Uber
What I Knew Before
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Uber before as a ride-hailing service and has grown internationally, with many spinoffs of the original including UberEats
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Their former CEO came under a lot of fire for rumored sexual harassment
Introduction/ Expectations
I expected Uber to be a very modern workplace with a young workforce. I definitely expected to still see/feel a startup-like culture, and expected many questions about the former CEO.
Uber is primarily a ride-share service valued at $66 billion in 83 countries. It is impressively the most popular ride-hailing service in 108 countries.
Visit Summary
Our visit to Uber was with Nelson Young, who immediately had to field questions about Travis, the former CEO. He explained to us that the company is doing everything they can regarding recent scandals, including hiring former Attorney General Eric Holder to launch an investigation. Nelson did a good job of effectively and confidently answering our difficult questions on this topic.
Regarding Uber itself, Nelson discussed the transparency of the culture, which includes all-hands-on-deck meetings where employees and executives can all meet together to exchange ideas and make sure that everyone is on the same page in the company. He also discussed the path that Uber wants to take in the 5 years, including an IPO, more robotics, and autonomous routing. Nelson also showed us the constant innovation Uber prides itself on; the company is more than ride-hauling, but also Uber Eats for food delivery and Uber Freight for shipping. One challenge he told us about was the fact that they do not want to make the app too big and crowded with too many features, but rather simple with the features consumers really want.
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Key Takeaways
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An interesting takeaway that I had never realized was that in a company like Uber, there is such a thing as too many good ideas. They told us that one simple change in the app would take developers weeks with a lot of money needed to make the change, so in order to make the most of the company’s resources, it is important to really analyze every possibility for new features to decide on what will create the most value.
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Some products/ services are so universal and necessary that they can withstand any type of scandal or issues. Even with the massive issues that Uber has experienced, they saw a very minimal decline in their usage from their customers. This is because so many people rely on this service on a daily basis, making it hard to simply not use it.
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It is very important that everyone in an organization is on the same page, especially during a time of crisis. Nelson gave very good answers to the difficult questions that we asked, and the reason that he was so well prepared is because of good management making sure that the employees were updated on the efforts of the company.
Post Visit Actions/ Thoughts
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After the visit, I connected with Nelson on LinkedIn
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Despite all of the negative press Uber has experienced, I was very impressed with their real commitment to change
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Uber is a company that continues to grow into new markets, and with the success of their business model, I think they can continue this trend for a long time. They are innovating more and more with self-driving cars and other new technologies, so I would not be surprised if the services that Uber offers looked very different a few years from now.