Straight Talk From the Top: An Interview With Andy Taylor, CEO of Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Black Collegian, Feb 2004

THE BLACK COLLEGIAN (TBC): Give our readers a brief background on how Enterprise Rent-A-Car was started. Your dad started the company in 1957. How big was the company then, and what strategies did he use to grow the business?

Andy Taylor: Enterprise was founded in St. Louis in 1957 by my father, Jack Taylor, who was a decorated World War II naval aviator, and we've maintained our headquarters in St. Louis ever since. Jack actually chose the name Enterprise after one of the aircraft carriers he served on.

My father started the company, originally named Executive Leasing, as a small, seven-car auto-leasing business in the basement of a Cadillac dealership. Even back in the early years, long before we had an official mission statement, his management style was clear: provide customers with exceptional service, employees with well-deserved respect and ample career opportunities, and market growth and profitability will follow. For more than four decades that philosophy has guided our company and our more than 54,000 employees.

TBC: Tell us a little about your early years, your educational background, the year you started with the company, your first full-time job, and your early accomplishments.

Taylor: I first became involved in the automotive business more than 40 years ago, when I was 16. I washed cars during summer and holiday vacations and learned the business from the ground up. After I graduated from the University of Denver in 1970 with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, I took on an entry-level position at RLM Leasing, a Ford Motor Company affiliate in San Francisco. In 1973, I returned to St. Louis and began my career at Enterprise.

In 1976, I became the General Manager of the St. Louis region, and, in 1980, I was named President and Chief Operating Officer of Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Then, in 1991, I became Chief Executive Officer.

TBC: For years Hertz and Avis had been the top two rent-a-car companies. Is the top company now Enterprise? To what do you attribute Enterprise's success?

Taylor: We are now the largest car rental company in North America, but, really, that's not what we set out to be. We've always just wanted to be the best - by providing a great customer service experience and by training and giving our employees ample growth opportunities. Our philosophy of taking care of customers and employees has served us very well. We now have more than 5,500 offices in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Ireland. We operate more than 600,000 vehicles worldwide, and our annual revenue is more than $6.9 billion.

Unlike other rental car companies, Enterprise's primary focus is the local rental car market. For example, we specialize in car rentals to consumers who need a replacement car as the result of an accident, mechanical repair or theft, or who want a vehicle for a special occasion such as a short business or leisure trip. More recently we have expanded our operations to serve the airport market and now have a presence at all of the 100 major airports in the United States, as well as at airports in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.

TBC: Tell our readers about a typical career path for a new college-hire at Enterprise.

Taylor: Typically, most Enterprise Rent-A-Car employees start their careers as Management Trainees and work their way up through the organization. In fact, nearly 100 percent of Enterprise's senior management started in our local offices - or branches, as we call them - helping customers, controlling inventory, and learning the business from the ground up.

Our Management Training Program teaches employees how to run their own businesses and provides a solid introduction to our commitment to customer service. In fact, our training program has been compared to a real-world MBA. By starting behind the counter, every employee learns what it takes to meet a customer's needs one-on-one. Every employee also receives professional sales training and learns how to manage profit-and-loss reports, control expenses, and implement comprehensive business and marketing plans.

As employees advance through our system, they not only gain solid skills as competent business managers, but also get the chance to actually run a part of the company as though it were their own business - including sharing in the profits they have helped create.

Employees who have successfully completed the management-training program can pursue different opportunities in the company. For instance, an employee could apply to work in our Fleet Services, Car Sales, or Truck Rental divisions.

TBC: Tell our readers about the corporate culture at Enterprise and the kind of people who thrive there.

Taylor: Our culture has really been key to our success as a company. There is an entrepreneurial spirit at Enterprise that truly is second to none in the industry. It's been that way since the day my father founded the company, so I am really quite proud to have inherited this culture and to be able to grow and strengthen it. We give smart, hard-working people the autonomy they need to build and operate strong local businesses - and then we reward that great performance through profit sharing and greater career opportunities. We help develop employees through straightforward guidelines, training, regular feedback and positive reinforcement.