Chrissy Taylor, President and Chief Executive Officer, Enterprise Mobility Interviewer: Ruth Umoh, Next To Lead Editor, Fortune; Co-chair, Fortune COO Summit
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00:00Well, Chrissy, at Enterprise, you've referred to 2024 as the Year of the Operator.
00:05What do you mean by that, and why 2024 in particular?
00:08Yeah, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it, and thank you to all of you
00:11in the audience. So, you know us as Enterprise Mobility, as car rental, but we are so much more
00:17than that. We have truck rental, fleet management. Importantly, we have 90,000 employees in 90
00:23territories and countries. So, the Year of the Operator is really, really important to us. And
00:27as we think about the Year of the Operator, it really comes down to four core areas that have
00:33made us successful for over 67 years and will take us into the future. First, customer experience.
00:38We have to make sure that we continue to provide excellent experiences for all of our customers.
00:43Employee development. We are the largest employer of college graduates in the country,
00:49and so we need to make sure that we're providing opportunities and development for our team.
00:53And then we are a growth company. We want to continue to grow, because if we're growing,
00:58we're providing great experiences, we're developing and promoting our people.
01:02And then lastly, fourth, is a reasonable bottom line so that we can give back to all the communities
01:07that have made us so successful, because we have 10,000 locations almost, and so we want to make
01:11sure that we're making an impact locally and developing those communities. And so, the balance
01:16of that is really when we talk about the Year of the Operator and what that means.
01:22This is quite prescient, and we were talking about this in the green room earlier. You said
01:25you have about 90 different locations and 90,000 employees. Right now, there is a storm. And last
01:35week, there was also another storm that was battering a number of these geographies. How
01:38are you taking care of some of those partners? Yeah. So, we have a lot of actually partners in
01:42the room, and we were just talking to one of the insurance companies as we're figuring out,
01:46you know, where do our vehicles need to be? How can we best help our partners,
01:49such as insurance companies, government agencies, FEMA? They're on the ground. North Carolina,
01:55very hard, difficult place to get to, but what it comes down to is our decentralization
02:00and our local leadership. That is where the rubber meets the road. That is where they're
02:05focused on operational excellence and making sure that we have the right car in the right
02:10place for those people who are unfortunately in the situation that they find themselves in.
02:15Then, we start planning for the next hurricane that is also circling right now. So, it really
02:22comes down to our decentralization and our local management with the guidelines of operational
02:28excellence, and that has worked very, very well for us. So, a huge shout out to Steve Bradway,
02:32who is our general manager in North Carolina. Yeah. I want to pivot and talk about human
02:36capital because at Enterprise, you all are deeply obsessed with promoted from within.
02:41What's the competitive advantage you see in there? Yeah. It definitely is a competitive
02:44advantage because you're learning the business from the ground up. I started as an intern
02:50during college just like everybody else. I needed a job. I needed some money. So, I was an intern
02:54and then became a full-time management trainee in 2000. So, 95 percent of our management team
03:00has actually come through the management training program. So, promoting from within means we can
03:05take more time with our employees. We can take more time to develop them, give them the resources
03:10that they need to make sure they're developing their career with us for the long haul. We view
03:16our employees as an investment. And then, as I talked about earlier, we have our fleet management
03:21business, which is our original business. We have truck rental. We have commuting. We have car
03:26sharing. We have business rental sales. We have this huge sales organization. So, once you go
03:32through that management training track, you can then hop over into these other business lines
03:37that you already know the fundamentals of the business. It's like getting your MBA
03:41on the job. It is a huge competitive advantage for us that we invest in our people.
03:45And I also want to note that you took part in said management training program.
03:49Absolutely. Man, I know how to wash a really good car. But that is not what it is about. It's about
03:55getting your MBA on the job. It is really fun because you are growing and developing your own
04:00business, your own team. You're responsible for your customer service, your P&L, and driving the
04:06business because each location is its own business. They're running multi-million dollar
04:12assets at that business. And so, our people tend to be on the younger side in those locations,
04:18but we're really trying to develop them for the future. And it's been very successful for us.
04:22Prior to your ascension to the corner office, you were an operations chief. You held the COO role.
04:28What learnings did you take from that position that now translate to the corner office? And
04:33how much of a learning curve is there in jumping from operations chief to the CEO?
04:37Yes. I've had 17 different roles in our company and also worked internationally,
04:42which was very helpful. And so, getting those different perspectives is very,
04:46very important as you're working towards that C-suite, CEO role, or even COO role.
