Company / division: Uber
Weekly Narrative Video – Uber’s Culture is Toxic (Jun 23, 2017)
This week’s narrative video is on the Uber’s Culture is Toxic narrative, which has very much been in the news the last couple of weeks as the results of the Eric Holder investigation were released, and Travis Kalanick first took a leave of absence from Uber and then resigned as CEO. The last six months have brought long-simmering accusations and perceptions about Uber’s toxic culture to a head, and the investigations which concluded in recent weeks provided ample evidence of just how bad things had become. There is now, though, finally some hope that Uber can begin to change in earnest with Kalanick out of his role as CEO. Subscribers can watch the video on the narrative page here as always, and if you’re not yet a subscriber you can sign up for a 30-day free trial here and get access too.
★ Uber CEO Travis Kalanick Finally Does the Right Thing and Resigns (Jun 21, 2017)
Uber’s CEO Travis Kalanick has finally bowed to pressure from investors in the company and resigned. It doesn’t look like Uber has issued an official statement at this point, but Recode claims to have confirmed the news following a letter from a number of big investors demanding his resignation. At various points since Uber started melting down in January, I’ve both said that Travis Kalanick was the source of the company’s cultural problems and therefore that it would be very hard for the company to truly change with him still in place, and also as recently as last week said that resignations of other top executives felt hollow when Kalanick had in many places been involved in or at least aware of their wrongful actions. For many years, Kalanick’s closest allies within the company were protected by him even when acting egregiously, and that circle had tightened to just Kalanick himself in recent weeks, but did still include him, making all the changes Uber was making ring rather hollow as he continued at the helm. I think his leave of absence was intended to achieve some of the same objectives as an outright resignation without forcing him out, which would have been tough to do, but it was already clear that he was remaining involved remotely in key decisions and thus that there was no real separation. What’s notable is that, despite all the outside pressure for Kalanick to go, and board members’ repeated defenses of him, it took investors acting as a group to finally force him out. This now leaves an enormous vacuum at the top of the company – a committee of no less than 14 people has been said to be running Uber during Kalanick’s absence – at a time when it has already been looking to fill the COO role and has left several other key executives in recent months. I would guess all that will now be reset, with several new executive search processes eventually running to fill the key roles. That, in turn, is going to make it very hard for the company to move forward aggressively with the changes it has committed to in the wake of the Holder Report recommendations. But this is all for the best long term, even if it’s messy in the short term. One big question that’s outstanding is whether the legal strategy in the Waymo-Uber court case changes at all as a result of Kalanick’s departure – we’ll see now to what extent the approach pursued so far was driven by him personally and to what extent the company will act consistently or differently now that he’s out.
via Recode
Uber Adds Tipping and Makes Other Driver-Friendly Changes (Jun 20, 2017)
This content requires a subscription to Tech Narratives. Subscribe now by clicking on this link, or read more about subscriptions here.
Storage Required for Top iPhone Apps has Increased 11x Since 2013 (Jun 19, 2017)
This content requires a subscription to Tech Narratives. Subscribe now by clicking on this link, or read more about subscriptions here.
Uber Board Member Resigns over Sexist Comment at Meeting about Harassment (Jun 13, 2017)
Though I hesitate to write yet another Uber piece this week, this one is worth mentioning just because it illustrates how all the formal investigations and programs in the world can’t instantly change the individuals in a company or the culture they collectively embody. It appears that at the internal Uber meeting to announce the conclusion of the Holder investigation and how its recommendations would be rolled out, board member David Bonderman made what certainly came off as a highly sexist remark. Though he suggests the remark was misunderstood, it was almost impossibly tone deaf in the context, and he has subsequently resigned from the Uber board, which feels like the only way this could have ended once word got out. But it’s symbolic of both just how hard changing culture actually is when some biases and mindsets are so deeply ingrained, and also of how differently Uber is going to approach all these issues going forward, with much less tolerance for any missteps. That’s a good thing, and one of the few early and visible signs that things really are going to be different, though of course so far it’s only really been applied to those incidents high profile enough to capture attention from outside of Uber.
