The David Rubenstein Show: FedEx President and CEO Raj Subramaniam

This is, uh, my kitchen table and also my filing system. Over much of the past three decades, I've been an investor. The highest calling of mankind I've often thought was private equity.

And then I started interviewing. Oh, well, I watch your interviews cause I know how to do it. I've learned in doing my interviews how leaders make it to the top.

I asked him how much you wanted. He said 250. I said, fine, I didn't negotiate with him.

I didn't know due diligence till I have something I'd like to sell and how they stay there. You don't feel inadequate now because being only the second wealthiest man in the world. Is that right?

One of the most legendary corporate founders of a company in the United States the last 50 years was Fred Smith. He started Fedex. When he got ready to retire, he picked one of his 400,000 employees to succeed him.

The employee is Raj Subramaniam, who is an Indian immigrant, a graduate of Syracuse, and somebody who had a chance to sit down with recently to talk about what it's like to run Fedex and to succeed the legendary Fred Smith. So in the old days, 25 years ago, somebody wanted to send a letter overnight, make sure it got there. I would do a Fedex.

And you, you know, you package it up and you send. And I would get there the next day. But today with the internet, do you really have many letters going overnight to people?

No. My letters are a very, very small piece of the business. And I think you send some letters.

So thank you about that. But it's, uh, if you, if you open up, uh, our airplanes and look at them, you imagine we can fill it up with letters.