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Case Analysis: Airborne Express (a), Harvard Business School.

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Case Analysis: Airborne Express (A), Harvard Business School.

Not so long ago, there was no such thing as overnight express service and freight delivery. Then Federal Express, United Postal Service (UPS) and Airborne Express, among six second-tier companies, came upon the scene. In 1973, Federal Express invented the concept of overnight express package, soon followed by the other two largest express companies–UPS and Airborne, during the 1980s. The fast growth of the Express Mail industry was mainly due to the success of the express delivery service. Thanks to Frederick Smith, a Yale undergraduate back in 1965, who had envisioned a whole different system on his economics term paper. Smith proposed an airline dedicated exclusively to express delivery of mail. Regardless of a “C” grade received on his paper, Smith incorporated Federal Express in 1971and officially began operations on April 17, 1973.
Some of the features in the evolution of the Express Mail Industry includes but is not limited to the creation of the hub system and air express service. Created by Federal Express, the hub system is the symbol of the modern air courier industry. It made possible the large-scale, overnight deliveries and it has remained the standard operating method in use to this day. This system allows air courier industry to ship all freight to the company’s central hub, where it is sorted, and rerouted to its final destination. Also under consideration, the air express service played an important role in the evolution of the Express Mail Industry. FedEx is the pioneer in assembling a fleet of executive jets and modifying them to carry cargo. Integrators such as Airborne have dominated this particular service by owning the airport that served as its major hub, and as a result, it did not have pay lending fee.
In analyzing the Express Mail Industry structure using Porter’s Five

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