Regardless of the Taylor household’s storied legacy at Enterprise, which her grandfather Jack Taylor based in 1957 in St. Louis, she is the primary to steer the newly rebranded firm. In October 2023, Enterprise formally modified its title to Enterprise Mobility in an effort to maneuver past providing solely automobile leases.
“My dad always says, ‘Who we are to the core of our DNA, our culture, will never change, but what we will be doing in the future might be different—and that’s okay,’” Taylor stated throughout a main-stage interview on the Fortune COO Summit in Middleburg, Va., on Tuesday.
What this implies in follow is that Enterprise, which additionally owns the automobile rental manufacturers Alamo, Hire-A-Automotive, and Nationwide Automotive Rental, is increasing to cowl different car-related strains of enterprise, together with hourly car-sharing, truck leases, used automobile gross sales, and fleet administration for different companies. Taylor grew to become CEO of Enterprise in January 2020, and through subsequent years she launched into a mission to remodel her household’s firm.
“You’re not going to change the whole company in one day,” she stated. “It’s an evolution.”
The lengthy street to vary
Clients might have lengthy related Enterprise with airport counters staffed by staff of their signature inexperienced polos—and generally lengthy wait occasions, as Fortune’s Ruth Umoh identified. Whereas Enterprise has greater than 9,500 areas throughout 90 nations, the corporate is now lifeless set on constructing out its enterprise past client automobile leases. However getting the phrase out presents its personal problem.
“We did a big study [and found that] only 11% of the population and of consumers knows we do more than rentals,” Taylor stated. “So there is a huge opportunity, especially in the business-to-business space.”
As Enterprise’s enterprise transforms, so does the very idea of what a automobile is. Electrification means there may be now a plethora of options to plain combustion engine vehicles, which shoppers are both clamoring for or decidedly allergic to. To not point out the rise of AI has made self-driving vehicles a actuality, though not but an ideal one. These two tendencies solely add to the complexity going through a transportation firm like Enterprise. “The vehicle is being transformed,” Taylor stated.
Thus far, Taylor’s new route appears to have paid dividends for the corporate. In 2023, Enterprise delivered $35 billion in income, up from $25.9 billion in 2019, the 12 months earlier than Taylor took excessive job.
Taylor spent a long time making ready for the CEO position. Throughout her onstage interview, she harkened again to her time as an intern at Enterprise. From there she moved right into a “management trainee” program, the place she realized the ropes of the enterprise. In all, Taylor held 12 completely different positions on the firm earlier than taking the nook workplace.
Taylor’s profession trajectory is emblematic of Enterprise’s expertise growth technique, which closely favors selling from inside—an organization follow that Taylor considers a significant aggressive benefit as a result of it should give future executives the prospect to get alternatives throughout all of Enterprise’s new strains of enterprise.
We “give them the resources that they need to make sure they’re developing their career with us for the long haul,” Taylor stated.
