????弗里德?史密斯預(yù)測(cè)，發(fā)展中國(guó)家將為公司帶來(lái)快速增長(zhǎng)。

????弗里德?史密斯曾在越南服役，并被任命為美國(guó)海軍陸戰(zhàn)隊(duì)中尉，后成為一名飛行員。1971年，退役后的弗里德?史密斯四處尋找發(fā)展機(jī)會(huì)，最終成立了聯(lián)邦快遞公司（FedEx）。據(jù)說(shuō)，弗里德在耶魯大學(xué)（Yale）上學(xué)期間曾寫(xiě)過(guò)一篇論文，具體的分?jǐn)?shù)已經(jīng)記不清了，但據(jù)他回憶，當(dāng)時(shí)的得分并不是很高，但后來(lái)，這篇論文卻成為聯(lián)邦快遞的指導(dǎo)文件，為運(yùn)送計(jì)算機(jī)配件等時(shí)間敏感型物品的中心輻射系統(tǒng)奠定了理論基礎(chǔ)。當(dāng)時(shí)，他向兩位姐姐籌借了資金，租了幾架飛機(jī)，然后公司就開(kāi)始投入運(yùn)營(yíng)。目前，聯(lián)邦快遞公司【在《財(cái)富》500強(qiáng)（Fortune 500）中名列第70位】總部位于孟菲斯，共有員工255,000人，688架飛機(jī)，以及超過(guò)90,000輛貨車(chē)，在全球超過(guò)220個(gè)國(guó)家和地區(qū)提供快遞服務(wù)。這就是弗里德?史密斯建立的王國(guó)。以下為本刊訪談內(nèi)容節(jié)選：

問(wèn)：2000年，您開(kāi)始從傳統(tǒng)的航空快遞業(yè)務(wù)逐漸向陸路和海路貨運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)變。這種戰(zhàn)略轉(zhuǎn)變背后的出發(fā)點(diǎn)是什么？

????答：2000年，快遞市場(chǎng)的年平均規(guī)模約為500億美元（銷(xiāo)售額）。而今天，快遞市場(chǎng)已經(jīng)達(dá)到3,500億至4,000億美元。開(kāi)通陸路與海路貨運(yùn)服務(wù)，可以幫助我們打開(kāi)最具可持續(xù)性發(fā)展?jié)摿Φ氖袌?chǎng)：發(fā)展中國(guó)家。在許多發(fā)展中國(guó)家，包括金磚四國(guó)（巴西、俄羅斯、印度和中國(guó)），中產(chǎn)階級(jí)正在崛起。互聯(lián)網(wǎng)打破了語(yǔ)言障礙，并且可以用視覺(jué)形式來(lái)展示每一種產(chǎn)品，于是，通過(guò)這種價(jià)格低廉的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)化通信系統(tǒng)，新興中產(chǎn)階級(jí)以一種前所未有的方式交織在一起。比如，如果用戶(hù)希望購(gòu)買(mǎi)汽車(chē)部件，不論是大眾（Volkswagen）或是克萊斯勒（Chrysler），他可以在世界各地查找。而這正是最大的機(jī)遇所在。全球貿(mào)易的增長(zhǎng)幅度，以及新興經(jīng)濟(jì)體的發(fā)展速度，都讓工業(yè)國(guó)家的GDP增長(zhǎng)黯然失色。

哪里是聯(lián)邦快遞發(fā)展最快的市場(chǎng)？

????目前，聯(lián)邦快遞是中國(guó)境內(nèi)外規(guī)模最大的國(guó)際航空速遞商。我們還在中國(guó)提供聯(lián)邦快遞品牌的國(guó)內(nèi)包裹快遞服務(wù)。借助在中國(guó)的業(yè)務(wù)，我們將推動(dòng)公司的國(guó)際貨運(yùn)業(yè)務(wù)圍繞主要市場(chǎng)進(jìn)行拓展。

中國(guó)人能夠接受聯(lián)邦快遞的理念嗎？

????當(dāng)然。中國(guó)前任國(guó)家主席江澤民曾在辦公室會(huì)見(jiàn)過(guò)聯(lián)邦快遞的董事們，說(shuō)實(shí)話(huà)，他對(duì)聯(lián)邦快遞的了解可能超過(guò)董事們中的許多人。

????When Fred Smith founded FedEx in 1971, he had just returned from the Vietnam War, where he had served as a Marine platoon leader and then a pilot, and he was casting around for something to do. As legend has it, a paper he had written at Yale -- he doesn't remember the grade but is pretty sure it wasn't a good one -- laid out the idea for a hub-and-spoke system for delivering time-sensitive items like computer parts. He borrowed money from his sisters, leased some jets, and started his service. Today FedEx (No. 70 on the Fortune 500), with headquarters in Memphis, has 255,000 employees, 688 planes, and more than 90,000 vehicles that operate in some 220 countries and regions. Here's the world according to Fred Smith. Edited excerpts:

Q: In 2000 you started morphing from your traditional air express delivery business into ground and into freight. What was the thinking behind that strategy shift?

????A: Well, in 2000 we were probably competing in a $50 billion annual [sales] market space. Today we're directly competing in about a $350 billion to $400 billion marketplace. Going into ground and freight opened up a market for us with the greatest growth potential over a sustained period of time: the developing world. Middle classes are emerging in various countries, including the BRIC nations [Brazil, Russia, India, and China]. And these middle-class populations are all knit together today for the first time in human history with a low-cost, standardized communication system that can intermediate language differences and show every product on the planet in visual format. And that of course is the Internet. Today if you want a component for an automobile -- Volkswagen or Chrysler or whatever -- you can look worldwide. And so that's the biggest opportunity. The growth of world trade and the growth of those emerging economies dwarfs the growth of GDP in the industrial countries.

What's one of your fastest-growing markets?

????We are now the biggest international transporter of goods by air in and out of China. We also have established a FedEx-branded domestic parcel service there. We use this business to move our international traffic to and from the major gateways.

In China, do they get the FedEx concept?

????Oh, yeah. You bet. One time Jiang Zemin [the former President of China] had our board of directors to his office, and he probably knew more about the company than a lot of them did, to tell you the truth.