Jim Strack grew up in a large Air Force family, including four older brothers who were good in sports and other ventures, so he got an early-and-often glimpse at what leadership looks like.
As he went on in life, Strack was able to capitalize on those lessons and carve out a pretty good niche for himself as a leader. He captained high school wrestling and football teams, went to college and played football and was even a fraternity president for two years.
“Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, I was one of eight children, I had four older brothers, who were all very good leaders on and off the field,” Strack said. “I was always into sports … I was moving around all the time as an Air Force brat.
“Probably what got me into the leadership piece was certainly … captain on the football team and wrestling team, and doing those types of things,” he added. “Sports drove a lot of what I did.”
Now Strack is the vice president and general manager of Enterprise Mobility, a mobility services and solutions company based in Milwaukee.
His experience includes a demonstrated history of working in the automotive industry, where he has shown skill in sales, team building, management, account management, and leadership.
He said he had “a little bit of experience” prior to that in the liquor and wine industry. When he joined Enterprise, he went into the company’s management training program and “took off from there.”
“When I came on board with Enterprise, I really didn’t know what I was getting into, but I initially took that lead role,” Strack recalled. “I had some opportunities throughout my career to jump into some other businesses, but the leadership piece drove me. Being able to get people promoted and see … people making a better lifestyle for themselves is really what drove me to stick with this leadership piece.”
Strack, who earned a bachelor’s degree focused in Mass Communication/Media Studies from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, talked about Enterprise’s challenges and a variety of other business issues during the most recent episode of “CEO Thought Leadership Series on LinkedIn Live,” the discussion series hosted by the National Association for Business Resources.
Produced in conjunction with the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For and Corp! Magazine, the series is hosted by NABR CEO Jennifer Kluge and features business leaders from around the country.
Jennifer Kluge: Give us a feel for key endeavors that are happening at Enterprise. We all think we know the brand, but give us a feel for what’s happening now.
Jim Strack: Enterprise is known for the car rental brand, obviously. And, what a lot of people don’t know is we recently changed our name. In October, ownership decided to change the name to Enterprise Mobility.
We have multiple, different operations, so the Mobility change was a good one. We went from Enterprise to Enterprise Holdings, which is the financial arm, and now to Mobility now. So there’s a lot of change there, a lot of really exciting (change) that meets all our objectives.
Kluge: I don’t like to look backwards because as leaders we’re like, ‘OK, we got through it. Let’s be done with it.’ But there have been some monumental moments in the past five years and decisions were made, lessons were learned. Give us a feel for some of the decisions that you had to make as a leader and lessons you learned from it.
Strack: Obviously, Covid brought on some enormous changes to the industry. What is new is our new CEO … took over in January 2020 just prior to the pandemic.
Next thing you know, all the pandemic things were coming around, and a lot of things changed. We had to anticipate some pretty significant losses early on in the pandemic … really, really difficult about March, April, May. Things started to bounce back a little bit in June 2020, but still we had the fleet deficiency. We tried to assemble all the best people that we could in the business, with very little volume. and then we had to figure out ways to capture new business.
So (there were) some cutbacks, we cut back about 26% of our customer-facing employees initially. We basically had to rebuild this business. And now we think about getting back to basics and what has made us successful.
Kluge: Each industry has different leading indicators. For those today who are planning and putting their strategic plans together — their two-, three-, five-year plan — what do you see in the future as it relates to markets and conditions?
Strack: Transportation was ever-evolving. I mean, you could talk about a couple of autonomous cars. You can certainly talk about electrification, those types of things. And we’re right in the middle of it. And it’s a progression. What the business that we’re dealing with, I’m learning a lot about technology understanding, (which) in this industry is really important.
When it comes to indicators, you know, there’s a lot of documentation about some of our competitors and what they’ve done under a thousand caseloads. I think that what I’ve learned from our leadership is it’s an adaptability. It’s not a revolution. It’s not something that you want to jump on right away because the customer base may not be there. We’re preparing for the future … There’s so much to to try to grasp, but we’ve taken it up at a slow pace. I think that’s the right way to go about because of all the changes, how quickly they come.
Kluge: Your company has been famous for hiring young people. How do you engage them?
Strack: It really is learning the basics of the business. You’ve got to be able to take care of the customer base … that’s customer satisfaction, that’s employee retention. What I really loved about when I started and what I try and encourage in our culture here is that … There’s not a lot of companies that work for what HR starting as a manager trainee, you’ll be able to be tested. And we’re going to hand over the keys in nine months to take over a store, your pay-off at the bottom line. Our business takes you on that management path.
I just think culturally we do a really good job teaching … what it’s made this company so successful over the last 65 years. There’s no real magic. It is really the culture.
Kluge: Let’s talk about generational differences and communication styles and the wants and needs of each generation. Because you have such a young workforce, let’s talk about mentorship.
Strack: We’ve got the new generational zoom and the waves of different things and thought process about those generations, as well. We’re really digging in to future leadership, like, we’ll try and pick our top performers from a performance standpoint, who’s performing at a high level and what does their future look like?
Kluge: Enterprise has been a Best and Brightest winner for many years, which means that your culture must be something fantastic. What actions do you take related to culture?
Strack: We all take responsibility for the culture. We have rules, regulations, all those things. Culturally we try to bring it all back full circle. And, again, the thing that that motivates me and drives me is the puzzle. I’m very, very proud of the individual that I’ve been able to get promoted.
Kluge: Is there a book or speaker or person who has left a lasting impression on you?
Strack: There was a book came out by a gentleman named Steve Holiday in 2016. It’s called “Ego is the Enemy.” I took that to heart. I was going through some challenging times in my career and looked at it and said, ‘OK, let’s, let’s make sure that we’re making better decisions for the people and not necessarily for myself.’ I made it clear to myself that I won’t let my ego get in the way of our success.
Kluge: In your personal life, what decision did you make that you considered a game changer?
Strack: In, 2015 I was approached about an opportunity … I never thought in my mind that I would work a year in Europe, but the gentleman who had worked over there prior had made a decision to come back to the States. They were looking for a leader to go over there, help the German operation.
It took a lot for me to analyze, look at it, figure out a way for my wife and children to live there and med school there. But I made my way … I embarked on a leadership role for Enterprise in Germany.
