经济学人下载:熊彼特企业管理专栏--联邦快递的难题(3)

Its second big challenge is overseas. Besides having to fix TNT, FedEx has found itself in the awkward position of being on the wrong side of both adversaries in the trans-Pacific trade war. In recent months it was forced to apologise to China for diverting packages belonging to Huawei. FedEx said that this was owing to an error. Nonetheless the Chinese government is reportedly threatening to put FedEx on its own blacklist. And the company has also sued its own government, saying it should not be deputised to “police the contents” of any packages it sends to check that they do not violate export bans.
联邦快递面临的第二大挑战是海外市场。除了必须解决TNT的问题，联邦快递还发现自己处于一个尴尬的境地，即在跨太平洋贸易战争中站错了双方的对立面。最近几个月，联邦被迫就转移属于华为的包裹向中国道歉。联邦快递表示这是错误操作所致。尽管如此，据报道，中国威胁要把联邦快递列入黑名单。该公司还起诉了美国政府，称其不应被委托“监督”其发送的任何包裹的内容，以确保这些包裹没有违反出口禁令。

Besides the ugly geopolitics, global competition is also rising for FedEx. One of the biggest threats comes from Cainiao, a Chinese rival backed by Alibaba that in 2017 pledged to invest $15bn in cross-border logistics. FedEx claims that its own vast network, extending to 220 countries, safeguards it from such incursions. But it is not used to having tanks the size of Amazon’s and Alibaba’s on its lawn; their troves of data on customers may give them an edge in the delivery wars.
除了丑陋的地缘政治，联邦快递的全球竞争也在加剧。最大的威胁之一来自菜鸟，菜鸟是阿里巴巴支持的中国竞争对手，2017年承诺向跨境物流投资150亿美元。联邦快递声称，其覆盖220个国家的庞大网络可以帮助保持上风。但联邦快递不习惯自家草坪上有亚马逊和阿里巴巴这么大的坦克；他们对客户的海量数据可能会让他们在快递大战中占据优势。

In response, both FedEx and UPS are investing large sums to modernise their fleets and expand their delivery hubs. But though FedEx’s revenues of almost $18bn in the last quarter have nearly caught up with UPS’s, its profit margins are weaker and it is generating less cash. That worries investors. It could seek to reassure them by reducing purchases of costly items like aircraft, or combining two of its independent businesses in America, FedEx Express and FedEx Ground, to cut costs. But it has rejected both ideas, insisting it is best to invest in growth.
作为应对，联邦快递和联合包裹都在大举投资，以实现机群的现代化，并扩大投递中心。不过，尽管联邦快递上季度近180亿美元的营收几乎赶上了联合包裹，但其利润率较低，产生的现金也较少。这引起了投资者的担心。联邦可以通过减少飞机等昂贵物品的采购，或者合并其在美国的两项独立业务——联邦快递和联邦陆运——来降低成本，以消除消费者的疑虑。但联邦拒绝了这两种想法，坚持认为投资于增长是最好的。