1. technology and computing
2. networking
3. vpn and remote access

NOW
WHAT’S IN
THIS BAG?
AMERICA
CAN’T EXPORT?
CATERPILLAR
BEGS TO DIFFER
A Multimillion-Dollar
Global Business.
(And oh, yeah, it’s run
from a cottage.)
FORT COLLINS,
PROTECTED
BY OTTERBOX
FEDEX FOUNDER
FRED SMITH
ON HOW ACCESS
DRIVES RECOVERY
Volume 6
ACCESS NOW | 1
CALL IT THE ACCESS EFFECT
2 | ACCESS NOW
ACCESS NOW | 1
PERSPECTIVES
ACCESS
Volume 6
LEADING THINKERS AND
BUSINESS PEOPLE TALK
ABOUT THE REALITIES
OF ACCESS AND THE
OPPORTUNITIES IT OFFERS
“Using almost every quality-of-life metric available —
access to goods and services, access to transportation,
access to information, access to education, access
to lifesaving medicines and procedures, means of
communication, value of human rights, importance
of democratic institutions, durable shelter, available
calories, available employment, affordable energy,
even affordable beer — our day-to-day experience has
improved massively over the past two centuries.”
PETER H. DIAMANDIS (shown)
& STEVEN KOTLER
AUTHORS OF “ABUNDANCE:
THE FUTURE IS BETTER THAN YOU THINK”
NOW
FEDEX CORPORATION
Corporate Vice President,
Global Communications
& Investor Relations
WILLIAM G. MARGARITIS
Vice President, Corporate Communications
NEIL GIBSON
Director, Citizenship & Reputation
CINDY CONNER
Manager, Reputation Management
Stephanie Butler
Communications Advisor
TRACEE SMITH
Contact us: [email protected].
To receive future issues of
Access Now™ and to read more, visit:
theaccessresource.com/accesseffect.
A custom publication conceived and
produced by the FedEx Corporation and
Unboundary Inc., Atlanta, Ga.
© 2012 FEDEX CORPORATION.
All rights reserved.
“With global market access, Africans would
automatically attract private investment to their
countries, despite their institutional weaknesses.
These institutions would become stronger over time as
businesses began to flourish.”
IQBAL Z. QUADIR
FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF
THE LEGATUM CENTER FOR DEVELOPMENT
AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP AT THE MASSACHUSETTS
INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
CONTRIBUTORS
Editor
CHUCK REECE
Consulting Editor
GEOFFREY PRECOURT
Designer
DAVE WHITLING
Writers
REED KARAIM
CINDY MILLER
JILL CONNORS
Photographers
CAROLINE PETTERS
STEVE COOK
SULLY SULLIVAN
“Source everywhere, manufacture everywhere,
sell everywhere. The whole notion of an ‘export’
is really disappearing.”
VICTOR FUNG
CHAIRMAN OF LI & FUNG, A LEADING
TEXTILE MANUFACTURER IN HONG KONG
2 | ACCESS NOW
CONTENTS
FEATURES
4
12
18
WHERE HEAVY METAL
ISN’T MUSIC
THE RIGHT
OTTERTUDE
A REAL COTTAGE
INDUSTRY GOES GLOBAL
The humming assembly lines in
Caterpillar’s manufacturing plant
sound beautiful. If you believe U.S.
heavy industry is dying, a visit to
the big Cat will change your mind.
The people of OtterBox can protect
your smartphone better than anyone
else. Judging by their job-creation
numbers, they take care of their
hometown pretty well, too.
When Julie Deane began selling her
colorful leather satchels from her
cottage in the tiny U.K. village of Fen
Ditton, she didn’t expect to catch the
eyes of fashionistas around the world.
10
24
PATTERNS
POLICY
A graphic look at how access to the
global marketplace can bring jobs and
prosperity to any community. We track
the Access effect in Peoria, Ill.
FedEx founder Fred Smith argues
that local economies increase their
odds of recovery by plugging into
global connections.
VISIT US ONLINE
THEACCESSRESOURCE.COM/ACCESSEFFECT
ACCESS NOW | 3
4 | ACCESS NOW
BY REED KARAIM
THE BIG YELLOW CAT AND ITS HOMETOWN OF
PEORIA ARE PURRING RIGHT ALONG, PROVING
THAT EVEN THE LARGEST COMPANIES CAN FIND A
BRIGHTER FUTURE IN THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE.
CATERPILLAR ANSWERS THE CALL OF A DEVELOPING WORLD
HEAVY METAL
ACCESS NOW | 5
PHOTOS BY STEVE COOK
ON A TOUR OF THE
CATERPILLAR FACTORY IN
EAST PEORIA, ILL., ONE
THOUGHT IS UNAVOIDABLE:
THERE IS SOMETHING
VERY COOL ABOUT A ROW
OF GIGANTIC, NEW CAT
TRACTORS ALL LINED UP
TOGETHER.
They look like the toys of your childhood
dreams sprung to oversize life: With just a
couple of these babies, you would have been
the magnate of your sandbox. Caterpillar
inspires such reveries because it’s an iconic
American brand. The company’s big, bright
yellow machines are more than just the stuff
of childhood imaginations: They have become
emblems of the hard work and physical
toughness that built the United States into
the world’s leading economic power.
Name any of the great U.S. infrastructure
projects of the last century, and there’s a
good chance Caterpillar was involved. The
interstate highways. The Hoover Dam.
The Golden Gate Bridge. The Alaskan
pipeline. “Cat” bulldozers, trucks, and other
equipment helped to build them all.
6 | ACCESS NOW
“Growing up, Caterpillar was the roof
But a tour of the plant in East Peoria
over our heads, the food on our table, the
also provides a glimpse into the evolution
presents under our Christmas tree,” says
of Caterpillar, whose current success both
Paul Walliker II, a third-generation employee
ref lects and transcends its storied past.
who works in the East Peoria torque lab.
The plant builds the company’s track-type
“Caterpillar put my sister through college; it
tractors, or bulldozers, and pipelayers.
put me through college — literally — and
The models range in size from the big D6
right now it’s funding my kid’s college fund.”
to the gargantuan D11, which weighs more
How Caterpillar made the whole
than 230,000 pounds and stands nearly
world its sandbox is more than just a
15 feet tall. On the gleaming factory f loor,
tale of business savvy. It’s an example of
workers hover over different tractors in
how global Access — the ability to move
various states of assembly.
products quickly and efficiently around the
Look carefully at the assembly line, and
world and seize opportunity wherever it
you’ll see a small flag affixed to the side of each
freshly painted machine. The flag identifies the presents itself — brings prosperity home to
working Americans like Walliker every day,
country to which the tractor is headed: Great
as they make the machines that build the
Britain. France. China. Canada. Brazil. A
world’s infrastructure.
variety of African and Middle Eastern nations.
