Go Innovate Yourself

Keep on Zip’n

I truly look forward to watching what Zipcar accomplishes with Avis & will remain Zipcar’s biggest fan as I transition to an advisory role. Here’s my letter to employees:

Zipsters,

I’m looking forward to our all-hands webcast later this morning and wanted to share some context before we get started.

When I took the wheel at Zipcar, I was thrilled because I had just become the CEO of a disruptive company at the intersection of three areas I am passionate about: technology, transportation and cities.  During the CEO search process, my due diligence on the company left me thinking Zipcar was a big idea, but it had gained little traction at that stage. 

In spite of the obvious challenges of jumping into a barely funded little company that was hemorrhaging cash, I felt like Zipcar was a giant opportunity that directly intersected with my personal sweet spot. I decided to ignore the naysayers and the indications that the company needed a new brand, a new business model and a cultural shift as I prepared to jump in with both feet.  

On the day I signed my employment contract, Peter Aldrich, one of our board members, congratulated me and then said, “Scott, go turn this political movement into a big company.”  That was 10 years ago last month.  What an amazing run it’s been!  We’ve come a long way since that snowy day in Cambridge and I’ve thought a lot about my time at Zipcar in recent days and weeks. 

We’ve built an incredible company; we’ve taken a big idea and turned it into a larger than life brand at the leading edge of an expanding global category; we’ve developed a technology platform that has become the industry standard; we’ve inspired the development of collaborative consumption; and we’ve sparked a major behavior shift in the areas of urban and campus mobility.

We’ve made a substantial difference in the lives of well over a million users since the start of the company.  We’ve seen the chatter on Twitter, the photos on Instagram and have read the posts on Facebook; and we’ve heard the feedback through our member services call center.  Zipsters by the thousands have told us we’re making their lives more affordable, their neighborhoods more livable and their cities more sustainable.

We’ve rendered hundreds of thousands of personally-owned vehicles unnecessary.  As a result, countless parking spaces are no longer needed in major cities starting what will likely be a profound impact on the urban landscape in the not-too-distant future.  Moreover, by choosing Zipcar over car ownership, in the next twelve months our members will reduce carbon emissions by more than 1 billion pounds of CO2.  What’s cool is that number is going to keep getting bigger and bigger.

At a time when the business community needs to improve its reputation, we have shown the world that an ambitious small company with a big idea can become a big business and create significant shareholder value without abandoning its core values.  In short, we’ve created and sustained a company with a higher ambition and we’ve shown that you can do well, by doing good.  That’s an important and timely demonstration, in my view.

But guess what – we’re still in the early innings! We have an amazing opportunity ahead in partnership with Avis Budget Group. 

What about the road ahead?  I’ve talked in the past about a concept called “innovate yourself” – those times in life where one should turn inward and compare the person we are to the person we ultimately aspire to be.  This is one of those times for me.  As I’ve reflected on the future leadership needs, I’ve come to realize Zipcar will require a fully-committed leader to unlock the power of the merger over the next several years.  After a thoughtful review of the company’s needs over the next several years, I’ve concluded it’s best if I step back and give someone else the opportunity to put the pedal down and take Zipcar to the next level.  

This is a bittersweet decision because I don’t feel like my work here is completely done.  I recently heard someone say “artists rarely feel they have finished a piece of work, rather at some point they simply decide put their brush down and move on to their next piece.”  I get that.  It’s time to put my brush down and move on to my next piece.

So as of today, I’ll be handing off our unfinished canvas to a new leader.  With great excitement, I’ll be proudly transitioning the leadership of the company to Mark Norman and the team that will take Zipcar to the next level.  I’m thrilled for Mark and our management team as they embark on this exciting new adventure. 

Under Mark’s leadership, I believe Zipcar’s best days are yet to come.  I have no doubt Mark and you, combined with the team and resources at Avis Budget Group, will reach new highs and set new records in the years ahead.

In partnership with Mark, you are now the team that will take Zipcar to the next level.  You will continue the great road trip that we began many years ago.  You will continue to inspire countless other entrepreneurs developing game changing technologies and disruptive companies. They will look at Zipcar, and you, and see a pathway for their own success.

What we built together is more than any of us could have accomplished on our own.  That’s the definition of great teamwork.  So team, remember to pursue the occasional opportunities to innovate yourself and continue to follow the core values that got us to this great place - be the best you can be; keep it simple; have an impact; deliver results and always, always, obsess about the member experience.  While I’m passing the baton and transitioning today to an advisory role, I will remain Zipcar’s biggest fan.

