Name: Hertz CEO says Carl Icahn is 'Patient' about Car Rental Turnaround: 'He's a Believer'
Uploaded: 2018-10-11
Duration: 5 min 22 s
Description: CEO Kathy Marinello says Carl Icahn is 'incredibly supportive' but wants Hertz to move 'faster'.

Kathy as the new CEO of Hertz, you're steering a turn around of this legendary 100 year old company. How are you reinventing Hertz? What's the biggest challenge? I think the biggest challenge is to focus not so much on the last 100 years but to focus on the next 100 years. So the first thing And that celebration that I got employees to rally around is this is year 1 of the next 100 years. And that gives you kind of a whole inspiration around innovation. The beauty of that is people start asking, but wait, what are we going to do? You know, what is the next version great version of Hertz. Well since you're talking so much about the future, talk to us about Uber and Lyft. What's your take on. On their role in your business. Well, when we look out at Uber and Lyft, they really have only impacted a small part of our business, and generally most of their business is coming from limos and cabs, short term trips. At the same time though we do have partnerships with both Uber and Lyft So we rent our cars that are still in great shape, but maybe higher mileage to Uber and Lyft drivers on a weekly basis. We've tried to advantage ourselves and take advantage of that space to replace the short term trips that we might have lost. We've seen with consumers, and especially Millennials, that they are very comfortable using computer software for just about everything in their life. Point, click and get the results of what you want. How are you using new technologies to make the customer experience much faster at Hertz? So we are building technology that will work seamlessly for the customers. From the point that you reserve a car till you're leaving the gate. So we're introducing [ UNKNOWN ] upgraded our digital, what you use on your phone. And between you go right to your car through ultimate choice. And touchless rentals, you can even use a phone now to open Open the car and rent a car, and then when you leave through the gate, we have biometric capabilities that we're testing right now that will allow you to just look into a scanner and the gates open up for you, there's no interaction with a human being or any need to even take your phone out. Let me also ask you about the whole driverless car business, because you are getting into that. I understand that. You're partnering with Apple on a test project. You're doing a test project with Aptive managing a fleet of autonomous vehicles. So what are you picturing the future of Hertz with these new technologies. We think we're uniquely positioned to be managing million car autonomous fleets. These partners see us with great capabilities. And as great partners to facilitate what they're able to do around that actual autonomous vehicle. So I think our partners are very excited about the prospects of having all of the capabilities where they focus in on the technology of autonomy, and the actual safety of that car. Let's talk a little bit about Karl Icon. He owns a big chunk of Hertz stock. He recruited you To be a CEO of Hertz, right? Yes. What feedback are you getting from him now that you've been doing all this stuff? Well Carl has been a great partner. He is looking at the long term value inherent in Hertz. And he's been incredibly supportive. Carl is not a patient man and that's why I think he's as successful as he is. I think He'd love to see us move quicker and fast. But he's been very supportive in all the different areas that we've been embarking on. Well, we know that ICON is a very successful investor, and he doesn't hold back on his opinions. Is there anything, any changes he wants you to make that you haven't done yet, and how do you feel about it? I think just move faster. So I think the need to innovate and quickly launch is something that we probably will never do fast enough, but we're working on it. Well, you have been putting a lot of money to new technology. At a time when Hertz is still not making profits, is Icon okay with that? I think what's been really amazing in working with Carl is I think he feels the pain of not having the kinda earnings that If we weren't making these investments, causes, at the same time he says that Hertz is a very iconic brand which has value in and of itself. And that technology is really the secret weapon to success in the future. And that we have to Now, we have to catch up. And we have to make the investments and bring ourselves into the next hundred years. And I think as a very savvy smart investor, he gets that. Well you said that he's not a patient man, Given that Hertz stock is down 17 % so far this year at a time when the markets have been rallying, how patient is he as an investor? Well, he's obviously enormously patient to be suffering through this with us. But at the same time, he sees the end goal. We share our plans and our strategy with him and he believes. He sees the great leadership team we've built, he Understands the great assets we have and the brand that we have and he's a believer. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Hertz CEO says Carl Icahn is "Patient" about Car Rental Turnaround: "He's a Believer"

Autos

CEO Kathy Marinello says Carl Icahn is "incredibly supportive" but wants Hertz to move "faster".