04:52And so, when I think about COO, it's really important because we were decentralized,
04:57and we do promote from within. And so, making sure that we're taking the time
05:02to listen to our operators, understand what they need, and then how does that fit within
05:06our core principles. And so, listening, surround yourself with a great team,
05:12and then make sure that I'm asking a lot of questions and I'm inquisitive about the business,
05:17because we will never stop learning. Because if we want to propel ourselves into the future,
05:21we may be doing different things in the future, but who we are to the core of our DNA will never
05:27change. Jumping to CEO and that transition, I think that took a lot of listening, a lot of
05:34listening. Timing is everything. I became CEO January 2020, and then the world sort of fell
05:40apart. And so, yeah. And so, timing is everything, but I cannot emphasize listening and over
05:48communicating, whether it's in a time of crisis or transformation or evolution, as all of us are
05:54talking about here today and are thinking about for our businesses. So, you're not going to change
05:59the whole company in one day. It's an evolution. So, listen, surround yourself with great people,
06:06and be open-minded. And so, we're a family-owned business, and so my dad always says,
06:11who we are to the core of our DNA, our culture will never change. But what we will be doing in
06:18the future might be different, and that's okay. That's really exciting. That's my job as CEO,
06:24to make sure that we're leading into the future, but understanding the legacy in the past of where
06:28we came from and what makes us successful. I'm going to ask you one more question. Quick note
06:33for the audience. I am going to momentarily turn to you, so start thinking about questions you'd
06:38like to ask Chrissy while she's here. Chrissy, you've now twice used this term, decentralized
06:42structure. Break down what that means, why you pivoted to a decentralized structure, and where
06:47you're seeing some benefits. Yeah, absolutely. The decentralized structure actually happened from my
06:52grandfather. We are based in St. Louis, Missouri, but we have operating groups in 90 countries and
06:56territories. And really, he started hiring great people, and so we opened up Kansas City Next with
07:02Don Ross, who was a great leader for us. And we knew that we needed to be on the ground in our
07:07local environments and markets, making sure that we can make quick decisions for our customers,
07:13and that we individually in each market is responsible for our customer service,
07:18for developing our people so that we can grow the business. Because you cannot replace that
07:23individual knowledge and leadership of each market. Yes, we have a corporate office, but at the
07:28corporate office, we talk about those four operating principles of operational excellence.
07:34And so we are creating the playing field. And so you create that playing field, but then you enable
07:39and you allow people and empower them to make decisions at the local level. And that has worked
07:45beautifully for us. It's a competitive advantage, and it helps our people grow, get promoted, and
07:50move through the system as well. Any questions from the audience? Raise your hand, and we'll
07:56have a mic runner come to you. Any questions? Over here, please.
08:05I appreciate you telling us a little bit about the decentralized structure that you guys have.
08:08So when you have a geographically segmented team, what are some tactics that you guys use to make
08:13sure that you're aligned? Yeah, absolutely. And I think over time and maybe through the pandemic,
08:18the communication got better. And so using those tools and resources so that you can...
08:23We've actually never talked to our... Our general managers are the ones who oversee all of our
08:28markets. And so we've actually never spoken to our general managers more than we have since COVID
08:34because of technology and Zoom and Teams and all of those things. We talk a lot about, don't be
08:40behind your desk. You need to be visible. Example, we're very large in Europe. Our UK operation is
08:46the largest. We're in Germany and Spain and France. And so we make sure that we are over there
08:54every several weeks, seeing the team, going into our locations, checking in on our management team,
08:59going to see customers. And so being visible as a leader is very, very important in our organization.
09:07And then we've got SVPs over these regions that then are also very visible. So a majority of our
09:13job is being on the road and being with our team and talking about operational excellence. So
09:19it can be challenging and it's hard because we're a big organization, but our people, our 90,000
09:24people are what power us in our culture. And so you can never spend enough time with your people
09:30and on the road in your locations. Very important. Great question. I want to talk about AI,
09:35how you leverage in AI and other technologies in the mobility space and what opportunities do you
09:40see from an efficiency standpoint? So the mobility landscape is very dynamic right now. There is a
09:47whole bunch of technology coming in and the vehicle is being transformed. And AI is one of those
09:53things. I think like many of you in the room, we are looking at efficiencies and call centers and
09:57how we make sure our data house is in order. And that is important. But when we think about AI,
10:02we also think about connected car, creating better experiences for our customers. We talk
10:08about autonomous vehicle. We talk about electrification. And so we are a mobility
10:14company. And so that vehicle becomes important to us. And then what is the technology and tools
10:18around that vehicle that we can provide better experiences? So yes, we absolutely talk about
10:25efficiencies, but really we have to put the customer at the center of everything that we're
10:31doing when we're using new technology and tools. And it's a super exciting time for us, but we want
10:36to be very thoughtful about how we use new technology and how we embrace the customer and
10:42our employee. That employee experience is also very important. Let's zero in on the customer
10:46experience aspect. And I'll personalize this because I told you I rented an enterprise vehicle.
