Always be hustlin’ is number seven out of fourteen core cultural values of Uber, the company that has globally transformed the way city residents commute. Well at least those were the 14 core cultural values when founder Travis Kalanick led the organization from 2010 until his game-faced resignation as CEO in 2017 following an embarrassing video recording of an altercation between Kalanick and an Uber driver together with reports of wide spread sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination within the firm. The reports were verified by an independent investigation undertaken by two law firms after interviewing over 400 staff and reviewing more than 3 million internal documents. Kalanick was recorded on video having an argument with one of his drivers about some of the company’s rate reductions. “People are not trusting you anymore,” to which Kalanick replied, “Some people don’t like to take responsibility for their own s***. They blame everything in their life on somebody else.” A conversation that was clearly straight out of the Uber core values play book, of which value number three states “Meritocracy and Toe-Stepping” read together with value number four which states “Principled Confrontation”.
Kalanick’s Oscar award winning apology quickly followed the video’s viral publication. “I must fundamentally change as a leader and grow up. This is the first time I’ve been willing to admit that I need leadership help and I intend to get it.”
Uber’s eight-year exponential growth into a global commuter solution provider, valued at $68 billion as at October 2017, is nothing to sniff at. Even though it came at the great cost of employee well-being and board room governance issues, its impact on the entrepreneurial capacity of ordinary citizens in multiple countries is praise worthy. I recently met Martin (not his real name) in Johannesburg, where he works as a senior manager at one of South Africa’s largest financial institutions. Martin’s 5-year-old son goes to a school about 7 kilometres from where they live and it was costing him 3,000 South African rand a month (Kes 25,800) to pay for school transportation. In an “always be hustlin” spark, Martin purchased a vehicle and recruited a driver. “It was a no-brainer,” Martin tells me. “The driver drops off my son and picks him up from school every day. In between, he makes up to 7,000 rand per week (Kes 60,200). After netting off fuel, the driver gives Martin about 2,000 rand (Kes 17,200) weekly which Martin entirely uses to pay for the car’s financing and insurance and the driver keeps the rest as his earnings which amount can range from 2,000-4,000 rand (Kes 17,200 – Kes 35,400) per week. “I will be breaking even for 18 months, after which the car will be fully paid off and then I can see profit,” he surmises. “But most importantly, I’ve found a cheaper solution to transport my son to school that gives someone employment and also puts money in my pocket.”I’m sure this story is replicated here in Kenya too.
One of the recommendations that came out of the Uber investigations were to reformulatethe company’s values (14 values are unusually many and quite difficult to inculcate as an organizational culture) especially seeing as some were seemingly promoting self-seeking (such as toe-stepping) at the expense of building a team spirit. More importantly, following protracted board room struggles to reduce Kalanick’s power on the board that culminated in a law suit, a refreshed governance structure was formulated following a billion-dollar investment by Softbank.The Uber board has now been expanded from eleven to seventeen members, four of whom are independent directors.
While a seventeen-member board is unwieldy at best, and a strain for any normal person to chair, it is the unintended outcome of a founder CEO’s unfettered grip to power over a fast growing global organization that has had an inarguable impact on urban commutes, entrepreneurship and employment. The jury remains out as to whether this new governance structure at the top, together with a new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi will be sufficient to change an unhealthy organizational culture while maintaining the strong growth momentum it has enjoyed. “Culture is written bottoms up,” was one of Khosrowshahi’s initial statements upon taking up the CEO job. Only time will tell whether the new CEO can upend the trend that cultural norms start at, and are set by, the apex of an organization.
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Twitter: @carolmusyoka