Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Enterprise Rent-a-Car

Table of Contents

Introduction: 3

S.W.O.T. Analysis 4

Strengths: 5

Weaknesses: 8

Opportunities: 9

Threats: 11

Ethics: 13

Managing Productivity, Quality and Service: 16

Innovation and Change: 18

Managers and Their Roles: 19

Globalization: 20

Conclusion: 21

Enterprise Rent-A-Car

Introduction:

Jack Taylor founded Enterprise Rent-A-Car (Enterprise) in 1957, by Jack Taylor, as Executive Leasing Company of seven cars, in the St. Louis region ("1957"). The company was originally a one-man organization that shared basement space with a local body shop (Schlereth). A second location was opened four years later, and in 1962 the company began their short-term rent-a-car program, in response to customer's needs of needing to rent a vehicle while theirs was in the shop ("1962"). By the end of the decade, the company began to expand outside of St. Louis with the introduction of their Atlanta region group ("Enterprise"). Unable to use the Executive Leasing name in all of the markets, Jack changed the name of the company to Enterprise ("1969").

The 1970s saw Enterprise further expand their operations into Florida, in the Orlando and Tampa markets, Houston, Dallas, Kansas City, Kansas, Colorado, and Indiana. Rental units climbed to 5,000 and the company "began offering fuel, maintenance and insurance products (which led to the company's present-day fleet services operation)" ("Enterprise"). The company quickly realized that there was a profitable niche market in servicing hometown renters ("1970"). In 1980, the company opened it's national reservation center, complete with toll-free phone number for their customers ("1980"). By the end of the 1980s the company had 150,000 units with 1,000 branch offices, across the country.

The 1990s saw continued U.S. expansion as well as entry into Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom. Rental units had more than tripled to 450,000 units, and locations had more than doubled to more than 2,500 offices, making Enterprise the largest car rental organization in America. Today, Enterprise continues this history of growth and expansion. Today, the company is comprised of 64,500 employees worldwide ("About Enterprise"). They have more than 600,000 cars and 7,300 offices, with revenues on $7.4 billion in their fiscal year that ended in July 2004 ("Enterprise").

S.W.O.T. Analysis

Enterprises' success has been built on their strengths and their ability to take advantage of emerging opportunities. By understanding their strengths and weaknesses, as well as the new opportunities and threats that lie on the horizon, Enterprise can continue to take advantage of their leadership position in the industry and continue their history of growth.

Strengths:

There are four primary strengths that Enterprise has at their disposal:

* Robust revenue growth

* A lead industry position

* Partnership with credit unions

* And, the offering of a wide variety of services ("Enterprise")

Enterprises' estimated revenue figures have increased significantly from 1999 to 2004, from $4.7 billion in 1999 to $7.4 billion in 2004. This growth represents

a cumulative growth rate (CAGR) of 9.4 percent. During fiscal 2004 itself, the company's revenues grew 7.2% over fiscal 2003. In 1999, the company had revenue per employee (estimated) of $122,222. By 2003, this figure had increased to $129,034, representing a CAGR of 1.1% ("Enterprise").

Recently, Enterprise released revenue figures for fiscal year ending July 31, 2006. The company posted a record $9.04 billion in global revenues, up from 2005 reported revenues of $8.3 billion and correlating to a compound annual revenue growth rate of 20 percent over the past 25 years (Conrad & Perlut). Enterprises' continued revenue growth and their increases in revenue per employee is demonstrative of the organization's ability to increase employee efficiency as well as demonstrate their growing market share dominance in the industry ("Enterprise").

In addition, the company also finds strength in their industry leadership position. Datamonitor states that due to Enterprises' sheer size the company has an office within 15 miles from approximately 90 percent of the United States population. The company's fleet represented approximately 3.5 percent of the total number of cars and light trucks that were bought and sold in the United States, in 2003. The company has further secured their leadership position by serving air travelers in all of the top 100 airports in the continental U.S., giving the organization a significant competitive advantage against its competitors ("Enterprise").

Enterprise also enjoys partnerships with credit unions as part of their strengths. It is through these partnerships that Enterprise has been able to create comprehensive car sales marketing and promotional programs for credit union members. All of the financing for the vehicle sales are handled through the credit unions, which reduces the administrative costs for Enterprise. Partnerships such as Enterprises' agreement with the United Airlines Employees Credit Union allows members to purchase a vehicle from more than 75 makes and models of used vehicles, at more than 100 nationwide Enterprise car sales locations. In addition to reduced administrative costs, the relationship also allows access to thousands of customers ("Enterprise").

An additional strength the organization wields is their diverse range of services. The company's operations go beyond simply the short-term rental of vehicles and include leasing vehicles, managing fleets of vehicles for other organizations, commercial truck rental, California vanpool services, and sales of used cars and trucks ("What We Do").

Its fleet services operation offers guidance and products for businesses