FedEx vs UPS | On the Line | 5

Business Wars

Wondery

History, Business, David Brown, Management

4.6 • 13.2K Ratings

🗓️ 31 August 2020

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

With UPS expanding aggressively into Europe and other continents, FedEx decides to bet big on China. But it’s a risky strategy that initially looks like it’s going to fall short.

Meanwhile, UPS tries to maintain its competitive advantage by pushing for more productivity from its workers. But the drivers have had enough and UPS soon has a major labor relations problem on its hands. UPS’s troubles give FedEx an opening to peel away some of its business.

And at the dawn of the dot com era, both companies make a play for a new type of customer.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars at free on Amazon music.
0:04.6	Download the app today.
0:07.0	It's 1988, and FedEx CEO Fred Smith is not happy.
0:21.5	He looks out at a room full of his top executives.
0:24.6	Many snaps open a newspaper and sends it sliding down to the other end of the conference table.
0:30.0	Can you read what that says there in the top right?
0:33.3	One executive leans in and tilts his head reading the headline upside down.
0:38.5	You the ass purchases international shipping company, Smith Nod's furious.
0:45.0	And do you know what this means?
0:47.2	It means UPS has just expanded beyond Europe and Asia.
0:51.4	They'll now deliver packages to Africa in the Middle East.
0:55.2	And they just bought six more European companies.
0:58.7	Those big brown trucks are spanning the globe.
1:01.3	Meanwhile we're in Britain, the Netherlands, United Arab Emirates.
1:05.8	That's peanuts compared to them.
1:08.2	The other executives avoid eye contact with Smith as he rants.
1:13.2	One executive clears his throat.
1:15.2	Smith pivots and stares at him.
1:17.2	Do you have something to say, Greg?
1:19.8	I might have a solution to this problem, but it would be a big risk.
1:23.3	So I don't know.
1:25.6	Well, we won't know if it's viable until you tell us what you have in mind.
	...

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