10:52Thank you very much. Directly helping your bottom line. And I drove from New York City to Washington
10:57D.C., as I told you, and it was a seamless experience. But I think one area where there was a bit of a
11:02wait or a tad bit of friction was just at the counter waiting for someone to get the car. Do you
11:07see yourselves getting rid of that human experience? I mean, I personally don't need that human
11:11interaction. Could you digitize that? Well, you actually are probably a national customer. So we
11:16have national analogous. So thank you very much. National road warrior. Choose any car, bypass the
11:21counter and go. That is an amazing offering. So this is where technology and humans and our
11:29employees come together. Because you've got to have that amazing customer experience, and you
11:35have to have that amazing employee experience, and then you bring that together in a marriage
11:38with technology. And it is very difficult with our wide base of customer, whether it's truck or fleet
11:45or national, Alamo, road warrior, to be all things to all people. And so we are thinking very hard
11:50about how we use our digital properties and how we remove friction from our process. And national
11:56is a great example of that. On the enterprise side, we're using our digital properties and
12:01technology to make sure that you can bypass the counter and go. And so there is check-in, just
12:07like you see online. It's a new feature for us, so that you can check in, bypass the counter,
12:12and then our person will meet you at the car. Sometimes somebody is not a road warrior. They're
12:17infrequent. And so our person can step in and ask or answer questions about the technology in the
12:23car or if it is an electric vehicle. There's a learning curve with that. So we want to make
12:29sure that there is enough employee interaction, because that's our wow difference. Our 90,000
12:35people are a differentiator. So that was a long answer. Sorry. No, that was great. I mean, your
12:39grandfather founded Enterprise in 1957. It's now the world's largest vehicle rental company. You
12:45seem to be shying away from this myopic branding that's focused solely on rental cars. And so I'm
12:52curious, what's the catalyst behind this rebrand from Enterprise Holdings to Enterprise Mobility?
12:58Yeah, it has been an amazing, amazing journey. And it's been one year since we reintroduced
13:04our brands as Enterprise Mobility. And we love car rental. It is the powerhouse.
13:08However, my grandfather founded us in 1957 in the lower level of a Cadillac dealership
13:13as leasing. And so long-term leasing, three-year leases. And that business has
13:18actually been off the hook and fabulous for us. And so as we think about the future and
13:25Enterprise Mobility, it better describes who we are and what we do, because we have nine distinct
13:30business lines. We have 90,000 people and technology that helps our business partners.
13:35And so we are ingrained. We did a big study. Only 11% of the population and consumer knows we do
13:42more than rental. And so there is a huge opportunity, especially in the business-to-business
13:47space, to do more, to help solve more problems for our business partners. And so there is a
13:53real opportunity out there that we want to grab. And we want to wow our customers and grow our
13:59business for our employees. And so that is the reintroduction of Enterprise Mobility.
14:03And it will take time. It's a new brand. But we are in it as a multi-generational family business.
14:09We are in it for the long haul. And we full circle operational excellence. Enterprise Mobility is
14:16about operational excellence. Great customer experiences, employee development, grow the
14:21business, because it enables those two things. And then everything else will fall into place.
14:26And we can give back to the communities that have been so awesome to us and why we've been so
14:31successful.
14:31Even the most important question for us, a lot of people rent Enterprise vehicles for
14:35long road trips. So what is your go-to carpool karaoke song?
14:39Oh, ooh. Okay. That was a left field. Dua Lipa. Okay. So I like all Dua Lipa songs. She is in
14:46concert. I'm trying to figure out where I'm going to meet her. But usually it's the one,
14:50the Barbie song or just take a pick. Who cares? Dua Lipa.
14:55And now you're going to sing and show us your vocal chops.
14:57Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. Only if my twin sister will do it with me.
15:03Well, thank you so much for an insightful conversation. This was fantastic.
15:06Thank you very much. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you.