Watch long enough and the floor of the East
Peoria plant starts to feel like a mechanized
version of the United Nations.
George Manias might be the best-known
The message is clear: The company that
man in Peoria. He’s been shining shoes
built America is now building the world.
and repairing hats in town for 65 years.
Roughly 70 percent of Caterpillar’s
His current shop, on an avenue the city
business comes from outside the U.S. At
nicknamed “George’s Shoeshine Boulevard,”
the East Peoria plant, about 80 percent
has been in the same spot for more than 22
of the largest tractors are destined for
years, just a nudge down the street from
export. International success is a principle
Caterpillar’s headquarters. Inside you’ll find
reason why Caterpillar’s business is going
pictures casually strewn about of famous
gangbusters, even as much of the U.S.
visitors, including every President of the
economy is still struggling to recover from
United States since Gerald Ford.
the recession. In fact, the company is doing
Doug Oberhelman, Caterpillar’s
so well, Fortune titled an article about its
Chairman and CEO, is one of many employees
performance: “Caterpillar Is Absolutely
who regularly settle into one of Manias’
Crushing It.”
comfortably worn leather chairs for a shine
“Crushing It,” in this case, means more jobs, and a little conversation. When asked if he
both in the U.S. and around the world; it means
ever offers Oberhelman advice, Manias allows
healthy returns for shareholders (Caterpillar
he may sometimes make a suggestion or two,
shares gained value faster than even Apple in
adding with a self-deprecating shrug, “Mostly,
2010) and a solid economic base for the city of
I just shine shoes. They talk. I just listen.”
Peoria, where Caterpillar has maintained its
But Manias is forthright in noting what
world headquarters. But the truest measure of
would happen if Caterpillar were ever to move.
the company’s success is found in the difference “They’re good customers,” he says. “If they ever
it makes in individual lives.
left town, I’d probably go out of business.”
EXPORTS = EMPLOYMENT
Childhood dreams sprung to oversize life: a line of giant Cat D11Ts, which weigh more than 230,000 pounds each.
Every successful export sale of a Cat
machine helps to provide a livelihood for
people like Manias. But it’s a success that
can’t be taken for granted. The construction
business notoriously is boom and bust, and
as a maker of expensive machines used to
build things, Caterpillar’s sales have suffered
peaks and valleys much more extreme than
companies that make more everyday products.
The early 1980s were particularly hard
for Caterpillar. Economic circumstances
combined to leave U.S. manufacturers facing
a difficult competitive environment around
the world. But, unlike much of American
industry during the period, Caterpillar never
took refuge in protectionism.
The company’s international presence
had been growing since World War II, when
much of the world got their first look at Cat
equipment, and it remained committed to
global markets. It suffered heavy losses in
some areas, but company executives say they
learned important lessons both in how to
compete internationally and how to manage
during a downturn.
When the bottom fell out of the economy
at the start of the last recession, Caterpillar
had plans to deal with it. Still, the severity of
the collapse tore a huge hole in its business,
and starting in late 2008, the company had
to lay off employees globally. But careful
forethought and quick execution helped
Caterpillar maintain profitability when other
U.S. manufacturers weren’t so fortunate.
The access Caterpillar had already built
into world markets provided the route to
rapid recovery.
“What happened is that the developing
world was already on its rise prior to ’08,”
says Stu Levenick, a group president of
Caterpillar Inc., who has responsibility for
customer and dealer support. “It took a mild
recession in ’09 and went right back on its
rocket trajectory, and we were positioned to
benefit from that.”
If Caterpillar were one of its machines,
it would be running flat-out right now. The
company’s profits and revenues soared to
record levels in 2011. Caterpillar finished the
year with more than $60 billion in revenues.
Caterpillar manufactures globally, but much
of its capacity is still in the U.S. Exports from
the company’s U.S. plants jumped 30 percent, to
$13.3 billion in 2010, then rose an additional
33 percent, to $20 billion in 2011.
More than 152,000 people make up
Caterpillar’s workforce, with more than
67,000 in the U.S. The company added 6,400
U.S. workers last year, and has hired more
than 14,000 here since the start of 2010. In
recent months, Caterpillar has announced
it’s expanding or creating new operations in
California, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, North
Carolina, and North Dakota.
“The idea that the U.S. can’t manufacture
is ridiculous,” says Levenick, “but you have to
work at it. You have to be competitive. I said
this when we had a kickoff meeting for a big
investment in East Peoria, which shocked
people. They said, ‘Caterpillar’s investing
$200 million in an old facility in East Peoria,
Illinois. Why would you do that?’
“Well, it’s because we’ve got great people;
we’ve got great technology. We’re world-class, and
we’re going to be even better after this is done.”
ACCESS NOW | 7
Every vehicle that moves down the Caterpillar plant assembly line carries the flag of
the country it’s heading for when finished. Watch the line for a while, and the floor
of the East Peoria plant starts to feel like a mechanized version of the United Nations.
(See our information graphic on Caterpillar’s global footprint: Page 10.)
The developing world is investing heavily
in roads, bridges, airports, and power plants
— the physical building blocks of a modern
economy. China, for example, annually invests
about 9 percent of its gross domestic product
in infrastructure, compared with a little more
than 2 percent for the U.S. “China and India
are now moving very rapidly to get the same
lifestyle that we have, but they’re doing it in two
generations instead of 150 years like the United
States,” notes Levenick. “What do they need
to get there? Well, they need transportation,
energy. They need infrastructure.
“And who provides that? We do.”
“WE’LL TAKE CARE OF YOU”
Caterpillar is the world’s largest maker
of construction and mining equipment,
8 | ACCESS NOW
diesel and natural-gas engines, as well as
industrial gas turbines. But it has serious
global competitors, including Volvo, Japan’s
Komatsu, China’s LiuGong, and many
smaller companies. And Cat equipment isn’t
the cheapest out there. “We’re a premium
product,” Levenick acknowledges.
So how does Caterpillar succeed with less
expensive alternatives available?
It starts with the strength of every piece
of iron or steel in a Cat machine, tempered
to higher standards than most competitors,
and continues throughout the design and
construction process.
Indeed, Cat machines are constructed to
spend long, hard days out in the field, while also
operating efficiently. “Our value proposition to
customers around the world is we will provide
the lowest operating costs, the best return on
investment over the life of the product, bar
none,” says Levenick. Reliability is an essential
part of the equation. “If you think about our
customers, their livelihood depends on this
thing working,” he adds. “If you’ve got a tractor,
it’s got to work a certain number of hours every
day, or you don’t get paid.”
