\u201cIf you don\u2019t like change, you\u2019re going to hate extinction.\u201d That\u2019s the framing FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam uses to motivate his troops, particularly in unpredictable times. Subramaniam has dubbed the recent supply chain disruption brought on by geopolitical conflict, tariffs, and more as a moment of \u201cre-globalization.\u201d And, as a company that moves almost 19 million packages per day, FedEx is on the front lines of it.<\/p>\n
I spoke to Subramaniam in June at FedEx\u2019s Memphis headquarters for Fortune<\/em>\u2019s Titans and Disruptors <\/em>podcast to learn how he\u2019s leading through it and what he\u2019s seeing around the corner. We also spoke about his transition to the top job after a multi-decade ascent from an entry-level FedEx position.<\/p>\n Subramaniam, the second CEO in the company\u2019s 53-year history, is operating for the first time without his mentor and sounding board. One year ago, FedEx\u2019s founder, Fred Smith, died at the age of 80. Taking the reins from a legendary founder\u2014as Subramaniam did in 2022\u2014is a great privilege, he told me. \u201cI always say that I can see far because I\u2019m standing on the shoulders of a giant,\u201d he said. That giant had groomed Subramaniam for the top job for years, as he rose through the ranks and served stints as FedEx\u2019s president and chief operating officer.\u00a0<\/p>\n But as any CEO will tell you, even the most carefully planned leadership transition isn\u2019t easy. \u201cWhen the time came, I said, \u2018I can do this,\u2019?\u201d Subramaniam recalled. \u201cBut no, the whole thing changed?\u2026?This is a whole different level.\u201d As requests and demands came in from all sides, Subramaniam found himself having to say no\u2014a lot. To stay focused on what mattered most, he set aside time to create his own CEO job description and KPIs. One of those was to be a guardian of the culture that the company\u2019s founder built.\u00a0<\/p>\n He recounted a conversation with Smith when he stepped into the CEO role: \u201cI told him that a lot of things might change\u2014whether we have new technology, [we] may have new people, we may buy new companies,\u201d he recalled. \u201cBut one thing that is not going to change is the FedEx culture, and that\u2019s why I came to work here in the first place.\u00a0<\/p>\n You can listen to our full conversation\u2014including the unlikely origins of FedEx\u2019s AI-powered data business, which came from a young employee directly to the CEO\u2014here.<\/p>\n Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com<\/em><\/p>\n New York pauses new AI data centers<\/b><\/p>\n New York Gov. Kathy Hochul <\/span>signed<\/span> an executive order Tuesday creating a year-long moratorium on new hyperscale data centers, the first statewide freeze of its kind. Hochul said that the order ensures that \u201c<\/span>when companies succeed because of New York, New Yorkers succeed too.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Jamie Dimon\u2019s grim warning<\/b><\/p>\n JPMorgan Chase <\/span>reported<\/span> record quarterly revenue, yet CEO Jamie Dimon flagged rising risks of a bubbly market on the earnings call. \u201c<\/span>It\u2019s getting close to as good as it gets,\u201d Dimon said, adding that \u201cwe just don\u2019t know how long it\u2019s going to last.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Inheriting the family businesses\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Bank of America data <\/span>shows<\/span> 23% of businesses among wealthy Americans are now inherited versus just 11% purchased in 2026, a reversal from 2022 when purchases far outpaced inheritance. MIT Sloan professor Jonathan Parker told <\/span>Fortune <\/span><\/i>that wealth concentration is deepening, companies are staying private longer, and estate tax rules make it more beneficial to pass down assets than sell them.<\/span><\/p>\n S&P 500<\/b> futures are up 0.23% this morning. The last session closed up 0.38%. <\/span>The<\/b> STOXX Europe 600<\/b> was up 0.06% in early trading. <\/span>The U.K.\u2019s FTSE 100<\/b> was down 0.17% in early trading.<\/span> Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 <\/b>was up 1.49%.<\/span> South Korea\u2019s KOSPI <\/b>was<\/span> up 6.24%. <\/span>China\u2019s CSI 300 <\/b>was down 0.20%.<\/span> Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng<\/b> was up 1.40%.<\/span> India\u2019s NIFTY 50 <\/b>was up 0.12%. <\/span>Bitcoin<\/b> was up at $65K.<\/span><\/p>\n A new FCC proposal could spell the end of the burner phone. Even if you don\u2019t use one, privacy experts say you should be worried anyway<\/span> by Catherina Gioino<\/span><\/p>\n Ramp\u2019s billionaire CEO ignores r\u00e9sum\u00e9s and Ivy League degrees\u2014he\u2019s more interested in engineers who built Minecraft servers as teens<\/span> by Sydney Lake<\/span><\/p>\n Goldman economist offers a reality check on AI adoption: it took 15 years for computers to really show up in the data<\/span> by Nick Lichtenberg<\/span><\/p>\n Mitsubishi takes over $7.5 billion in U.S. natural gas fields from Aethon, deepening Japanese bet on LNG and the AI boom<\/span> by Jordan Blum<\/span><\/p>\n CEO Daily is curated and edited by Joseph Abrams, Jason Ma, Claire Zillman, and Lee Clifford.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #year #Fred #Smiths #death #FedExs #CEO #charts #path<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Good morning. Fortune Editor-in-Chief Alyson Shontell writing from New York this morning.\u00a0 \u201cIf you don\u2019t like change, you\u2019re going to hate extinction.\u201d That\u2019s the framing FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam uses… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[369,1411,11217,2238,13611,13609,944,13610,85],"class_list":["post-12326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-ceo","tag-ceo-daily","tag-charts","tag-death","tag-fedexs","tag-fred","tag-path","tag-smiths","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Graphic](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/TOI_FEDEX_V3.png?format=webp&w=1440&q=100\"\/)
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