What CEOs Can Learn From Fred Smith’s Extraordinary Leadership

Fred Smith, founder of FedEx and one of the most influential business leaders of the last century, passed away on June 21st at the age of 80. While much has been, and will be, written about the scope of his achievements—the invention of overnight delivery, the creation of a global logistics empire, the transformation of modern supply chains—his deeper legacy lies in how he led, and taught others to lead.

For CEOs, Smith offers a masterclass in conviction, clarity and courageous execution. Here are five enduring lessons:

1. Bet big to grow—but back it up with strategy and discipline.

Smith certainly wasn’t afraid of scale. Launching Federal Express in 1973 with 14 jets and an unproven model, he believed in a future others couldn’t yet see—and rode it to a $93-billion-a-year global company by the time he retired in 2022.

But the real lesson lies in how he paired vision with precision and execution. As Smith told Chief Executive in a 2004 interview, right after being named CEO of the Year, successful growth is about continually learning and mining history for the lessons most appropriate to one’s own operations. He rejected the notion that high growth came from gut instinct alone. Instead, he broke the CEO role into its component parts—strategy, management and leadership—and emphasized the need to rigorously study what works at each stage of growth.

“There’s what you need to do to manage a company at startup and what you need to do when it’s transitioning,” he said. “You just have to spend the time and effort to benchmark and learn the lessons of history—and then have the discipline to apply those lessons.”

2. Stay close to the front lines.

A decorated Marine Corps officer, Smith never lost his operational instincts. He famously obsessed over logistics, routing and metrics. He routinely walked FedEx hubs at night, knew the mechanics of aircraft and routing, and maintained an operator’s mindset even as CEO.

Smith noted that leadership is most critical where customer experience is delivered—the “small-unit level”—and where strategic vision is set and organizational culture is shaped, the CEO level. He called that front line “where the rubber meets the road.”

“You have to deal with the customers,” he said. “You have to have well-motivated and well-trained and committed employees, particularly in a service business but in manufacturing too, who deliver on the customer expectations.”

The implication for CEOs: leadership is not just about vision—it’s about consistent engagement and cultivating commitment at every level. If your front-line workers aren’t happy or productive, the whole organization will suffer.

3. Never stop innovating.

From pioneering digital tracking to reshaping the business model around e‑commerce, Smith never stood still. When Amazon shifted from partner to competitor, he responded swiftly, ending contracts and repositioning FedEx. CEOs often hesitate to pivot; Smith never did.

“The fundamental thing that everybody in business has always got to realize in a market-driven economy is that you’re in the process of being commoditized,” Smith said in a 2019 interview with our Dan Bigman. “Commoditization always leads to sustenance earnings at best, so you have to innovate and find those blue ocean opportunities.

“That’s hard because you’ve attracted a set of skills to pursue your core competencies, and now things have changed, so how do you manage that? That is, I think, quasi-art and quasi-science. And the really good CEOs know how to do that, and the CEOs who are not so good don’t.”

4. Create a sticky culture, top to bottom.

FedEx’s famously strong culture—”People-Service-Profit”—reflected Smith’s core belief that frontline employees are the true engine of value, and that leaders perform best when they’re empowered, not micromanaged. “I don’t look over their shoulders,” he said in 2005 about the leaders running FedEx’s various divisions. “They have the authority to do what they need to do and the freedom and the flexibility to do what they need to do….I think they enjoy being part of a very small group that now controls a company operating worldwide and producing revenues north of $25 billion. That’s a joy to them.”

Smith went beyond platitudes. He designed leadership autonomy into the structure of his top team, giving proven executives CEO-level authority over divisions, and sharing upside with them. That blend of trust, purpose and shared rewards made FedEx a place where top talent stayed—and thrived. “We try to make it a very attractive financial arrangement for them. They share in the performance that they produce.”

This culture of freedom with accountability cascaded across the company, driving ownership at every level—from the tarmac to the boardroom.

5. Build for the long game.

When he stepped down as CEO in 2022, Smith did so with intention, timing the move to FedEx’s 50th anniversary and preparing successor Raj Subramaniam to carry the torch. He remained Executive Chairman, but with a lighter touch—an example of graceful succession, still rare in the C-suite.

Smith often warned against short-termism and the corrosive impact of quarterly pressures on long-term strategy, sharing in 2019: “Yesterday, we got hammered on an analyst call because we’re not making as much money as we planned, but we just put our goals out there and run the business. We’re making investments for 25 and 30 years, not for the next quarter.”

Smith never minced words about how challenging the job of a CEO is.

“It’s very difficult to do. Because the heart of leadership is being ready and able to subordinate one’s self interest often to the greater good of the unit or the organization,” he said. “That’s what the CEO has to do. They have to manage strategy, they have to manage the administration of the management of the enterprise and they have to be an effective leader. Where you’re strong, play to that strength, and where you’re not as strong, or weak, beef it up with people who can help you. But I don’t think you can be a CEO if you don’t have a good strategy for the organization. That’s sort of fundamental to the job.”

Fred Smith delivered clarity, conviction and courage at a scale few CEOs ever match. As leaders look to navigate today’s volatile terrain, his playbook remains profoundly relevant: see further, decide faster, and stay close to what matters.