Now retired, Jack Taylor started the company in the United States with seven cars in 1957, naming it after the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier on which he served during World War Two as a pilot.
 
By 2012, Enterprise Holdings employed 74,000 people and generated more than $15 billion in annual revenue.

The company operates 1.3 million vehicles throughout the United States, the UK, Caribbean, Latin America, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Ireland, Germany, France, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain and China.

Chief executive Andy Taylor - Jack Taylor’s son - said in an interview with Bloomberg news service that company plans include expansion into 90 countries in Western Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.

He started with the company at age 16, washing cars and learning the business. After he graduated from the University of Denver with a Bachelor of Science in business administration in 1970, he worked for another car company for a few years.

After that, Andy returned to Enterprise and has been there ever since, working his way up to chief executive.

The Taylor family are estimated by Forbes magazine to have a net worth of $11 billion.

Andy’s career path provides insight into the company’s overall approach to hiring  - Enterprise often opts to groom its graduate trainees into permanent employees instead of recruiting from outside.

Globally, Enterprise hires over 7,000 university graduates a year, giving them instruction on sales, marketing, customer service, finance and how to run a section of the business in less than two years, the company says. The programme offers trainees business training usually only available from studying for an MBA.

“I received my first promotion to management assistant within seven months and got promoted to assistant manager within a year,” said one former trainee.

“You need to show that you really want it - be determined and be very focused and you’ll get all the way to the top,” she added.

Enterprise puts an emphasis on employee development, not only recruiting business graduates, but drawing from candidates with a range of backgrounds.

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