Genesis wants to move like a startup. Hyundai gives it the muscle to scale like an auto giant.
Ted Mengiste, chief operating officer of Genesis Motor North America, said the luxury brand operates like a startup within Hyundai, a nearly 80-year-old company.
David Dee Delgado/Reuters Genesis began as a Hyundai luxury model before becoming a stand-alone brand in 2015.
It now sells sedans, SUVs, and EVs, and notched 5 straight years of record global sales.
Genesis North America's COO said the brand has a "startup mindset" that helps it pivot quickly.
Genesis is, by now, a nearly 20-year-old name.
When Ted Mengiste joined the Hyundai brand five years ago as an executive director of sales operations, he described the internal workings of Genesis as "ground floor." His team was about 37 people, Mengiste told Business Insider, and along the way, he had to build the processes, go-to-market strategies, and the reports they'd use to measure how the business was doing.
"That's tough, but you find some bright minds that are eager to create something new — like a startup," Mengiste said.
"We were really a startup." Mengiste now oversees a team of roughly 200 employees.
Of course, Genesis isn't really a startup.
Under the hood, the brand is backed by the multibillion-dollar Hyundai Motor Group — South Korea's national pride and one of the world's largest automotive companies.
A decade after Genesis spun out of Hyundai and became a stand-alone luxury brand, its executives say that operating with the mentality of a young company while tapping into the resources of an auto giant has helped Genesis grow quickly.
"When you have that type of, not just economic and investment backing, but the level of talent and experience to draw on, I think it gives you confidence to be bold and daring," Mengiste said.
A startup backed by a legacy brand The first Genesis model was introduced in 2008 under the Hyundai name.
At the time, the rear-wheel-drive sedan was a major departure for the automaker, which was best known for affordable, mass-market cars.
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