I will forever cherish my time at Zipcar and I wish all of you the best moving forward.

Warm regards,

Scott

The Most Important Innovation of All

Innovation is a term often applied to business models, products, brands and lately even government policy.  But how frequently do we turn that term inward and think about innovating ourselves?  I believe self-innovation is the most important innovation of all.  Whether it’s been in my personal or professional life, taking the time to reflect on the person I aspire to be and honestly assessing whether I’m really on track to be that person – including making major shifts in my behaviors, job and relationships – has proven to be a key factor in my life journey.  

One of those times when I had to get on track to becoming the person I wanted to be was my fight with cancer over a dozen years ago. Nothing makes you re-evaluate your life like the sudden realization that it may end. I was forced to rethink who I wanted to be on the other side of the struggle.  I came out of that battle a different person with much clearer goals for my life. Goals that include following my passions and surrounding myself with the right people. That “ah-ha” moment and the changes that came from it were a gift and I’ve never forgotten that.   

These moments of self-reflection don’t always have to be in a life threatening moment, they can happen at any time in your life and you can even bring the moment about yourself.  I don’t believe that we can move forward—in our work, in our relationships, in our lives— without stopping at points along the way and asking ourselves a series of fundamental questions. Am I truly following my passion? Am I moving in the direction of the vision of who I want to be?  How am I perceived by others?  How am I responding to the changes around me?  As Charles Darwin said “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” I would even say that it is our responsibility to be the ones that spark those changes, to innovate ourselves and inspire others to do the same.

In the spirit of motivating others to innovate themselves, I hope that you will send me a message here on my blog with the story of a time when you had to innovate yourself. Did you reach a point at work where you realized that you had settled for too long? Were you tired of putting a passion on the shelf? Have you ever found yourself at the end of a relationship wanting to be a different person next time?  Did a new child or graduation or job change compel you to reevaluate where you were going in life? Whatever the story is, I’d like to hear it, and more importantly hear how you took that moment and turned it into an opportunity to innovate yourself.  

(To message me, you can click the message icon at the top right of the page. Please be sure to also let me know in your message if it is ok for me to share some anonymous highlights here on my blog. Look forward to hearing your story.)

5 Things my Father taught me as a kid…

1. Put your own bait on the hook.

2. Always be ready for a conversation with God.

3. You’ll have lots of acquaintances in life but you’ll count your true friends on one or two hands.

4. Paraphrasing the Bible, when I would become frustrated about certain things he would sometimes say, ‘faith the size of a mustard seed can move a mountain”.

5. Never forget where you came from.

Today I am thinking about ‘the Giffer’ and the insights he instilled in me as an impressionable kid.  There are more, but I’ll stop at 5 this time.

He was a wise man. 

I miss you, Dad. 

The Long-Term Effects of Innovation on Humanity

I was talking with someone today about how I found it amazing that we were approaching the point in human history where the collective GDP of the developing world was going to surpass the collective GDP of the “superpowers.”

He shared this video with me, which I hope you find as compelling as I did.

Chat with Holland-Mark’s Mike Troiano

Met with Mike Troiano today, who’s helping me ramp up on the social stuff now that our quiet period has ended.

We had a good chat about topics that mattered to me, one result of which was this blog.

Here’s what he had to say on the topic:

Having started Ogilvy Interactive back in the day, it’s fair to say I thought of myself as a bit of an Internet guru. Then I spent 5 years in the mobile space working on m-Qube, and returned to a marketing world on the cusp of being transformed by social media.

In the beginning I was pretty cynical about all of it, having the feeling blogs and the rest were most likely a fad, and almost certainly a form of self-indulgent narcissism for people with nothing better to do than share their ideas with no one.

One day my marketing person forced me at gunpoint to start blogging, and the business we were running took me to SXSW, all a-Twitter at the dawn of that era. In the course of a week I came to appreciate not only the potential of the medium, but also the fact that my own cynicism toward it was one-part savvy skeptic, and two-parts justification for my own ignorance.

What’s funny about this story is how familiar it is, in the sense that I’ve heard a variation of it from so many otherwise accomplished people over the years.

Is there something out there lots of other people are excited about, that you just don’t get? Take a step back from it - and yourself - and see a little effort helps you understand what all the fuss is about.