The 3rd Generation President and CEO of Enterprise Mobility reveals a new direction for the iconic brand
By Diane Brady, Forbes Staff
In the Taylor household, the lore around the Enterprise brand is understandably strong. It starts in 1957, when a St. Louis naval veteran named Jack Taylor launched an “executive leasing” company out of a neighborhood car dealership, breaking with competitors who were focused on customers coming in and out of airports.
From there, Taylor built a national network of neighborhood locations to lease and rent cars that his son Andy took international when he became president and CEO in 1991. Nine years later, his daughter Chrissy joined the company as a management trainee. In 2020, after 17 different roles, Taylor took over the company that her grandfather built just weeks before as the Covid 19 pandemic shut down travel.
As president and CEO of America’s largest car rental company, owning Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo Rent A Car brands, Taylor oversees a business with more than 9,500 locations and nine lines of business from car sales to commercial truck rentals that generate about $35 billion in revenue each year. So why did Taylor decide to rebrand the company to “Enterprise Mobility” last month?
“We want to use technology in new ways to create great experiences,” says Taylor. “I would argue that we invest more in our brand in the mobility space than anyone else out there.”
Taylor, whose father remains Executive Chairman and occupies the office next to hers at the company’s St. Louis headquarters, is acutely aware of the legacy she has to guard and grow. “From day one, he said that I better be in his office more than he is in mine because you can’t over-communicate when you are handing off a family business from one generation to another.”
Taylor talks about why she wanted to go into the family business—her siblings did not—and how she’s trying to build a company that stays ahead of disruptive rivals, technologies and the next wave of change. “Execution and customer service is so important,” she says. “I want to ensure that we are a mobility leaders for the next 65 years.”
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