The Simmons Leadership Conference – which will be held on April 5 in Boston – is one of the best-known women’s leadership forums in the country, and annually attracts a global audience of 2,500 business and professional women. This year’s roster includes some of the nation’s most visionary change-makers who recognized and seized opportunities that have altered the course of their industry or profession. Conference proceeds help further the development of future leaders through Simmons graduate scholarships.
Robin Chase is founder and former CEO of Zipcar, the largest carsharing company in the world, and GoLoco, an online ridesharing community. Robin is also founder and CEO of Buzzcar, a service that brings together car owners and drivers in a carsharing marketplace. Buzzcar.com empowers individuals to take control of their mobility, without looking to governments or big businesses for solutions.
She is on the Board of the World Resources Institute, the National Advisory Council for Innovation & Entrepreneurship for the US Department of Commerce, and the OECD’s International Transport Forum Advisory Board. She also served on the Intelligent Transportations Systems Program Advisory Committee for the US Department of Transportation, the Massachusetts Governor’s Transportation Transition Working Group, and Boston Mayor’s Wireless Task Force. Robin lectures widely, has been frequently featured in the major media, and has received many awards in the areas of innovation, design, and environment, including Time 100 Most Influential People, Fast Company Fast 50 Innovators, and BusinessWeek Top 10 Designers. Robin graduated from Wellesley College and MIT's Sloan School of Management, and was a Harvard University Loeb Fellow.
Rahim Kanani: Where do you draw your inspiration from, and how does that translate into tackling some of the world's toughest challenges such as climate change and resource scarcity?
Robin Chase: My peers and colleagues inspire me. There is a group of entrepreneurs pushing the envelope, government officials that are making significant changes despite the odds, and visionary writers, academics, and colleagues whose work confirms, amplifies, and stretches my own thinking. I see a real movement afoot to change the status quo in ways that move us towards a more sustainable, equitable, open, cooperative, and friendly world.
Rahim Kanani: Did you ever believe that Zipcar would be as successful as it is today, or were you surprised at how well the public embraced the idea?
Robin Chase: During Zipcar's first years, I joked with many a reporter that my dream for our 10th anniversary was an anti-trust lawsuit because we would have blanketed every city in America. So no, I am not at all surprised by its success. Every marketing, technology, and operational decision we made was with scale in mind. Ten years ago, and today, I walk through cities and see that we are just scratching the surface. There are still enormous numbers of people who would do better financially and convenience-wise if they were carsharing.
Rahim Kanani: As the co-founder and former CEO, what are some of the leadership lessons you've learned along the way in the context of building not only a new company and service for society, but also advancing the public attitude towards sustainability?
Robin Chase: We always focused on self-interest -- that of consumers, institutions, and cities -- and I continue to believe this is the best path forward. Choosing carsharing was simply in their personal best interest. "Green" choices need to work better and cost less than the status quo way of doing things. People don't buy "green." They buy convenience, or service, or status, or cost-savings, or an experience. One reason Zipcar succeeded was its branding: cool, hip, smart, urban, fun, innovative. Who wouldn't want to be associated with that?
Environmental benefits are the bonus surprise.
Rahim Kanani: Similarly, how do you now view transportation innovation and the ways in which we can tackle climate change?
Robin Chase: What has changed in the last 10 years is my understanding of the role of open systems, the enormous power of peer participation, and of course, the transformational power that smartphones bring -- we are all walking around with real-time access to the world's knowledge. We have a new toolkit with which to approach transportation and other major difficult societal issues. Thankfully, because the issues are pressing and enormous.
Buzzcar, my current company, is a direct result of this new way of thinking. Buzzcar provides car sharing and car rental that is simple, safe, affordable, fun, and available in any geography. How? By providing a platform that brings together people with cars they don't use much (well, that would be almost everybody) and their friends and neighbors who'd like to use them from time to time. Buzzcar brings the contract and rules of engagement, the technology enabling people to find, reserve, and pay for the cars easily, the brand promise and excitement, and importantly the insurance that protects the owner's car and his reputation, as well as 24-hour roadside assistance to borrowers. Ours is a partnership. We, the Buzzcar worker bees, facilitate. Owners and drivers treat each other and the cars respectfully, and are the real drivers of the greater community.
Rahim Kanani: Lastly, what's next for Robin Chase?
Robin Chase: There is a book yearning to come out of me: about how we can build the new collaboration economy, and the role of "openness" in our quest for efficient use of resources and as a driver of innovation.
All I need is the time.
