How choosing to trust helped make Avis a giant

A few days ago, a tweet went around that I found striking in how it spoke about the importance of trusting someone you select to do a job.

I’ll share the full story below, for now, my thought is simply that the memo made a powerful statement about trust. I also note that this was back in 1962, when “command and control” as a leadership model was absolutely the way things were done, yet even with this and at a time when Avis was losing money, this was the memo the CEO sent.

I googled to find the story, published by Campaign Live in 2016, excerpted below:

History of advertising: No 177: Robert Townsend’s all-staff memo

Robert Townsend, chief executive of Avis, the car-rental company, knew his 1962 ad campaign was going to be a big risk.

But Townsend knew something dramatic was needed if Avis was to close the gap on Hertz, its biggest…