But even the best machines sometimes
break down. The other ingredient in
Caterpillar’s success is the priority it places on
responding quickly when that happens.
Caterpillar’s pledge to its customers is
it will get you the part you need within 24
hours, if not sooner. “That’s a big commitment,
and that’s worldwide,” notes Levenick. “It
means we’ve got an enormous network of
parts distribution. We’ve got logistics people
feeding parts into these depots, dealers
carrying inventory.
“All of this has to work like a clock,”
he adds. “If you think about our far-flung
footprint and our manufacturing footprint,
we make very few products in only one
location. Some products have as many as
14 different sources around the world. The
bottom line is we’ve got stuff going all over
the place. To be efficient, it has to get where
it’s going on time. Logistics is huge for us.”
Keeping that clock running smoothly
requires serious commitment from every
company that’s part of the Caterpillar supply
chain. Scott Abdo is National Accounts
Manager for FedEx Custom Critical, which
ensures that parts from suppliers in 10 U.S.
states arrive at the Peoria factory just in time,
a role the company also plays for plants in
Mexico and Germany, helping Caterpillar
lower its inventory requirements.
“We do whatever we have to do to cover
their shipments at all costs,” Abdo says. “They
cannot get involved in a shutdown. We do
whatever we have to do to prevent that. The
amount of trust that they have to have in us is
just enormous. Those folks depend on us.”
The commitments that suppliers make
to Caterpillar, though, simply mirror the
commitment Caterpillar makes to its customers.
Terry Pickel, who worked for Caterpillar
40 years before retiring in 1999, spent time as
a manager of the toolroom. “We would have
requests to make parts for machines that
were 35 to 40 years old,” he remembers. “They
weren’t part of our current machine, but the
80%
OF THE LARGEST TRACTORS
PRODUCED AT THE EAST
PEORIA, ILL., PLANT ARE
DESTINED FOR EXPORT.
The company’s role extends far beyond
referred to as the Rust Belt. It’s a city of about
jobs. “Caterpillar donated lights for the
115,000, although the greater metropolitan
baseball field at Butler Haynes Park in
area is nearly 400,000. The downtown, which
Mapleton, where my kids participate,” says
seems large for a city of its size, has a midRoberson. “We took them from the old
20th-century feeling — a collection of modest
foundry, and the electricians donated their
skyscrapers, smaller brick buildings, and iron
time, so we were able to put up lights and the
suspension bridges stretching across the river.
kids could play in the dark.”
The town has such a middle-American
A few blocks from Caterpillar’s
character, the phrase “Will it play in Peoria?”
headquarters, in Peoria’s gorgeous red brick
has become a way of asking whether
city hall, Mayor Jim Ardis calls Caterpillar
something will appeal to the American
mainstream. Caterpillar’s world headquarters “the model company for what every mayor
would like to see in the businesses they have
sits on Adams Street at the heart of the city.
in their community.” He says it’s rare that he
Caterpillar has been in the community for
speaks in front of a civic group that Caterpillar
more than eight decades. A heritage wall
hasn’t helped or its employees aren’t involved
holds the name of every employee who has
in. He also notes that the company has put
worked there, etched in a succession of metal
an emphasis on operating in a sustainable,
plaques. On it are nearly 150,000 names.
environmentally responsible manner. “They
On a winter morning with the river
have a goal of getting their carbon emissions
the same slate gray color as the sky, a group
down to zero,” he says. “They’re amazing, man.”
of current and semi-retired Caterpillar
Caterpillar’s hiring over the last year has
employees gathered around a table to talk
helped Peoria’s recovery from the recession, but
about their experiences at the company. They
just as significant in the long run, Ardis says,
came from two families, the Pickels and the
is the stature that comes with the company’s
Wallikers, and they represent two generations
reputation and success. “The economic
of Caterpillar workers.
development world is very competitive. When
But for both families, the connections
He is quick to add, “We don’t like that
we’re out there talking to folks we want to
to the company are even more extensive,
to happen very often.” Once again, logistics,
recruit to this area, and we’re able to say, you
stretching back another generation and
moving parts and supplies around the world
know, Caterpillar’s world headquarters are here,
reaching out to encompass aunts, uncles,
efficiently, is critical. So is the ability to locate
it’s a very definite advantage.”
cousins, friends. “When we were growing up,
production where it makes the most sense
The factory jobs and the professional,
and to sell wherever there’s a willing customer. everybody I went to school with, their dads
white-collar employment at the headquarters
worked at Caterpillar,” says Staci Pollard,
“As you could imagine, we’re big advocates of
also provide a mix that broadens the city both
Terry Pickel’s daughter. “I didn’t know there
free trade,” says Levenick.
culturally and economically. Peoria has a
were other places you could work.”
Yet even as Caterpillar succeeds around
well-regarded symphony orchestra, a small
Still, Pollard, like her sister Angela
the world, it remains a quintessentially
jewel of a downtown baseball park for its
Midwestern company in much of its character. Roberson and Paul Walliker II, initially
minor league baseball team, the Chiefs, and
looked elsewhere. Pollard chose teaching;
The standard operating agreement it has
a civic center designed by the noted architect
Roberson the restaurant business. Walliker
with its dealers, for example, is “as close to
hired on at an automotive factory. But they all Philip Johnson — all supported and all made
a handshake agreement” as you can get in
possible in part by Caterpillar’s continuing
ended up back at Caterpillar. And they all say
today’s litigious world, notes Levenick. It’s not
it was the best career decision they ever made. success around the world.
a complicated document, and either side can
Asked to identify what made them
The jobs at the East Peoria facility pay
cancel it without cause with 90 days’ notice.
proudest about working for Caterpillar, the
well and include competitive benefits (after
That matter-of-fact expectation that
employees gathered in East Peoria mentioned
he joined the company, Walliker had most of
you’ll do your job reflects the ethos of the
all the company’s strengths. Then Pickel
his college tuition reimbursed by Caterpillar),
farms, small towns, and cities from which
observed, “The size of the machines we make is
but their job satisfaction has to do with more
the company hired much of its original workpretty darn impressive.”
than personal reward. It starts with knowing
force. The company’s success depends on
“We’re part of something really big,”
the difference Caterpillar has made to Peoria.
worldwide access, but it draws on a heritage
Walliker chimed in to laughter around the table.
“I think the whole community is built around
that began in places like Peoria.
Will it play in Peoria?
