Connect with Fast Company

The time for celebrity CEOs is past. Once, star power was everything. But the best leaders today are problem solvers who aren't afraid to put their noses to the grindstone. They shoulder companies through strategic shifts, tune in to trends early, and retool marketing efforts. They favor brainstorming with their teams and listening to customers over making sweeping pronouncements.

Fast Company sought out four CEOs who represent the best of this new breed in a wide range of industries: from food to medical devices to car rental. They may not be household names -- yet -- but they're four leaders you need to know.

Marketing in the Zone

Scott Griffith

Zipcar Inc.
Cambridge, Massachusetts

Scott Griffith is poring over a Chicago map like a mountaineer trying to find the smartest ascent route. Griffith is the chief executive of Zipcar, a company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that rents cars by the hour and day to more than 30,000 members in Boston, Washington, New York, and New Jersey (and several smaller markets). Chicago's next.

Zipcar is the pioneer of a new model for car rental in the United States; it's hard to tell whether the company is gnawing away at Hertz's business, helping its customers put off a visit to the local car dealership, or both. Founded in 1999, the company focused on students and young professionals who didn't own a car but needed one occasionally for errands and short trips, and families who sometimes needed a second car. When Griffith joined the company in early 2003, it operated less like the high-growth business he thought it could be and more like a nonprofit.

Zipcar positioned vehicles around the Boston area, which members could reserve on an hourly basis through the company's Web site. Using a wireless access system, members swipe a card against the car's windshield at the time they reserved it, and the door opens. Gas and insurance are included in the hourly rental (which now runs from $8.50 to $12.50).

But the company hadn't figured out how to market in a cost-effective way, which meant reaching prospective members who lived within a few blocks of where a Zipcar was located. Its fleet was made up predominantly of Volkswagen Golfs and Beetles. And it was losing money, without enough in the bank to get it to profitability.

Griffith knew he had to change course as soon as he took over. He expanded the company's fleet, making it more attractive to drivers whose first concern was style, not gas mileage. (That meant Mini Coopers, Scion vans, and SUVs such as the Toyota Highlander and Ford Escape.) And since the cars often sat unused in daylight hours, Griffith created a sales force to market Zipcar to businesses. About 25% of the company's revenue now comes from this "Z2B" offering.

But if Griffith wanted to get Zipcar to profitability and start expanding into new cities (he plans to launch in three new markets this year, including Chicago), he had to bring customer acquisition costs into line. "When I got here, a big ad buy had been done," Griffith says as he drives to the Boston suburb of Brookline to check on one of the company's "blitz" marketing activities. "Our ads were in subways and buses, in newspapers and magazines. It raised awareness of the brand, but not member sign-ups."