How Enterprise Became A $35 Billion Family-Owned Car Rental Empire

Forbes

Chrissy Taylor’s grandfather founded the car rental giant. Her father built it into the industry’s dominant player. Now she’s driving the $35 billion firm into the future of mobility.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mattdurot/2024/05/22/why-enterprise-is-one-of-the-worlds-best-private-companies/?sh=58fe59d2936b  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC]

00:02 Jack's time in the military really set the foundation of our culture.

00:07 Because he was flying off aircraft carriers, that was dangerous.

00:10 They didn't have radars.

00:12 It was about mission, discipline, teamwork.

00:15 You didn't know if you were coming back.

00:16 And so those philosophies in the military

00:19 helped shape the way we think about the business today.

00:22 And what's so important for us in moving forward is that we recognize our history,

00:28 our legacy, what has made us so successful.

00:31 And we wanna bring that into the future.

00:33 [MUSIC]

00:38 >> Chrissy Taylor is the third generation of her family to run car rental giant

00:43 Enterprise Mobility, formerly known as Enterprise Rent-A-Car,

00:47 which her grandfather Jack Taylor founded nearly 70 years ago.

00:52 And her father, Andy Taylor, ran for nearly two decades.

00:57 >> Chrissy took over as CEO in January 2020 after starting at the bottom at

01:03 a car rental branch in 2000 and working her way up through

01:07 the company over nearly two decades.

01:10 [MUSIC]

01:11 >> So I started my career in 1995 as an intern during my freshman year in college

01:16 at the St. Louis Group.

01:17 And it was a great entry into the business and into the operations.

01:22 I loved it so much, I became a full-time management trainee in 2000.

01:27 And from there, worked my way up to a branch manager.

01:30 And then from there, I had 17 different roles within the company,

01:33 moving around, understanding how big we were, what different departments were.

01:38 And then I took an opportunity over in our international department.

01:41 And so I worked internationally for three years and then came back.

01:46 I ran North America, and then eventually became CEO in 2020.

01:51 [MUSIC]

01:54 >> I love the experience of being in the management training program because

01:58 you're really learning how to run your own business.

02:01 You are being your own entrepreneur, and you are developing marketing plans.

02:06 You are driving customer service.

02:08 And so it really is getting your MBA and

02:12 running your own business when you become a branch manager.

02:15 And so the management trainee is a critical piece of the puzzle when we

02:19 think about the growth at Enterprise Mobility.

02:21 [MUSIC]

02:29 >> Christy's dad, who had served as CEO for nearly two decades,

02:34 decided that he was ready to move on and

02:36 transition into the executive chairman role, which he still holds today in 2013.

02:42 And at that point, Christy had been working her way up through the ranks.

02:46 And he kinda knew that she was the logical successor, but

02:51 she was still very young at that point.

02:52 So instead of forcing it and making her CEO, maybe before she was ready,

02:58 they actually tapped the first non-family CEO,

03:03 a woman by the name of Pam Nicholson, who wasn't family, but she was like family.

03:07 She had joined Enterprise right out of college and been there for 30, 40 years.

03:12 So she served as CEO for that sort of seven year gap between when

03:17 Andy stepped aside in 2013 and Christy became CEO in 2020.

03:22 From everything I've seen,

03:23 it seems like it was a smart decision that really benefited the company.

03:26 [MUSIC]

03:28 >> Pam has always been a huge supporter of mine, a mentor, a trusted friend.

03:33 And she taught me how to operate the business.

03:36 We were going to Europe.

03:37 We needed to make sure that our European team was successful in

03:41 any country that we operated in.

03:43 We needed to make sure that we were growing the business,

03:45 we were promoting our employees.

03:47 They had the tools to be successful, and

03:50 then we were providing great customer service.

03:52 And so Pam was a true illustration of our four core areas and

03:56 driving the business forward.

03:58 Our company is successful because we are privately held, multi-generation, and

04:05 we invest for the long haul.

04:06 >> Late last year, Chrissy rebranded the company,

04:13 which had been known as Enterprise Holdings previously, to Enterprise Mobility.

04:19 And the reason, as she explains it, for that was less to signal

04:26 major changes to the business that were coming imminently, and

04:32 more so to reflect the fact that they have, over time,

04:38 evolved to do a lot more than people think of when they think of enterprise.

04:43 Traditional car rental, we estimate, accounts for about two-thirds of their

04:49 sales, but the company does a lot of other things accounting for

04:52 that other one-third of sales.