Caterpillar,” says Walliker. “You see how
Caterpillar has for almost a century, and
many employees we have here? There are two
thanks to the company’s success around the
or three times that many in shops around the
Peoria sits along the Illinois River in the middle
world, the show is still going strong.
area, making parts for us.”
section of the country sometimes derisively
operator would need it, and we would stop
what we were doing and machine that one
part for that customer and get it delivered.”
Perhaps no greater proof of Caterpillar’s
devotion to customer care can be found than
the company’s willingness to take a part off the
assembly line for someone in the field, even if
it delays production. “We’ll shut the line down,”
says Levenick. “This is fundamental to our
business model. The promise we’re making to
customers is we’ll take care of you before we’ll
ship a new product.”
GROWING UP,
CATERPILLAR WAS THE
ROOF OVER OUR HEADS,
THE FOOD ON OUR TABLE,
THE PRESENTS UNDER
OUR CHRISTMAS TREE.”
WILL IT PLAY?
ACCESS NOW | 9
PATTERNS
PEORIA PROSPERS AS CATERPILLAR
BUILDS THE WORLD.
GLOBAL IMPACT
U.S. IMPACT
1 13
IN
PEORIA area WORKers
are at CATERPILLAR
14,400
u.s. JOBS
CATERPILLAR
Added SINCE 2010
= 100 U.S. jobs
SIGNIFICANT GLOBAL PROJECTS INVOLVING CAT MACHINES
|
The Access effect spreads:
Companies in ALL 50 states supply
parts bound for the Peoria factory.
10 | ACCESS NOW
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1929
1931
1933
1944
1951
1956
1966
Soviet
Grain
Trust
Hoover
Dam
Golden
Gate
Bridge
70,000
miles
of U.S.
highway
Andes
Melbourne
Mountains Summer
Highway
Olympics
World
Trade
Center
NYC
INFRASTRUCTURE SPENDING:
projected annual growth
through 2016
China INDIA
12%
11%
12%
15%
BRAZIL RUSSIA
CATERPILLAR EXPORTS
FROM U.S. (IN BILLIONS)
2010 2011
$13.3 $20.0
TOTAL GLOBAL
CATERPILLAR WORKFORCE
152,983
TOTAL CAT DEALERSHIPS
Worldwide
191
TOTAL EMPLOYEES OF
CAT DEALERSHIPS IN 2010
141,300
Sources: Caterpillar, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, BRICdata
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1969
1971
1974
1982
1993
1999
2003
2004
2007
2009
2012
Apollo 11
Mission
Support
Amazon
Highway
TransAlaskan
Pipeline
San Francisco
cable car
system
renovation
Hong
Kong
Intl.
Airport
Expansion
of Panama
Canal
Arabian
Canal
London
Summer
Olympics
Hartsfield- Paris Ligne Beijing 2008
Jackson
a Grande
Summer
Atlanta Intl.
Vitesse
Olympics
Airport
(high-speed
rail)
ACCESS NOW | 11
2007
12 | ACCESS NOW
2009
2010
THREE-THOUSAND
PERCENT REVENUE
GROWTH PUT
OTTERBOX ON
THE GLOBAL MAP
BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT NUMBER
FOR CEO CURT RICHARDSON IS HIS
COMPANY’S ECONOMIC IMPACT ON
ITS HOMETOWN: FORT COLLINS, COLO.
BY JILL CONNORS
ACCESS NOW | 13
(THUD)
INSPECT
(REPEAT)
DROP
(THUD)
INSPECT
(REPEAT)
DROP
(THUD)
INSPECT
The guys in OtterBox’s Product Innovation
group are having way too much fun breaking
things. Or, more accurately, trying to.
Over and over, they are dropping a $600
smartphone, protected by an OtterBox-made
case of polycarbonate and silicone, through a
trap door in a three-foot platform they have
hauled onto the sidewalk outside their office.
Alan Morine, a mechanical engineer at
OtterBox headquarters in Fort Collins, Colo.,
grins slyly as he picks the phone up from the
concrete and inspects it. “The intent is to drop
the phone in a controlled fashion, five times for
every face, from a variety of heights,” he says.
This kind of rigorous testing has earned
OtterBox a special place in the hearts
of consumers, even in the booming but
ridiculously crowded market for cases to
protect smartphones and other electronics.
Just listen to some of the messages that come
streaming in: “I just dropped my BlackBerry.
Don’t feel sorry for me; feel sorry for the
concrete,” a construction foreman told the
company. A mom called to say: “My 3-yearold son just tried to feed my iPhone to our
dog. Thanks for the protection, OtterBox.” A
soldier in Afghanistan wrote: “My OtterBox
Defender Series case has kept my iPhone safe
through bumps, drops, bouncing Hummers,
and dust finer than talcum powder. Thank
you for a great product.”
14 | ACCESS NOW
OtterBox’s tough cases earn more
than rave reviews. In September 2011, Inc.
magazine named OtterBox No. 70 in its annual
list of the 500 fastest-growing businesses,
specifically citing the company’s 3,179-percent
growth from 2007 to 2010, when revenues
rose from $5 million to $168.9 million. Output
has increased from 10,000 cases per week
to 500,000 per week in the past three years.
And last year, Entrepreneur magazine
called OtterBox one of the 25 best medium
businesses to work for.
Curt Richardson, the CEO and founder,
tells employees his business philosophy is
simple: “If you do the right things, the right
things will happen.”
By all conventional measures, OtterBox
is a success story of the highest order.
Richardson’s company, which in classic
entrepreneurial fashion was started in his
garage, now accesses the global marketplace.
It is mastering the global supply chains of
modern manufacturing, with plants in North
America and in Asia. But another goal is every
bit as critical to OtterBox’s leaders: How can
the company bring home to Fort Collins the
benefits of its global success?
“Sure, we make protective cases for mobile
devices,” says Brian Thomas, OtterBox’s
President. “But deep down, we really want to
create jobs and give people opportunities that
they otherwise wouldn’t have. That really is the
core of what everybody is doing here.”
OtterBox may be a model for a new breed of
businesses, one dedicated to bringing the effects
of global Access back home for reinvestment.
For evidence, look no farther than downtown
Fort Collins, where Morine is still out on the
sidewalk, trying to break a smartphone.
Drop. (Thud.) Inspect.
GLOBAL SPLASH, LOCAL RIPPLES
OtterBox recently transformed an old
motorcycle showroom on the outskirts of
town into an assembly and distribution center,
where some 300 different models — and the
parts needed to make them — make their way
into and out of Fort Collins, part of a supply
chain that connects to the company’s other
manufacturing sites in Minnesota, Mexico,
Korea, China, and Singapore. Additionally,
OtterBox has developed a global sales
organization to make sure that the investment
in distribution services pays off. It has opened
a sales office in Cork, Ireland (for the Europe,
Middle East, and Africa markets), and one in
Hong Kong (for the Asia-Pacific Rim market).
