the leadership and culture are reflection of us. we deserve everything that is happening to us and shame on you if you end up with just a wet handshake when it all collapses. not covid, not cants like brian, but shame on you. doesn’t matter what your tenure is. stop caring about the company and start caring about yourself.
one cannot decouple solutions from leadership. it is a story of could haves, should haves and must haves and in retrospect, a f**ck up of cosmic proportions.
start with revenue. diet coke lovin canadian, rafa interim and the nayan bully have all convinced us there is nothing we can do about pricing. ignoring and finding excuses for all competitors reporting quarter after quarter of superior results. same business conditions. but CEO cannot do anything about it because first to go would be him. avis is wiping the floor with hertz in the americas.
corporate accounts. 5 years we are told contribution tool is about to be made available. truth is it is, but not for the broad public because it shows we should stop doing half the accounts. that don’t sit well with sales, so they tweak the model to show positive contribution. and we continue renting for loss.
base revenue on its own doesn’t cover our costs. insurance (most lucrative), damage collections, FPO and many hidden admin surcharges is what keeps us afloat. it is a rotten financial equation that is getting worse and worse as customers are changing habits and other players (credit cards and brokers) offer damage waivers. seriously, we blame CSRs for not pushing FPO when really there is no customer desire.
and thank whatever divine entity you want for franchise fees. not only competitors, they also show that there is margin to be made even after franchise fees.
tragedy is that there have been solutions for all our problems, but even the most persistent optimists give up after document version 37 and ever increasing group of “decision” makers. we have done nothing inventive and blame is all on us.