New Haven Independent

The speaker was Frederick W. Smith, Yale undergraduate class of 1966, currently chairman, president and CEO of FedEx — parent company of Federal Express, which revolutionized the way people ship packages. The company is expected to bring in $35 billion in revenues this fiscal year; last Dec. 19 alone, it shipped 8.9 million packages. Smith spoke at a lunchtime “SOM Leaders Forum” at Yale’s management school on Hillhouse Avenue.

If you listen to people debate global trade on CNN, you might think the pendulum could swing backwards, Smith said. But that’s because public debate leaves out the vast majority of goods people ship, like high-tech, “value-added” “high-tech” electronics that keep getting smaller and more powerful — easier and easier to transport and trade. That’s why he envisions the global trade engine moving full steam ahead.

“You hardly hear anyone with the possible exception of the France saying, ‘We’re only gonna have iPods in our country that were built in our country,’” Smith, speaking in comfortable, folksy cadences, told a room crowded with business students. “…There really is not much talk about rolling back [globalization]… Most of the fighting going on about protectionism is over agricultural products,” intellectual property and financial services.

Click on the play arrow to watch Smith explain further.

Smith sounded particularly bullish about continuation of the Chinese trade boom. Federal Express already ships packages to some 200 Chinese cities, he said. The company is poised to enter China’s domestic market, too. It’s building a hub in Guangzhou Province.

Part of his confidence stems from China’s success in building transportation infrastructure. “Any major airport in China puts any major airport in America to shame,” he said. Same with the ports.

He contrasted China with other emerging economies like India. India was stalled in building a new airport in Mumbai because 250,000 squatters were living there; the country’s tradition and legal system prevented evicting them. China “moved an entire village to build an airport.”

“Commerce is like water,” Smith said. “If it comes to a rock, it goes around it.”