Uber company

Andong Wang

Submitted to the University of the Incarnate Word

Fulfillment for the requirement of BMGT 4380-02

Introduction

Uber is a huge company in the world because 58 countries have Uber service. In 2016, Uber is valued at over 60 billion dollars (Hartmans & McAlone, 2016). Uber attracts many investments. Uber’s full name is UberCab, and it is a black-car service (Hartmans & McAlone, 2016). In 2008, Kalanick heard an idea of Uber at the Le Web technology conference, so he thought the idea can reduce the cost of black-car service by phone. (Hartmans & McAlone, 2016) Thus, Kalanick created Uber in San Francisco in 2009. In 2009, Travis Kalanick became the CEO of UberCab (Hartmans & McAlone, 2016).Uber is a car service company because it makes black-car and ride-sharing service more safe, cheap, and convenient. Uber service is similar with the taxi, but it can use a mobile app. However, taxi service needs to call taxi service number. In 2014, Uber wanted to change people’s life styles because its vision is:

“Our vision is a world where traffic is no longer a problem. Car’s glide along city streets, even in peak hour. A world where it’s cheaper to ride in an Uber than owning your own car” (Rohrsheim, 2014, P.7 ).

The vision means Uber’s service can save people’s time, and it gives people a way of a ride which is cheaper and faster than a taxi. So Uber is attracting more and more customers. As a result, the taxi industry appeared a disaster because Uber took many customers from the taxi industry. Also, many taxi drivers changed their jobs because they can rely on Uber to support their lives.

In 2014, Uber tried to build an impartial relationship with customers and employees because its mission is:

“To connect riders and drivers through a seamless, technological experience. Providing our riders with an effortless service, while ensuring fair and profitable revenue streams for our drivers” (Rohrsheim, 2014, P.6).

The Mission means Uber’s drivers have many years of driving experience, and they provide comfortable and safe services for customers. Uber calculates the price by distances which is the same as taxi industry. However, Uber has GPS to track the paths and guide drivers. By using GPS, Uber prevents the driver deliberately detours.

In March 2017, Uber was $68 billion of valuation (Dogtiev, 2017). The valuation of Uber ranked the first in the hail-riding companies industry (Dogtiev, 2017). Even though Uber was the most profitable company in 2017, it still has several problems. The main problems are New CEO, scandal, and competitors.

In 2017, Dara Khosrowshahi replaced Travis Kalanick and became Uber’s new CEO (The Week staff, 2017). Dara Khosrowshahi is 48 years ago, and he has an excellent performances in transportation industry. He built Expedia which became one of the most influential transportation’s online company in the world (The Week staff, 2017). Under the influences of Dara Khosrowshahi, Expedia has a good enterprise culture that twenty-five percent of Expedia’s technology employees said Expedia was a good place to work (The Week staff, 2017). However, When Travis Kalanick was Uber’s CEO, Uber has some scandals that some Uber’s employees took cocaine (Shead, 2017). Dara Khosrowshahi faced a big challenge because he needed to change enterprise culture (Bloomgarden, 2017).

There are three things Dara Khosrowshahi need to do. Firstly, Inspiration means a leader must encourage his employees, and the leader tries to keep employees stay in the company. Also, the leader needs to build a trustful relationship with his employees (Bloomgarden, 2017). Secondly, Creating means a leader needs to build a good image by change enterprise change because a good image can attract many people attention to his company (Bloomgarden, 2017). Furthermore, Creating means a leader new story in a new company so that the leader will take seriously to a new object. Lastly, Quick to prove himself means a leader needs show his strong knowledge of the business and the ability of the team. Also, the leader needs to finish some business plans, and he needs to keep employees stay in the company by share some benefits (Bloomgarden, 2017).

Uber had many scandals when Travis Kalanick was a Uber’s CEO because Travis Kalanick only focused on target more than everything. For one thing, Shead (2017) shows Susan Fowler’s experience of sexual harassment and gender bias at Uber’s company. Shead (2017) presents that Susan’s manager propositioned her and other female Uber workers. Even though Susan reported to Uber’s human resources department, she did not get any responses by human resources staffs (Shead, 2017). Furthermore, Susan Fowler’s manager threatened her (Shead, 2017). For another, February 22, New York Times wrote Uber’s workplace is a terrible place, because some employees did cocaine during the break time (Shead, 2017). Therefore, these scandals are one of the reasons that made Uber to change CEO.

Uber has many competitors, such as lyft, Didi Chuxing, Ola, Grab, and Careem. Didi Chuxing is one of the biggest competitiors for Uber. Didi Chuxing is a Chinese hail-riding company which acquired Uber China in 2016 (Boxall, 2016). According to Boxall (2016), Didi Chuxing invested $1 billion in Uber’s global business and got the chance to use Uber’s brand name in China. The reason why Uber failed in Chinese market is because Uber tried to use the same way of it did in other countries to occupy Chinese market. (Dogtiev, 2017) So Didi Chuxing occupied Chinese market, and its valuation was 34 billion in 2017 (Dogtiev, 2017).The valuation of Didi Chuxing ranked the second in the hail-riding companies industry (Dogtiev, 2017).

References

Bloomgarden K., (2017) What Uber’s New CEO Needs to Do to Change the Narrative and Restore Confidence in the Company. Entrepreneur Journal. Retrieved September 15, 2017, from

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/300340#

Boxall A., (2016) Didi Chuxing now owns Uber China, merging into $35b single company. Retrieved Auguest 2, 2016, from

http://www.businessofapps.com/didi-chuxing-now-owns-uber-china-merging-for m-35b-single-company/

Dogtiev A., (2017) Uber Revenue and Usage Statistics. Retrieved August 21, 2017, from

http://www.businessofapps.com/data/uber-statistics/

Hartmans A., & McAlone N. (2016) The story of how Travis Kalanick built Uber into the most feared and valuable startup in the world. Retrieved September 20, 2017, from http://www.businessinsider.com/ubers-history/#june-1998-scour-a-peer-to-peer-se arch-engine-startup-that-kalanick-had-dropped-out-of-ucla-to-join-snags-its-first- investment-from-former-disney-president-michael-ovitz-and-ron-burkle-of-yucai pa-companies-1

Rohrsheim D., (2014). Uber Annual Report.

Shead S., (2017) Uber in Crisis: How a string of high profile problens led to Uber’s worst ossible start to 2017. Retrieved March 20, 2017, from

http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-in-crisis-timeline-2017-3?r=UK&IR=T

The Week Staff, (2017) Uber’s new CEO. Retrieved September 3, 2017, from

http://theweek.com/articles/722053/ubers-new-ceo