But the real effects of the company’s
success are best seen in downtown Fort
Collins, known to locals as Old Town. Local
officials credit OtterBox with keeping the
city’s unemployment rate under the state and
national averages. In its lifetime, OtterBox has
created more than 500 jobs in Fort Collins.
“They are a homegrown success,” says
Josh Birks, an economic advisor to the city of
140,000, where the economy traditionally has
been based on technology (Hewlett-Packard
Co. has made chips here since the 1960s) and
education (it’s the home of Colorado State
University). In the last five years, Birks has
worked with Richardson to find additional
workspace in downtown Fort Collins.
OtterBox now owns 10 buildings within
a four-block area, with its headquarters on
Meldrum Street as the anchor.
“Our vision is to eventually see as many
as 1,500 jobs here along Meldrum Street,
whether it’s OtterBox or spinoffs of Otter,”
Richardson says.
That’s a big number, but talking to
Richardson, it’s easy to believe he and
OtterBox can make it happen. First,
Richardson believes his investments
in Fort Collins should not be confined
to reinvestments in OtterBox. Second,
Richardson has built a company culture so
distinctive that it helps make Fort Collins one
of the most attractive work environments in
Colorado. No wonder OtterBox is making the
“best places to work” lists.
SPINOFFS AND SLIDEDOWNS
When Richardson says he wants OtterBox
or its spinoffs to create more jobs in Fort
Collins, he’s not referring to spinoffs in
the classic sense. He isn’t talking about
OtterBox divesting itself of businesses
it doesn’t need. He’s talking about
empowering people to create their own
businesses, some of which could be parts
of the larger OtterBox ecosystem.
“We’ve started a small incubator to be
able to take other innovative ideas or help
other entrepreneurs that may have an idea,
but don’t have the infrastructure,” Richardson
ONE TOUGH CASE
OtterBox’s cases win favor in the global
marketplace because they are extremely
tough but still make it easy for people to
PHOTO BY SULLY SULLIVAN
says. “We want to help them be successful in
our community and grow jobs.”
In other words, he would like OtterBox,
over time, to be able to grow its own suppliers,
right at home in Fort Collins.
Thomas puts it this way: “We come
from an entrepreneurial background with
Curt, and we’ve extended that out to several
employees, who have now left the company,
by helping them start their own businesses.
It’s a kind of proliferating entrepreneurism
out in the market and growing a better
economy here and elsewhere, wherever we
choose to do business.”
Visit OtterBox’s headquarters on
Meldrum Street, and you’ll see people who
genuinely seem to be having fun. Employees
chat at a beautiful espresso bar. Conference
rooms with frosted glass walls bear the
names of Richardson’s favorite authors.
Staffers help each other fix flat bicycle tires
in a basement bike room. Even a broom and
dustpan are the precise bold yellow of all
OtterBox packaging.
And right in the middle of it is a slide.
That’s right: a curving, put-your-fannydown-and-take-a-ride slide. It’s the fastest
route from the second-f loor offices to the
espresso bar in the main lobby. The only
things that differentiate the slide from
one you would see on a playground are the
sculptor-crafted bronze otters that adorn
its underside. So school-yard shrieks of
delight are every bit as much a part of
the OtterBox DNA as the spontaneous
conversations at the espresso bar about
topics like how to craft the right strategy
for the Asia-Pacific market.
If incubating spinoffs and giving
downtown Fort Collins its most amazing
workplace aren’t enough, Nancy Richardson,
Curt’s wife, recently started a not-for-profit
affiliate dedicated to helping local youth.
OtterCares began its work by offering every
OtterBox employee $200 to give to a favorite
local nonprofit, but not before trying to
“grow” the money by getting matching funds
from friends and family members. After
three weeks, the money had almost doubled.
“OUR VISION IS TO EVENTUALLY
SEE AS MANY AS 1,500 JOBS
HERE ALONG MELDRUM STREET,
WHETHER IT’S OTTERBOX OR
SPINOFFS OF OTTER.”
- CURT RICHARDSON
ACCESS NOW | 15
16 | ACCESS NOW
“SURE, WE MAKE PROTECTIVE CASES FOR
MOBILE DEVICES,” SAYS BRIAN THOMAS,
OTTERBOX’S PRESIDENT. “BUT DEEP
DOWN, WE REALLY WANT TO CREATE
JOBS AND GIVE PEOPLE OPPORTUNITIES
THAT THEY OTHERWISE WOULDN’T HAVE.
THAT REALLY IS THE CORE OF WHAT
EVERYBODY IS DOING HERE.”
use their devices. So over the years, its cases
have gained a strong, loyal following among
two extremely different groups — outdoors
enthusiasts and high-tech nerds — attracted,
respectively, by practicality and technology.
But in Fort Collins, everybody — not just
the outdoorsy folks and nerds — has reason to
be an OtterBox fan.
Birks, the city’s economic advisor, credits
OtterBox with helping Fort Collins through
the recession with a lower-than-average
unemployment rate of 6.5 percent.
“I think one of the greatest things about
the OtterBox story is they have been zooming
in growth during a very tumultuous time,”
explains Birks.
Of course, dramatic growth creates
challenges. Dan O’Toole, a FedEx Account
Director who works with OtterBox, says
businesses that start as “garage companies”
often face problems when rapid global
growth begins. “They start out shipping
out of their garage, four packages a
day. Nineteen months later, they’ve
got $400 million in sales, and they’re
trying as rapidly as they can to build a
250,000-square-foot warehouse.” When
such a crunch comes, O’Toole says, it’s the
job of FedEx to compensate as the company
builds its infrastructure. With OtterBox,
he adds, “FedEx has been able to pull this
lever or pull that string in our portfolio [of
services] to allow them to keep the focus on
getting products manufactured, getting the
orders out, and meeting customer demand.”
OtterBox’s need to build infrastructure to
handle its growth, though, has been another
boon for Fort Collins.
“In the midst of the Great Recession,
they were buying up property in downtown,
PHOTO BY SULLY SULLIVAN
hiring dozens of employees a month, and all
of that has had a very stabilizing effect on
our economy — both from the real estate
market in terms of those transactions, the
building market with the contractors doing
the renovation, and bringing new residents to
town as well,” Birks says.
And the ripples travel farther. “We
know from research that a downtown
worker spends about $65 a week in the
downtown area, and that translates into
$3,400 a year,” Birks says. “If you’ve got the
number of employees that OtterBox has
downtown, that’s almost $1 million annually
in contributions to retail sales. Second, those
transactions then create jobs at retail shops
and restaurants.”