04:54 They rent trucks, they sell and lease cars.

04:58 They even have a software like Integral, which is used by insurance companies and

05:04 parts makers and auto shops to really streamline the post-accident

05:10 communication process.

05:12 Even among private companies, Enterprise really stands out in terms of

05:17 the Taylor family's just really obsession with

05:21 reinvesting in the business over and over and over again.

05:25 [MUSIC]

05:34 We changed the company name to Enterprise Mobility because it better

05:38 describes who we are and what we do.

05:40 So Jack Taylor, my grandfather, founded the company in 1957 with seven cars

05:45 as a leasing business, and today we have nine distinct mobility lines.

05:50 We're in over 90 countries around the world, and

05:53 we have 90,000 amazing employees.

05:56 And so we have grown, we have evolved, and so

05:59 Enterprise Mobility better tells the story of what we do.

06:02 Better tells the story of who we are and what we do, and

06:06 that positions us for the future.

06:08 [MUSIC]

06:11 >> They've actually taken a very cautious approach to EVs relative to some of

06:16 their peers, which has turned out to be prudent.

06:19 As Hertz in particular has found that racing into EVs was maybe not,

06:24 they sort of got ahead of customer demand there.

06:28 [MUSIC]

06:29 >> Chrissy is through their venture arm, Enterprise Mobility Ventures,

06:33 really pushing her team to look at what's out there.

06:36 And so they're investing in companies that may play a role in

06:41 the future of the mobility space.

06:43 As it relates to EVs, they're investing in companies that work on

06:48 electric charging stations.

06:51 They have investments in companies that are doing work on autonomous driving.

06:57 And then they're looking even further out and starting to think about what might

07:02 happen with things like nuclear fission and hydrogen and who are the companies

07:06 in that space that would make sense to partner with.

07:09 [MUSIC]

07:12 >> We are prepared for EV, we could be prepared for autonomous vehicle.

07:16 Whatever technology comes, we really wanna make sure that we're putting

07:21 the customer at the center of all of that and grow our core businesses.

07:25 That's when we're successful, and that's what we've done for over 65 years.

07:30 [MUSIC]

07:35 [MUSIC]

07:38 >> Chrissy started in January 2020.

07:40 By mid-March, COVID had hit in full force.

07:45 It was unlike anything the car rental industry had ever faced.

07:51 What we heard was that she's just really a natural leader and

07:54 grabbed the bull by the horns.

07:56 And I think that made a huge difference.

08:00 She had to make some tough decisions.

08:02 There just simply weren't enough cars.

08:04 So they had to make the decision to close down a bunch of their retail branches to

08:09 focus on their business to business customers,

08:13 which account for an estimated two-thirds of their sales.

08:17 Those choices, while hard, really benefited the company in helping

08:22 them get through the pandemic.

08:24 Coming out of COVID in 2023,

08:26 they reported two consecutive years of record revenue.

08:31 Hertz went bankrupt during COVID, and Avis did a little better, but

08:36 their credit rating was downgraded.

08:38 And Enterprise managed to maintain their balance sheet strength and

08:43 their credit ratings, which I think says a lot.

08:46 [MUSIC]

08:47 >> One of the things I learned very quickly becoming CEO in January 2020 was

08:53 that I cannot over communicate to the team.

08:56 Over communication, whether in times of challenge, concern, issue, and

09:02 over communication when we're in times of good and thanking people and

09:07 recognizing people, you've got to do that.

09:10 You have to do that.

09:11 And so my number one lesson that I have learned since being CEO in 2020 was,

09:16 I cannot over communicate, and I enjoy talking to our team, and

09:20 it's the right thing to do.

09:22 >> So the Taylor family, they have a pair of charitable foundations which

09:27 together have given away more than a billion dollars to date.

09:31 One is the Enterprise Mobility Foundation,

09:34 which really serves all of the global communities at the business.

09:38 And then there's the family's Crawford Taylor Foundation,

09:43 which is St. Louis focused.

09:45 And so it's focused on a bunch of different areas, but

09:50 it all gets at revitalizing St. Louis.

09:54 [MUSIC]

09:55 >> Another one of our founding philosophies is give back to the communities that

09:59 have made us so successful.

10:01 We brought an MLS team, Citi, SC, into St.

10:05 Louis, and the community totally stepped up.

10:09 Making sure we're giving back to the communities that have made us so

10:12 successful falls right in line with our values.

10:15 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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