QA Fred Smith CEO of the FDX holding company that includes FedEx :: GCSE Business Marketing Coursework

QA Fred smith CEO of the FDX holding smart set that includes FedExFederal Express Corp. started tracking packages electronically well onward the commercial message Internet emerged. Now, that infrastructure has been firmly plugged into the Internet, letting customers track shipments in real time and even pull reams of shipping data into their native systems.Meantime, the shipping giant is taking those lessons into new territory. It has launched a consulting practice that helps manufacturers scale down their own supply chains and reduce inventory requirements by more than closely tracking the movement of supplies and finished products.Related Story FedEx Delivers On CEOs IT VisionAdditional Transforming Business Strategy StoriesTransformation Of The Enterprise al-Qaeda Page Colleagues and outsiders say it was all part of founder Fred Smiths vision, well before the commercial Internet, that the information about the package would become as heavy as the package itself.Smith, n ow CEO of the FDX holding company that includes FedEx, rundle with editor in chief Robert Preston and managing editor David Joachim at FDX headquarters in Memphis. Excerpts followInternetWeek How hands on are you when it comes to FDXs Internet strategy?Smith Im very intimately involved with our strategies as they apply to information and telecommunications. Im non an expert in them, but I retrieve I dwell a very good understanding of what they can do and the respective(prenominal) trends under way in those field of battles.InternetWeek How vital is CEO involvement in the Internet strategy of a company?Smith I think its vital in almost every industry I know of. I mean, I dont know many industries as well as I do my own, but I am constantly amaze at the profundity of IT and the Internet in almost every field and human endeavor, whether its medicine, farming, the military, or any other thing that I encounter up against. Its just all pervasive, its changing the face of everythin g. And those that are non involved in it do so at their peril, in my opinion.InternetWeek What advice do you have to IT executives who recognize their own company as an Internet radio-controlled aircraft but have trouble convincing upper management that in that respect will be serious consequences to that?Smith I guess my advice to them would be to either convince them or get out. Theyre passing play to be present if they dont.Big businesses, particularly big businesses that are involved in split up of different activities, have a very difficult time relations with qualitative issues and, I guess as Wayne Gretzky would say, skating to where the puck is going to be rather than where it is now.