Regardless of Taylor’s 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 identify to Enterprise Mobility in an effort to maneuver past providing solely automotive leases.
“My dad always says, ‘who we are to the core of our DNA, our culture will never change, but what we will do be doing in the future might be different—and that’s okay,’” Taylor mentioned throughout a mainstage interview at Fortune’s COO Summit in Middleburg, Va., on Tuesday.
What this implies in apply is that Enterprise, which additionally owns the automotive rental manufacturers Alamo, Lease-A-Automobile, and Nationwide Automobile Rental, is increasing to cowl different car-related traces of enterprise, together with hourly carsharing, truck leases, used automotive gross sales, and fleet administration for different companies. Taylor turned CEO of Enterprise in January 2020, and through the subsequent years she launched into her mission to rework her household’s firm.
“You’re not going to change the whole company in one day,” she mentioned. “It’s an evolution.”
The lengthy highway to vary
Prospects could 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 automotive leases. However getting the phrase out offered 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 mentioned. “So there is a huge opportunity, especially in the business-to-business space.”
As Enterprise’s enterprise transforms , so is the very nature of the automotive itself. Electrification means there may be now a plethora of options to straightforward combustion engine automobiles, which customers are both clamoring for or decidedly allergic to. To not point out the rise of AI has made self-driving automobiles a actuality, though not but an ideal one. These two developments solely add to the complexity dealing with a transportation firm like Enterprise. “The vehicle is being transformed,” Taylor mentioned.
Up to now, 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 on-stage 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 improvement technique, which closely favors selling from inside—an organization apply that Taylor considers a significant aggressive benefit as a result of it should give future executives the possibility to get alternatives throughout all of Enterprise’s new traces 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 mentioned.
