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Photo Illustration by 731; Photos: Smith: Memphis Commercial Appeal/USA Today Network (2). Subramaniam: Photograph by Joseph Ross for Bloomberg Businessweek

The Big Take

FedEx’s CEO Is Charting His Own Path—in the Smith Family’s Shadow

Raj Subramaniam is trying to build a company more like rival UPS, while the old boss and his son look over his shoulder.

In February, Bret Baier, the dour host of Fox News’ Special Report, opened his show with clips of US President Joe Biden assuring the public that wages were rising and inflation was down. Then he introduced a guest to say that, actually, all wasn’t well with the US economy. “Over the last couple of years, we’ve simply been borrowing from our grandchildren and living beyond our means,” said Frederick Smith, founder of FedEx Corp., in his let’s-cut-out-the-nonsense Southern drawl.

Smith had struck many of the same gloomy chords a month earlier in a chat with Fox’s Brian Kilmeade, the host of One Nation With Brian Kilmeade, who introduced his guest as “one of the world’s most successful entrepreneurs ever.”