That OtterBox has had such dramatic
effect in Fort Collins isn’t so surprising if
you consider Richardson’s history. He is the
son of a minister, and giving back, he says,
has always been part of his life. For Nancy
Richardson, the ability to help the community
has become a mission. “Curt and I have a
strong belief in the idea that to whom much is
given, much is expected,” says Nancy.
“For OtterBox, I want us to stand
for so much more than just a case,” Curt
adds. “It’s how do we give back, how do we
treat each other, and not only how do we
treat our customers, but how do we treat
our communities? I think that many of
our customers understand that. And that’s
important to us.”
Richardson refers once again to his
business mantra: “You know how we say, ‘Do
the right things, and the right things will
happen’? That’s a big part of how we want to
act every day. Do we always do that? No. Do
we try? Yeah.”
ACCESS NOW | 17
IT’S IN
THE BAG
ALL JULIE DEANE
WANTED WAS TO EARN
ENOUGH MONEY TO
SEND HER KIDS TO A
DIFFERENT SCHOOL.
THEN HER CAMBRIDGE
SATCHEL COMPANY
BECAME A GLOBAL,
MULTIMILLION-DOLLAR
BUSINESS.
BY CINDY MILLER
18 | ACCESS NOW
PHOTOS BY CAROLINE PETTERS
ACCESS NOW | 19
JULIE DEANE SITS, PATIENTLY WAITING FOR HER SON
MAX, 10, TO WRAP UP HIS SWIMMING LESSONS. LIKE
BUSY WORKING PARENTS EVERYWHERE, SHE’S MULTITASKING. ONE EYE ON THE POOL, THE OTHER SCANNING
THE ISRAELI CUSTOMS FORMS ON HER IPHONE THAT
MUST BE COMPLETED BEFORE THE END OF THE DAY.
AND, RUNNING 24/7 IN THE BACK OF HER MIND, THE
CHECKLIST THAT’S AN OPERATIONAL IMPERATIVE FOR
ANY ENTREPRENEUR WHO SEEKS TO LIVE A REAL LIFE
EVEN AS SHE GUIDES AN ORGANIZATION.
COMPLETE THE ISRAELI CUSTOMS FORMS SO ORDERS CAN SHIP.
Plan the one-day trip to Paris to meet with Printemps buyers about space during Paris’ Fashion
Week. Can my daughter go with me? What about my mother? Start whittling down the 1,200
emails stacked in my inbox. Is it time to hire a personal assistant?
Deane’s to-do list has changed dramatically in the four years since she started a homebased, online business making classically styled British school bags. Today, that business is The
Cambridge Satchel Company, which employs more than 100 people in the U.K. and has a pipeline
of more than 30,000 orders for satchels headed to consumers in more than 140 countries.
The satchels, whose retail price runs in the $115-$170 range, are handcrafted leather.
And they’re the stuff of practical use as well as of semi-high (at least) fashion. For Deane, the
emphasis is on the practical: It’s an accessory where her smartphone — the mandated tool of
the 21st-century business owner — is nestled with the timeless necessities of a mom: a box
of raisins, candy, tissues.
Deane moves seamlessly through her day’s personal and professional commitments,
relying on technology, a developing management team, and a strong family foundation. At its
core, Cambridge Satchel is a family business. Deane’s mother, Freda Thomas, can be found
packing satchels most days; husband Kevin keeps up with the progress at the factory he helped
establish. After school, son Max puts the curiosity of a 10-year-old boy to work weighing
packages and using the Internet to track down missing phone numbers. Daughter Emily, 12, is
a master at labeling and answering email when she’s in the office and accompanies her mom on
the occasional business trip. Asked recently at school about the company’s income, she wisely
replied, “Net or gross?”
Deane — and Cambridge Satchel — have come a long way since 2007, when the family
kitchen table in the village of Fen Ditton, Cambridgeshire, doubled as the company’s world
headquarters. Packages were weighed on the bathroom scale, and everyone in the family stood
in line at the post office to mail individual bags to their new owners.
20 | ACCESS NOW
In early 2012, Deane finds herself
building a management team, expanding the
factory she just opened last year, and being
courted by retail elite the likes of Harrods
in London and Printemps in Paris. She’s
also fielding custom orders from people like
Matthew Weiner, creator of AMC’s popular
series, “Mad Men.” (Weiner ordered 200
custom satchels with the logo of the fictional
advertising agency Sterling Cooper Draper
Price to give as 2011 holiday gifts.)
The satchel has a decades-long ancestry,
but the business is built on a modern
“virtual” foundation. Fashion bloggers
around the world spot the bag in other blogs,
on TV shows like “Gossip Girl,” or draped
over the shoulders of celebrities like rapper
Jay-Z and actress Sienna Miller. They then
mention it on their own blogs, which capture
the attention of other digerati, who pass
on their approval of the product … and the
process, in time, drives thousands to
the Cambridge Satchel website.
Sustaining peak popularity levels
demands a quality product. The company
prefers to test customers’ patience than
compromise on quality. Orders generally take
up to 30 days to fill; in the case of one satchel
model, a purple bag with yellow tabs, initial
fulfillment time was more than four months
because the yellow leather wasn’t quite right
and twice returned to the tannery.
Cambridge Satchel thrives with an
approach that is equal parts innocence and
savvy. Deane, 44, brings to the business
her Cambridge pedigree — she graduated
from the elite university’s Gonville & Caius
College — and invaluable experience as
a consultant on the partnership track at
Deloitte in the early 1990s.
The success of the company Deane
founded in 2007 was not immediate. But,
despite some natural up-and-down growing
pains, Cambridge Satchel is now expanding
dramatically. It began as a mom-anddaughter shop in the kitchen of her 18thcentury cottage selling a few bags a week.
Today, it employs more than 100 people and
runs its own factory.
“There’s no better time to start a
business,” Deane says, holding up her
iPhone. “How could I be selling a bag in
Korea from a kitchen in Fen Ditton without
technology?”
THE BUZZ BEGINS
The timing was fortuitous on a couple of fronts.
Deane had stepped away from the professional
world to focus on parenting after her children
were born. But when she put her executive-level
planning skills to work for a Spiderman-themed
birthday party for Max, she realized it might be
time to do more with her managerial prowess.
This awareness coincided with her desire to
move daughter Emily into a prep school, away
from the bullying she had been experiencing in a
community school.
The idea for satchels came to her, she
remembers, because she simply couldn’t find one
for her children. She had carried a classic British
book satchel as a child, and sought the same kind
of style and efficiency for her own children. If she
wanted them, she thought, surely others would, too.
