“Life is short and it ends, the clock is ticking. Don’t get all wrapped up in your personal self, that’s a very unhealthy thing to do.” - Fred Smith, Founder of FedEx (1944 - 2025)

On June 21, 2025, the business world - more specifically the supply chain world - lost a giant. FedEx Founder Fred Smith passed away at the age of 80.

Frederick Wallace Smith was born in Marks, Mississippi in 1944. According to common anecdotes, he first imagined a company that could provide overnight delivery for an economics paper he wrote while studying at Yale in 1965 - and he got a C because the professor thought the idea was implausible.

In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner looks at Fred Smith’s many contributions from five decades in business:

• The risk he had to be willing to take on in pursuit of his vision
• The many innovations that were introduced by FedEx during his tenure
• Why Smith’s perspective on what kind of business FedEx was in was so critical to its success

Links:

• FedEx Ground’s Contractor Woes
• Case Dismissed: Spencer Patton Prevails Over FedEx
• Reading FedEx Ground the RICO Act
• Will FedEx Freight hit the open road?
• Kelly Barner on LinkedIn
• Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter
• Art of Supply on AOP
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement

“This is a long standing discussion within the networking and security industry: is there a perimeter? I think the reality is the perimeter still exists because it's a data and logical perimeter, but it doesn't exist anymore as a physical perimeter.” - Ken Rutsky, Chief Marketing Officer at Aryaka

As the world becomes increasingly digital, ensuring network connectivity and security become parallel objectives that all companies must prioritize. Add in trying to do it as efficiently as possible, and the challenge only grows.

Ken Rutsky is the Chief Marketing Officer at Aryaka. They recently released their first Network Security Trends in Transportation and Logistics report, part of a series of research efforts looking at network security trends for different industries.

In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Ken joins Kelly Barner to discuss:

• The unique combination of physical and digital security needs that transportation and logistics companies have to satisfy
• How the cost, complexity, and relative risk associated with network security are being addressed
• Balancing systems integration and also network perimeters to ensure connectivity on the move without taking on undue risk

Links:

• Ken Rutsky on LinkedIn
• 2025 State of Network Security in Transportation & Logistics
• Kelly Barner on LinkedIn
• Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter
• Art of Supply on AOP
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement

There have been a number of efforts to regulate a transition to lower logistics-related emissions, and all of them involved the state of California and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

California always plays a unique role in these debates because they have the most air pollution in the country and also the toughest emissions regulations. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) predates the EPA. In the past, they have been able to make their own rules, only requiring waivers when newly proposed standards are tougher than Federal standards.

On May 22, 2025, the Senate voted to strip California of its ability to impose tougher standards on heavy duty trucks and ban the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035.

California may be down, but they are certainly not out. They are using other creative ways to regulate the emissions associated with logistics.

In this episode of Art of Supply, Kelly Barner looks at this alternate approach to regulation:

• The Warehouse Actions and Investments to Reduce Emissions Program (known as WAIRE) and the Warehouse Indirect Source Rule (ISR)
• How these rules are are intended to work and how they are being enforced
• Whether this alternative approach will be effective in achieving its objectives

Links:

• Examining the Practicality of the EV Truck Mandate
• Nebraska v. California: The EV Trucking Transition
• Who will decide the future of EV trucking?
• Kelly Barner on LinkedIn
• Art of Supply LinkedIn newsletter
• Art of Supply on AOP
• Subscribe to This Week in Procurement