, and 2003.

The company has continued to grow into a digitally-connected network of 1,700 locations world-wide and more than 22,000 team members in 11 countries today.

In early 2004, Kinko's was acquired by FedEx Corporation and became the transportation and shipping giant's fourth operating company. Two months later, Kinko's was rebranded as FedEx Kinko's Office and Print Services. For Kinko's, these changes added the resources to continue expansion of its corporate document outsourcing business and international operations.

FedEx Kinko's offers 24-hour access to technology for color printing, finishing and presentation services, shipping, videoconferencing, outsourcing, managed services, high-speed Internet access, and Web-based, on-demand printing and document management solutions that meet the needs of consumers, small businesses and corporate customers.

"Being part of FedEx only strengthens the value we bring to our customers," said Kenneth A. May, FedEx Kinko's President and Chief Executive ...