Deane searched the Internet for a place to buy
such a satchel, finally finding a supplier through a
private school in Scotland that required a variation
of the classic bag as part of its school uniform.
Next, she tracked down the company that made
the 14-inch satchel, a small manufacturer in Hull,
England. Owner Alec Ricks, who still works with
Deane today, agreed to make a prototype for her,
and even create bags … if she happened to sell any.
To get started, Deane created her own website
from an online template and spent less than $100
to buy specific search words on Google so that
people searching for something like “British school
satchel” would be directed to her website. She
also sent emails promoting her satchel to bloggers
in Great Britain, sometimes including photos of
Emily and Max modeling the bags.
One December day in 2008, after about a year
of sales averaging no more than a few satchels a
week, orders jumped to 70 in one 24-hour period.
Cambridge Satchel had reached a promotional
tipping point: The Guardian of London had
included the product in its annual holiday gift
guide, just in time for Christmas.
Bigger success was just a major retailer away.
When hip Urban Outfitters placed its first large
order in 2009, Cambridge Satchel moved from a
theoretically good idea to a practical, profitable
enterprise.
Online fashionistas buzzed about the bags
during the 2011 New York and London fashion
weeks, and demand went skyward. Even
traditional media were part of the excitement,
with Deane’s satchels showcased in Elle, GQ, and
Cosmopolitan magazines. The company ended
2011 with more than 30,000 orders in the pipeline
“THE CAMBRIDGE SATCHEL
COMPANY HAS A REAL HEART AND
SPIRIT FOR ME, AND IT’S NOT JUST
ABOUT FILLING ORDERS.” – JULIE DEANE
Julie Deane’s Cambridge Satchels, simple and practical but very stylish, caught the eyes
of fashion bloggers and soon became a global phenomenon.
ACCESS NOW | 21
2007
2008
2009
2010
Started the company
with $1,000, based
in the family kitchen
Hit it “big” with 70 sales in
one day after a mention
in The Guardian of London
Picked up the
first major retailer,
Urban Outfitters
Sealed “fashionista” status when
high-end retailer Commes des
Garçons began to carry the satchel
from individuals and retail giants like Bloomingdale’s, Selfridges, and
Urban Outfitters. More than 200 shops around the world were queued up
on the company’s waiting list. Cambridge Satchel, to keep up with existing
demand, was forced to halt new orders until spring 2012.
THE RED LEDGER
Some numbers offer more substantial — if less dramatic — evidence
of Cambridge Satchel’s achievement: Funded with less than $1,000 in
2007, the company hit $3.36 million in sales in the fiscal year ending
June 30, 2011. Sales from July 2011 through December 2011 were
$3.96 million, and the company is on track to top $10 million when its
fiscal year ends in June 2012.
Today, sophisticated tracking software and rich algorithms take
note of every present and projected transaction. But it wasn’t that long
ago when sales and inventory were recorded as color-coded, handwritten entries in a red ledger. The system was simple: One line for
each order, one page for each month, and a “-1” circled in red when
a satchel was shipped, effectively deleting the item from company
inventory. Taped inside the back cover of the ledger was a graphic —
“Who are the members of the European Union?” — that was a visual
reminder of how little Deane knew about exporting when she began.
In those red-ledger days, the metrics of success were simple: Hire
an assistant if sales reached 10 bags a day. Satchels were made as they
were ordered and paid for in advance. Deane built the company’s first
website, linking it to PayPal for online payments. The company logo,
still in use, came from clip art.
The satchel’s growing popularity throughout 2009 pushed Deane
to U.K. Trade and Investment, which provides expert trade advice and
practical support to British companies wishing to grow their business
overseas. Deane sat before a representative, thinking through her answer
to his question, “What’s your business plan?” She didn’t really have one. But
she knew enough to realize she needed some kind of marketing strategy.
Assigned to the Chicago office of Deloitte for several years in the 1990s,
Deane knew firsthand how difficult it was to find British products like
kids in the United States. We were scrambling to keep up with soapopera fans in South Korea.”
The scrambling hasn’t stopped. Neil Parlett, who handles the
Cambridge account for FedEx in the U.K., says, “Over the Christmas
period, as they tried to catch up, I went in and did some shipments
myself to help them out.”
When a small business finds its products catching on globally, it
requires partners like FedEx to help the business scale up operations.
With Cambridge Satchel, that means integrating FedEx hardware
and software into Cambridge’s systems. It means getting prepared
to handle the customs requirements of every country. It also means
creating shipping options that meet customer expectations.
“We try to take them seamlessly to the next level,” Parlett says. “At
every turn, we ask ourselves, ‘How can we help?’” With Cambridge Satchel,
that even included FedEx helping the company find U.K.-based suppliers.
.
MADE IN THE U.K.
At Cambridge Satchel, “handmade” means just that. Virtually every step
in the lengthy process of crafting the bags is performed by hand, just as
with the first prototype in 2007. Craftsmen and craftswomen are hired
to cut, stitch, emboss, punch, and assemble each bag. Automated sewing
machines are gradually being introduced, and computer software will
soon be in use to assure alignment meets the one-millimeter variance
limit required by high-end distributors. Quality control comes in the
form of trained eyes searching each bag before it’s packed, looking for
a faulty stitch, missing rivet, or scratched leather.
Each item is tagged, “Made in Great Britain,” and the company is
committed to keeping its work local. The Cambridge Satchel is now
the main product produced at five plants around Great Britain, in
addition to its own factory in Leicester.
Leather for the bags comes from two tanneries in Yorkshire and
Scotland. Buckles are made in factories in Leicester, as are the sewing
machines. Threads and custom cutting tools arrive from suppliers in
northern England.
“It’s a very British design, and it never crossed my mind to have it
made anywhere else,” she explained. “In many ways, it would be easier
to get volume from larger, less expensive manufacturers, but it just
doesn’t feel right. The Cambridge Satchel Company has a real heart
and spirit for me, and it’s not just about filling orders.”
Another manifestation of that “heart and spirit”: The global
success of Cambridge Satchel has been built on a “pay-as-you-go”
model without investors or loans.
scones or steak-and-kidney pies in the United States. She reasoned that the
“I don’t want to worry about owing people money,” Deane said. “I
British, looking for a taste of home, would recall the classic leather book
think that’s something that puts a lot of people — especially women
bags of their youth and buy them. Deane says she thought British families
— off the whole idea of starting a business. There’s this belief that if
living in the United States “would be the next big market for the satchels.”
you’re going to start a business you have to put your house on the line
As in the case of so many good ideas, however, reality trumped concept. to show your commitment. Rubbish!”
