Business

Car-sharing service is becoming a growing industry today. With the increasing prices of gasoline as well as other commodities, owning a car becomes more of a luxury. In addition, the pressure that comes from various environmental problems paves the way for the increasing market of the car-sharing service.
One of the companies that cater on this kind of service is Zipcar. This company started in 1999 by two women who believed that car-sharing would significantly contribute to environmental protection. The future of Zipcar is deemed to be promising such that recent business articles have featured the company. Cliffords (2008) article about Zipcar on Inc. Magazine features a detailed review and assessment of the company (Clifford, 2008).  
The purpose of this paper is to present a summary on Cliffords article about Zipcar. It will also analyze the aforementioned based on the information presented in the article. For instance, the strategies utilized by the new CEO of Zipcar will be explained. In addition, it will also evaluate the goals that the new CEO set forth to his managerssubordinatesteam as well as the managers have to meet. Finally, it will also determine whether the companys strategic objectives are realistic in todays environment.  
The Case of Zipcar
Zipcar is increasingly gaining its momentum. In particular, its members already reach as high as 180,000 in over 50 cities. Its yearly revenue is also set at 50 million. The vehicles of Zipcar are kept in various gas stations as well as on parking lots. The customers or the Zipcar members only need to pay an annual fee in order to rent a car by day or by hour. Transactions are done electronically or through online thereby eliminating the process of having to deal with agency personnel and rental counters.
The seven-point strategies implemented by Zipcars new CEO, Scott Griffith include the following- know when to say no and when to say yes first prove it, then fund it sell where your competition wont hand over power, watch ideas fly brand with attitude, and BMWs before you get big, get tech break it down to built it up (Clifford, 2008). These strategies are believed to be the key to the success of the organization.
The first goal of the new CEO for the company is to focus on addressing the problems of the company instead of the concentration on the continuous expansion. Indeed, it is but logical to address even the smallest problems of the company before expanding it. In relation to this, it is found out that highly technological is needed if the company wants to expand and accommodate more customers. 
    The strategic objectives are deemed to be realistic such that, they are able to meet the needs or demands of the todays environment. With all the environmental and economic woes, the idea of car-sharing services is only but suitable on todays society. The emerging needs of the customers are addressed by Zipcar. As what Frankel (2008) points out, the company is able to fulfill the short-term transportation needs of the existing customers (Frankel, 2008). One of the mandates of CEO Griffith to the board is to have a company overhaul. Nonetheless, it retained the youth image of the company. The power of structure and metrics is also reevaluated by Griffith. And by focusing on the market where car-rental companies do not recognize, Zipcar is able to create new target markets. The company was able to prove its point and that funding eventually came in. Even with many offers at hand, Zipcar is careful on choosing its partners and ventures.     
    With this, it is believed that the company is a success and since the marketplace is favoring this industry, greater success is expected of this company. More importantly, one can highly attribute this success to the companys CEO, Scott Griffith. The aggressive but systematic approach to running the company has worked well with the goals and objectives of the organization.