★ Uber Investigation Recommends Many Changes; Travis Kalanick Takes Leave of Absence (Jun 13, 2017)
The long-awaited investigation by Eric Holder and Tammy Albarrán of law firm Covington & Burling into the workplace culture at Uber has concluded and its recommendations made public. The fact that the report contains twelve pages of recommendations is evidence in and of itself just how broken the corporate culture at Uber has become, and quite how much it needs to change. That change, the recommendations suggest, needs to start at the top with the composition, independence, and responsibilities of the board, and work its way down through the CEO, Travis Kalanick (some of whose responsibilities should be handed over to others), and on from there. The changes recommended are sweeping, which seems appropriate given just how badly things have gone, and importantly they include many layers of accountability with real consequences attached to both good and bad behavior from performance reviews to financial incentives. Travis Kalanick is apparently going to take a leave of absence, partly to grieve for his mother who was killed recently in a boating accident, but partly also to get some time away from his job and reflect on all that’s gone on, which seems very sensible too. But one of the most notable aspects of this whole thing is just how much of a role Kalanick and the culture he has personally created at Uber is responsible for so many of the issues, and one of the biggest questions remains whether he personally can change enough to fit in with all the other changes that will be made both immediately and over time. All that’s gone on at Uber should also serve as a cautionary tale for many other tech firms, some of which will be looking down at Uber at this time but many of which have many of the same cultural flaws, even if to a lesser degree (or merely less publicly). The recommendations in the Holder report would almost all be considered best practice in the fields they cover rather than merely remedies to be applied after a major failure. I suspect every company would be better off by following the majority or even all of them.
via Recode. See also the full set of recommendations here.
Uber SVP Emil Michael Leaves Company and Board Gets a New Female Member from Nestle (Jun 12, 2017)
Any other week, I’d have made this a top post – it’s momentous – but of course we’re all waiting for the other shoe to drop on Tuesday in terms of the release of the Holder report to employees at Uber and hopefully to the rest of us too. As such, Emil Michael’s departure merely feels like the tipoff for a week of big announcements and changes. But his departure is also somewhat problematic because many of his missteps also involved or were supported by Travis Kalanick. In other words, if his past actions merited being pushed out of the door (and they certainly did) then Kalanick staying feels like a sign of a double standard. Either those actions warranted those responsible being fired, or they didn’t. However, symbolically, Michael’s departure signals the end of an era in which Kalanick’s top people pretty much got to stay no matter what they’d done, something we’ve seen signs of changing in recent weeks with several other departures, not least that of Anthony Levandowski. Also worth noting is that Uber has hired a new female board member who currently serves as EVP in South Asia at Nestle. Her appointment as an independent director appears to be in line with recommendations from the Holder Report, though it clearly can’t have been brought about that quickly and must have been in the works previously.
via Recode
Uber Board Votes Unanimously to Adopt All Holder Report Recommendations (Jun 12, 2017)
This content requires a subscription to Tech Narratives. Subscribe now by clicking on this link, or read more about subscriptions here.
Uber Looks Set to Acquire Assets, Hire Staff from Valet Parking Startup Luxe (Jun 8, 2017)
While ride sharing companies like Uber and Lyft continue to grab the majority of attention in the transportation tech space, with autonomous driving technology companies getting most of the rest, it’s worth remembering that there are various other transportation tech startups out there, not all of them doing all that well. It appears that Uber is in the process of trying to acquire assets and hire staff from valet parking service Luxe, which is one of those services that appears to have struggled to make its business model work. It had recently announced a pivot of sorts to a new model, but it now seems as though all that will remain is a shell once Uber has snapped up the parts it wants. That may or may not mean that Uber expands into the valet parking space – in fact, I’d say it’s at least as likely that Uber simply sees this as a way to get a number of competent staff with relevant skills quickly and easily while also acquiring some relevant technology.
via WSJ
Uber Fires Exec, Loses Bid to Keep Doc Private, Says Management Changes Coming (Jun 7, 2017)
Rather than treat each of yet another set of Uber news as a separate item, I’m bundling three together into a single grab-bag item here. The most notable (and damaging) is the revelation that one of Uber’s senior execs in Asia led an effort to obtain the medical records of an Uber passenger who was raped by her driver and shared the records with CEO Travis Kalanick and others. He wasn’t fired as part of the 20 terminations that resulted from the first investigation which concluded this week, but has apparently been subsequently, allegedly as a result of the digging by Recode reporters. That’s somewhat absurd given how far-reaching and aggressive the investigation was said to have been, but may reflect a slightly higher bar for executive behavior being set as a result of recent arrivals in the management ranks. Secondly, board member Arianna Huffington, who has been acting more as apologist than change agent in this whole saga, both defended Uber’s culture and said management changes were coming in an appearance on CNBC. The latter is new, though not entirely unexpected, while the former is more evidence of a somewhat mystifying attempt to downplay what are obviously damaging signs of a sick corporate culture at Uber. Lastly, Uber lost the latest round in its court case with Waymo, and will now have to turn over documents relating to Uber’s acquisition of Otto, which could provide some more evidence Waymo needs to make its overall case stick. Overall, plenty more evidence here of both the nasty culture and the difficulty of turning it around, and also that Waymo is going to get at least some of what it’s looking for out of the court case.