The Brits-in-the-U.S. inspiration was overtaken by good fortune.
Deane’s strength in things financial didn’t extend to other
Within days of the meeting with U.K. Trade and Investment, a South
disciplines that are part of the retail tool kit. Take fashion, for instance:
Korean soap opera star carried a Cambridge Satchel on a popular
Back in the kitchen/office days, Deane’s mother received an order over
television show.
the telephone. And she was confused. She covered the receiver and
“We were overwhelmed by the orders that started pouring in from
whispered to her daughter, “This man says he only has one name. Can
South Korea,” Deane said. “So much for my idea about targeting school we take an order from someone who won’t give us his surname?”
“HOW COULD I BE SELLING A BAG
IN KOREA FROM A KITCHEN IN FEN
DITTON WITHOUT TECHNOLOGY?”
22 | ACCESS NOW
2011
2012
Ended the year with about 200
shops around the world on the
waiting list to carry the satchels
On track to hit $10 million
annual sales when fiscal
year ends in June
Deane Googled the caller’s name and discovered that “Erdem,” on the
other end of the phone, was one of Britain’s top fashion designers, with a
customer list that would come to include U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama.
“Yes, we can sell to a customer with only one name,” Deane told her mother.
When people like Erdem and the fashion style-setters start paying
attention, buyers at Bloomingdale’s take notice, too. The New York-based
retailer tested Cambridge Satchels in its 2011 fall line and placed a hefty
order for spring 2012 after that initial order of 1,200 bags sold out in weeks.
“Our customers want the newest, latest thing, and we got
Cambridge Satchels at just the right time,” says Joyce Packman,
Bloomingdale’s Vice President and Divisional Merchandise Manager
for handbags, jewelry, and watches.
Deane’s simple, trusting approach to building The Cambridge
Satchel Company has served her well. She has no inner circle of
advisers beyond her mother and husband, but she’s developed strategic
relationships to get the advice she needs.
What color yellow works with leather? Call Erdem and ask him.
What are the hottest retail markets? Call prestigious fashion label
Commes des Garçons, and see what the buyers there think. What’s
important when establishing a brand and opening a factory? Call
British luxury fashion leader Mulberry.
The corporate office in Cambridge is tiny, fewer than 500 square
feet. Nearly every inch is put to use managing the business, taking
phone calls and packing bags to ship around the world. All consumer
orders are shipped from here; large retail orders ship directly from the
factory. Cambridge Satchel employs about 120 people in its factory
and corporate office, some of them seasonally.
Deane’s office sits between the packing area and the business office,
and most people use it as a shortcut between the two workstations.
Her expanding management team includes experienced professionals
like Charlotte Cox, with 10 years experience in retail finance, and
production manager Gretchen Isern, who spent 10 years in online retail.
Cox’s sophistication brings systems to accomplish what not long ago
had been left to the red ledger. It’s Isern’s job to help the company grow
through its large wholesale accounts with the fashion trade, which can
order thousands of bags at a time.
Now, there’s a detailed coding system and a new packing process
that triples the number of packages that ship each day. In the past,
using boxes of inconsistent size slowed deliveries. The bags now ship in
one of three custom-size boxes. Isern also streamlined how large orders
were allocated to each of the five factories, each of which had been
producing as many as 142 variations of the satchel. Now, for example,
all 12-inch satchels go to the same factory to speed up production and
reduce waste.
Amid the rapid growth and global reach, Deane remains true to
her core values. It’s telling that she worked with the building’s owner to
negotiate an addition rather than taking the space above the existing
office: She didn’t want an “upstairs” mentality to take hold at Cambridge
Satchel, preferring to create an open space where everyone can interact
and where her family-first culture can thrive.
“I’m not out for world domination of bags,” Deane said. “We’re really
happy doing what we’re doing. The only target I set for myself was when
we wanted to send the children to prep school, and we’ve done that. The
pressure is off.”
ACCESS NOW | 23
POLICY
THE EVIDENCE IS CLEAR:
TO FUEL A LOCAL ECONOMY,
CONNECT TO THE WORLD.
GLOBAL GROWTH,
LOCAL SUCCESS
BY FREDERICK W. SMITH
24 | ACCESS NOW
What should we believe when one of America’s biggest
manufacturers produces booming export growth — and
prosperity for its hometown — in a day when heavy
industry is supposed to be on the decline?
What does it mean for the world when a British mother
can redesign a simple product and turn it into a global
business, whose sales jump from about $14,000 in year one
to more than $3.3 million three years later?
At FedEx, we conclude that access to global markets
leads to opportunity — and that when businesses use Access
to its fullest, they put money in the pockets of people and
other businesses in the communities where they operate.
Truly, when global connections solidify, local economies
flourish. That’s what we call the Access effect.
The stories here prove the Access effect, and they are only
three of the thousands of examples we see every day. What’s
happening in Peoria, Ill., and in the tiny U.K. village of Fen
Ditton happens everywhere, every day, if the way is cleared
for greater Access.
At FedEx, we support free-trade agreements (FTAs)
because they make stories like the ones in these pages happen.
Barriers to Access are barriers to prosperity. Consider the data
illustrated here. In the seven years after the U.S. and Chile
signed their FTA, American businesses experienced a huge
increase in exports to Chile. But most notably, the purchasing
power of people in both countries rose. At both ends of a global
connection, the Access effect takes hold.
We believe barriers to trade are barriers to Access, which
means they are also barriers to higher standards of living for
people everywhere. That’s why we encourage smart policy
choices that make global connections easier.
And I think that if you ask the folks in Peoria, Fen Ditton,
or Fort Collins, they’d probably agree.
Illustration of Frederick W. Smith by Randy Glass
WHAT CONCLUSION
SHOULD ONE DRAW
FROM THE STORIES
IN THIS MAGAZINE?
THE ACCESS EFFECT AT WORK
THE FREE TRADE/
PROSPERITY LINK
THE PEOPLE
When American exports to Chile began rising
after the U.S./Chile free-trade agreement was
signed in 2003, people’s purchasing power in
both countries rose.
AMERICAN PURCHASING POWER
+3.05%
CHILEAN PURCHASING POWER
+7.68%
THEIR HOMETOWNS
+331%
AMERICAN EXPORTS TO CHILE
$10.8
BILLION
THEIR JOBS
$2.5
BILLION
2003
2010
THEIR PROSPERITY
THEACCESSRESOURCE.COM/ACCESSEFFECT
ACCESS NOW | 25
VISIBILITY
RELIABILITY
26 | ACCESS NOW
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