Drucker Said 'Culture Eats Strategy For Breakfast' And Enterprise Rent-A-Car Proves It
Shep Hyken Contributor
(AP Photo/James A. Finley,File)
"Culture eats strategy for breakfast," is a famous quotation attributed to the late business management guru Peter Drucker, and I can't think of a better example that proves this than Enterprise Rent-A-Car's acquisition of National Car Rental and Alamo.
I've been fortunate to watch Enterprise grow from a local St. Louis company to an international powerhouse in their industry. Back in 1983, I started my speaking business, and one of the first clients to hire me to speak at an event was Enterprise Rent-A-Car. Over the years I've enjoyed a number of opportunities to present my customer service content at different Enterprise conferences. While not as publicized as some of the other customer service rock stars in business (Zappos, Apple, Nordstrom, etc.) they are definitely a role model for virtually any company to aspire to emulate.
Just last week I had lunch with a former Enterprise Rent-A-Car executive. We shared stories and it was obvious that he was proud of his career at Enterprise. He reminded me of just how important the culture is at Enterprise, which caused me to jump at a chance to remind everyone just how true that philosophy is.
For years Hertz was the number one car rental agency in the world - that was until Enterprise took over the coveted number one slot. They were an early "disrupter" in the industry when they expanded through non-traditional locations. Rather than focusing on the obvious place that customers rented cars – at the airport – they turned to non-traditional neighborhood locations - such as auto dealerships - to service people who needed "replacement" vehicles while their cars were being repaired. But, it wasn't how many locations they had or how big their sales numbers were that was impressive. It was their customer service.
They have been recognized numerous times for their customer service by J.D. Power. Business Week recognized them as one of the top 25 customer service brands in the world. In addition to running a wildly successful business, they obviously know how to take care of their customers, which means their customers want to come back.
All that is impressive, but not nearly as impressive as how they proved these top customer service awards weren't a fluke. All of the awards and accolades they continue to receive don't happen by accident. They aren't just lucky. Everything Enterprise does is very purposeful. It is their culture. And the proof really came when they purchased Alamo and National Car Rental.
At the time of the purchase, if you looked at how the top ten car rental agencies ranked in customer service, Alamo and National were, as some say, in the half that made the top half possible. Yet just two years after the purchase, both of these companies joined Enterprise in the top half of the class. Enterprise was number one, National was number two, and Alamo was number four.
How did they do it? One word: Culture.
The three companies couldn't have been more different. Enterprise wasn't strong in the airport locations. National and Alamo were, but even those two brands had completely different models. National was focused on the business customer who was willing to pay more to get in and out as fast as possible. Alamo was focused on the bargain hunting customer who wanted low price. Furthermore, Alamo and National were more about operational efficiency, hence their position in the bottom half of the top ten industry brands. Now, I'm not knocking operational efficiency, but when you can find the balance with a customer-focused culture, you potentially have a winning combination where the sum is greater than the parts.
And that's exactly what happened. Enterprise took advantage of National's and Alamo's operational expertise at airport locations while infusing their tried and true culture into their acquisitions, a culture focused on the customer.
Andy Taylor, Chairman and CEO said the following: "For my family, business is personal - that is what being an owner-operator is all about," Taylor continued, "and that is why we will never be 100 percent satisfied until Enterprise, National and Alamo hold all three of the top spots in the annual J.D. Power and Associates study!"
Andy's vision became a reality in 2012, and since then, all three brands have been in the top three spots of the J.D. Power customer satisfaction reports. In fact, in the newly released 2015 Customer Satisfaction Report, the three brands are still in the top three spots and they have risen six points from the 2012 report!
So, to play off of Peter Drucker's quotation, "Enterprise Rent-A-Car invited National Car Rental and Alamo Rent-A-Car to the culture breakfast – and they ate it!"
Shep Hyken is a customer service and experience expert and New York Times bestselling author. Find more information at www.Hyken.com.
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Shep Hyken
I am the Chief Amazement Officer at Shepard Presentations. As a customer service and experience expert, I help organizations create amazing customer and employee experie...