via Recode (Asia exec fired), CNBC (management changes coming), Bloomberg (acquisition doc to be provided to Waymo)
★ Uber Fires 20 and Takes Action Against Others Over Inappropriate Behavior (Jun 6, 2017)
The first of two concurrent investigations at Uber has resulted in the termination of over 20 employees over harassment and other inappropriate behavior, while 57 incidents are still under investigation, and some 100 of 215 HR claims have been dismissed without action. That such extensive action should be taken only as a result of an independent investigation by a law firm even though Uber’s own HR department took no such action on these issues is pretty shocking. But in some ways even more shocking is the fact that Uber’s head of HR played down harassment and other similar issues in comments as recently as last week, when she and other executives at Uber must have known this was coming soon. Her comments last week no longer seem merely disingenuous or tone deaf but downright misleading, which raises real questions about why she would make such claims just as they were about to be proven false. The only theory I can come up with to explain it is that Uber’s management disagreed with the action taken this week, and that was their way of saying so, but even that seems pretty far-fetched. Regardless, the other shoe is still to drop in the form of the more wide ranging second investigation and the recommended actions, which are likely to go well beyond action on individual cases.
via Bloomberg
Bozoma Saint John Leaves Apple Music to Become Uber’s Chief Brand Officer (Jun 6, 2017)
This content requires a subscription to Tech Narratives. Subscribe now by clicking on this link, or read more about subscriptions here.
Uber Hires Harvard Business School Professor to Help with Culture and Strategy (Jun 5, 2017)
This content requires a subscription to Tech Narratives. Subscribe now by clicking on this link, or read more about subscriptions here.
★ Uber Loses Slightly Less Money on an Adjusted Basis in Q1 2017 (Jun 1, 2017)
This content requires a subscription to Tech Narratives. Subscribe now by clicking on this link, or read more about subscriptions here.
Uber Pool Burned Through Cash for Months in San Francisco (May 31, 2017)
This content requires a subscription to Tech Narratives. Subscribe now by clicking on this link, or read more about subscriptions here.
★ Uber Fires Anthony Levandowski for Refusal to Cooperate in Lawsuit (May 30, 2017)
This content requires a subscription to Tech Narratives. Subscribe now by clicking on this link, or read more about subscriptions here.
Uber Under Investigation for Testing Otto Trucks in California (May 26, 2017)
This content requires a subscription to Tech Narratives. Subscribe now by clicking on this link, or read more about subscriptions here.
Uber’s HR Head Disingenuously Downplays Harassment and Discrimination Issues (May 25, 2017)
In what’s really not a great sign ahead of the release of Uber’s “independent” investigation into its workplace culture, it’s HR head has said she has found that discrimination and harassment really weren’t major issues internally relative to other employee concerns. That doesn’t really answer several other questions including whether they are issues at all, and whether perhaps employees don’t feel comfortable sharing their real feelings with internal management for all the reasons others have said. It’s still possible that the investigation will reach different conclusions, but this quote feels tone deaf and designed – as with past comments from board member Arianna Huffington – to get the retaliation in first. That doesn’t seem likely to be successful: the reaction I’ve seen on Twitter today to the quotes in the piece has been very negative.
via USA Today
Texas Lawmakers Overrule Austin Ride Sharing Rules, Uber & Lyft to Return (May 25, 2017)
This content requires a subscription to Tech Narratives. Subscribe now by clicking on this link, or read more about subscriptions here.
Uber Has Been Underpaying NYC Drivers, Will Pay Out an Average of $900 to Each (May 23, 2017)
This content requires a subscription to Tech Narratives. Subscribe now by clicking on this link, or read more about subscriptions here.