Name: Hertz CEO: Leadership Lessons On What It Takes to Lead A Turnaround
Uploaded: 2019-01-24
Duration: 4 min 46 s
Description: CEO Kathryn Marinello says 'doing the right thing' is the key to a successful turnaround.

Kathy, you've been making a lot of changes at Hertz since you became CEO eighteen months ago. What's the most important thing that you have to do, to be a successful leader, to transform a company that's been around for a hundred years, operates in 150 countries And it's one of the big companies on the Fortune 500. Getting the right leadership team in place. It's taken me time and energy but within the last year, I managed to put in place a fabolous leadership team. This new leadership team that you hired is pretty incredible. You have A new chief of marketing, human resources, retail operations, a chief information officer, chief financial officer. I don't know if I left anybody out but what is the common denominator that they all have that they can help you with this reinvention of Hertz. So, I think when your coming into an organization that is clearly in the midst of a turn around You'll have to hire people that love that. That love the challenge of it, the energy required of it. And then, I think the real most important common denominator if you're managing 40, 000 people. I ask each person in an interview, do you like people. They have to really care about the people, the person washing the car, right up to their direct reports. And just the whole concept of turning around a company into growth and success and the energy that that will create in these 40, 000 people, has to be something that really excites them. Before you came to Hertz, you served on the board of directors of General Motors. And you worked a lot with Mary Barra, GM's CEO. And so, you saw her as she dealt with the ignition switch crisis, that massive recall. Was there any leadership lesson that you learned from that experience that's applicable to what you're doing now? Being incredibly confident, doing the right thing and being confident when you're doing the right thing because it's not always comfortable Being authentic, being yourself, being accessible and just powering through the situation to get to the other side. So a very few others later. How is it helping you at heart, so is it? I would to think from a common point, I think will basically pretty authentic leaders in that what you see is what you get That we care deeply about the people who work for us and it's very important for us to doing the right things so that the company that we're leading is gonna be around for the next 100 years. The employed when they celebrate 100 year anniversary So they are so real responsibility and ownership to iconic companies like a hearts or General Motors- I have been told that your leadership approach is that you're big on taking risks. Tell us a little bit more about that. Well, learned from another great leader Jack [ UNKNOWN ], if you're not taking risks and failing, you are not stretching yourself enough. And I think in order to really grow and be successful, you're gonna have to make some swings and fail. And you're gonna have to have confidence through those failures to come back, make ripe by them, and continue to stretch yourself and grow the company. And if you don't take risk You're really not gonna find those big opportunities that will really make a difference out into the future. So what's the key thing that you have to do as the leader of Hurts to make risk taking a part of the Hurt's culture? I think the big opportunity there is when you see somebody fail. To celebrate the failures. As long as they understand why they failed, that they took a calculated risk that made sense that was for the benefit of the company, and that they powered through it, got to the other side and figured out how to make the best of a situation, you should celebrate those risks. But what is your tolerance for all of that? Somebody tries something new, doesn't turn the way they want, your reaction? If it was reckless, and it wasn't through, there was no sense of I need to make good bye this. I need to accept that I failed. I need to figure out how to make the best of it and come out the other side of it. If there is non. Self- awareness of the failure. I don't have patience for that. One of the fun parts of your job, the way I see it, is you get to drive whatever car you want and you have hundreds of choices to choose from. What's your favorite car? Right now, it's a Chevy Vette, I drive a Stingray. Why is that your favorite? It's just a gorgeous car, comfortable, high performance and a lot of fun. I'm a Chevy girl. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Hertz CEO: Leadership Lessons On What It Takes to Lead A Turnaround

Leadership

CEO Kathryn Marinello says "doing the right thing" is the key to a successful turnaround.