Avis’ chief innovation officer explains how the car-rental giant is fighting to stay relevant in the face of Uber, Lyft, and peer-to-peer car-sharing

Avis’ chief innovation officer explains how the car-rental giant is fighting to stay relevant in the face of Uber, Lyft, and peer-to-peer car-sharing

Major car-rental companies have had a stranglehold on the market for years, causing no shortage of grief among consumers forced to pay exorbitant fees, wait in long lines, and follow seemingly arbitrary rules. 

Lyft and a host of startups are coming for their lunch because of it. 

We talked with Arthur Orduña, Avis' chief innovation officer, about how the company is working to stay ahead of Silicon Valley “” and where he's hoping to work with them. 

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Renting a car is, by any definition, a headache. It's Arthur Orduña job to change that.

As tech companies flush with venture capital circle like vultures around the long-established and highly conventional industry, Orduña feels right at home. Before Avis, he held similar roles at other old-guard companies that aren't exactly synonymous with innovation: ADT and Canoe Ventures, an ad-tech venture by the country's largest cable operators.

"If there's a common thread through all of this, it's like watching the evolution of connectivity across different devices and different spaces," Orduña said in an interview with Business Insider.

"It's almost like the hospitality/cable industry if you think about it," he continued. "It's 600,000 hotel rooms on wheels."

But of course, hotel chains haven't been immune