Uber : Aggressive management for growth

1. Uber : Aggressive
management for growth

2. Background of Organization
▸Kalanick and Garrett Camp founded Uber in 2009
▸A personal limo service that was both convenient and
affordable, called UberCab.
▸Uninterested to run a “limo company”, hired Ryan
Graves as the first GM, 2010.
▸By 2015 Uber offered six classes of service: UberX,
UberTaxi, UberBlack, UberSUV, UberLUX, and
UberPool.

3. “
Kalanick’s aggressive
management style

4. Stakeholders
PassengersGovernment InvestorsDrivers

5. Unhealthy Competition
▸Uber took an aggressive approach to address its
competition under Kalanick’s strategic leadership.
▸asked its drivers to take rides with Lyft to persuade
their drivers to work for Uber.
▸Uber also attempted to sabotage its competition by
booking fake rides and making phantom calls.

6. Unhealthy Competition (Cont.)
▸In 2014, reportedly over a 170 Uber employees
ordered and canceled over 5,500 rides with Uber’s
primary competitor, Lyft,
▸Made more than 100 fake orders with its New York
City competitor, Gett.

7. Investor’s anxiety
▸Kalanick’s doggedness and persuasiveness helped
spur Uber’s growth, but some aspects of Kalanick’s
strategic leadership and decision making caused
concerns
▸They need to figure out a way to work with the
system, and not just say, ‘Screw the system’”
(O’Brien, 2014).

8. Passenger’s Safety and Privacy
Concern
▸Kalanick said Uber had the highest safety standards in
the industry, including the most thorough background
checks,
▸but on the other hand also noted that Uber did not
have to comply with taxicab regulations because he
declared Uber a ride-sharing service
▸an Uber customer in Boston reported being kidnaped
and raped by her driver
▸In Illinois an UberX driver took a female passenger to
his apartment and sexually assaulted her after she fell
asleep in the back of his car. the Illinois driver only
had been issued a temporary driver’s license

9. Passenger’s Safety and Privacy
Concern (cont)
▸Case of Peter Sims, a best-selling author and an early
advocate of Uber
▸Exposing the location of Peter Sims at Uber’s
Chicago launch without any permission asked
▸“God View” ability
▸Used its “God View” to track journalists
▸Emil Michael, a Senior Vice President at Uber, said
that Uber should dig up dirt on its critics in the media
▸February 2015, Uber announced a breach in its system
that resulted in 50,000 users’ accounts being
compromised.

10. Confronting Government
Regulation
▸Kalanick took a very active and confrontational
approach to influence government regulations.
▸The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
and California Public Utilities Commission both
issued UberCab cease-and-desist orders because it
was operating without a taxi license

11. Uber Drivers Concern
▸Uber viewed all drivers as independent contractors
and took the stance that a driver’s personal automobile
insurance covered the driver when they were driving
without a passenger (personal use).
▸A motorist struck an Uber driver’s car while the
driver was transporting an Uber passenger.
▸a San Francisco Uber driver struck and killed a six-
year old girl on New Year’s Eve 2013

12. “
ACTIONS TAKEN BY UBER

13. Action Taken
▸Kalanick addressed the cease-and-desist order by
retaining the rights to Uber.com and then continued to
operate without a taxi license under its new name
Uber
▸Kalanick would go on to repeatedly state that Uber
was a technology company and not a taxicab company
▸in order to avoid taxicab regulations and cease-and-
desist orders, citations for operating an illegal taxi
company, regulatory obstacles, and many of the more
than 130 federal lawsuits filed against Uber

14. Action Taken
▸Despite publically declaring Uber a technology
company, under Kalanick’s strategic leadership Uber
hired individuals who had previously served on boards
that reviewed taxi and limousine regulations or held
political offices.
▸Uber initiated a #VegasNeedsUber, Twitter campaign
to gather the positive experiences and opinions of
residents who used Uber to spread awareness and
pressure officials to legalize Uber in Las Vegas

15. Action Taken
▸In D.C. alone, more than 50,000 e-mails and 37,000
tweets were sent in support of Uber (Kessler, 2013).
▸In New York City, Uber used a “robocall” campaign
to influence thousands of residents over Mayor de
Blasio’s proposal to suspend new taxi car licenses
until a study of the appropriate number of licenses was
completed. Uber was sued over this tactic for violating
federal law for commercial calls without consumer
consent.
▸Helping the victim of christmas accident reluctanly
▸CEO Travis Kalanick resigned .

16. “
IMPACT

17. Impact
▸Empty seat on Uber mainboard positions
▸Uber is now effectively banned from France, Spain
and Belgium, and it is facing litigation and
investigations around the world
▸Lose its licence in london
▸CEO Travis Kalanick resigned.

18. Analysis
&
Theories

19. Theories
Systems Theory
▸ According to Katz and Kahn 1966 ( in Mele , Pels ,
and Polese,2009) “The organization is seen as a system
built by energetic input-output where the energy coming
from the output reactivates the system.” Social
organizations are then open systems due to their material
exchanges with the environment ( Open system )
▸ Uber considered as close organization in solving the
law of legal operation
▸ Travis Kalanik as CEO of Uber always stick with his
decision
for example : Travis Kalanik stated Uber as Technology
company

20. Theories
Systems Theory

21. Theories
Leadership Grid
▸Robert Black and Jane Mouton (1981) determined task
accomplishment or interpersonal relationship between
workers and manager as two major factor of leadership
style that manager want to adopt in an organization.
▸Travis Kalanik used Task-centered style for Uber which
focus for job to be done and Job receive as priority.

22. “
Suggestions

23. Suggestions
▸ To increase the
effectiveness of
marketing and
legal office
research team
own by Uber
(Uber)
▸ To provide strict
and particular
regulation in
terms of online
business or
transportation
(Government)
To give extra effort
for keeping the driver
as Uber asset with
more beneficial
contract. ( Uber &
Driver)
Implementation of
Theory z for
leadership
management ( Uber
CEO)
▸Keeping
passenger’s privacy
to be still confidential
even for the Uber
itself (Customer)
▸From Islamic
perspective, it is
recommended in
doing musyawarah
for any decision
taken in the future.
(All stakeholders)

24. THEORY Z TABLE
WESTERN JAPANESE Theory Z
Short-term employment Lifetime employment Long-term employment
Decision making is individual (boss ) Decision making is consensual Consensual decision making
Responsibility is personal Responsibility is collective Individual responsibility
Control is explicit and formal Control is implicit and informal
Implicit,informal control with explicit
formalized measures
Members' concern is with parts of the
organization (segmented concern)
Concern is with the whole of the
organization ( holistic concern)
Holistic concern social relations
included

25. References
Cristina, M. Jacqueline, P. & Francesco, P. (2010). A Brief
Review of Systems Theories and Their Managerial Applications.
Service Science 2(1-2):126-135.
https://doi.org/10.1287/serv.2.1_2.126 retrieved from
http://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/pdf/10.1287/serv.2.1_2.126
Galander, M. M. (2000). Organizational communication:
people, processes and practice. Kuala Lumpur: Univision Press.
Matherne, B.P. & O’Toole, J .(2017). Uber: Aggressive
management for growth. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314196711_Uber_Aggressi
ve_management_for_growth

26. Thank You!
Any
questions
?