"At FedEx, we look at agility as an absolute," Gibson says. "We have to be as agile as our business partners."

By way of example, Gibson cites a recent customer win that involved luring a very large, 25,000-user company away from one of FedEx's top competitors.

"We did it by getting this customer fully set up and integrated into our systems in 60 days. Normally, it's a process that takes six months," he says.

"We did around-the-clock development and testing, working nights and weekends," Gibson explains. "We have that kind of culture here. It's one that expects, recognizes and rewards agility." Indeed, the project won an internal "hall of fame" award at FedEx Services, he notes.

Not surprisingly, Premier 100 IT Leaders also apply the concept of agility by design to how they train their staffs and groom next-generation IT leaders.