Tencent Finance author Wang Danwei from New York
Uber, from the very beginning, was a "savagely growing" company. The company's main business taxi service, in North America and the world "striking the city", really let ordinary people accept the sharing economy model. At the same time, the company developed food delivery services, research and development of unmanned vehicles, etc., to expand the new frontier.
Founder Travis Kalanick (hereinafter referred to as TK) is a spiritual leader at Uber, and is often challenged to challenge the image of the traditional industry.
However, Uber, which has been leading the Pre-IPO (pre-market unicorn) camp, has been in trouble since 2017. Because it seems to support Trump's "Muslim ban," tens of thousands of American users unloaded it under the #DeleteUber (Uber) Uber movement.
A female programmer at Uber's San Francisco headquarters publicized the culture of in-person sexual harassment within the company, and pushed the company to the forefront. Since then, the company’s administrative scandals, internal gangs and other news have come one after another. Since February, the negatives of this company have been seen on the headlines of mainstream media almost every week.
In the past six months, Uber executives have left the company and have been opened two times. Uber is already a company with many important positions such as COO and CFO. On Monday, after TK’s cronies, Uber’s second-hand Chief Business Officer, Emil Michael, left the company, TK, the founder and CEO, confirmed on Tuesday that he would leave the company for a while. Some netizens on Twitter joked that Uber has no executives and is a true “unmanned†company.
Last month, TK's mother was accidentally killed in a cruise accident and her father was seriously injured. Although TK’s letter from the staff issued on Tuesday afternoon was the main reason for the family’s change as a farewell company, everyone knows that this is closely related to Uber’s dilemma. In the letter of the staff, TK made an oath and will return to the company with a new attitude of 2.0.
Tencent Finance visited the Uber office and talked to employees at Uber's San Francisco headquarters and New York office. Some of them talked about the company's actions and shunned it. Some people didn't care about frequent changes in senior management. Some people Uber is worried about where he lost his spiritual leader. Some people have raised questions. "Why are a group of cattle people bringing Uber into this situation?"
Like other explosive growth companies, Uber faces the problem of not keeping pace with growth. For example, the image of TK's fighters has contributed to the early development of the company. However, for a company with a valuation of over 60 billion US dollars, TK's tactics have become the company's constraints, and the major mainstream media even posted it. The blunt and rude label.
The departure of TK today is undoubtedly an important turning point for Uber. Just as its investor Freada Klein Kapor said, Uber brought himself into the abyss. Now the company must say that we really realize the problem, and we really want to Out of the abyss, "This process will not be short or simple, but saving Uber is feasible."
Uber daily operations as usual
The day before TK left the company, Tencent Finance saw everything as usual when visiting an office in Uber North America. The company has experienced too many ups and downs in the past six months, but for the employees who develop their business in the first line, the turmoil at the top of the company has not changed their daily work.
Uber used to be the darling of capital, the place where the top programmers yearn for. TK said in an early interview that he only introduced the company in a financing event, and the investor handed in the check.
An investor holding Uber stock told Tencent Finance that this year's stock was bearish due to negative news. In the private stock exchange, Uber's price fell by about 15%.
Undoubtedly, Uber's appeal is not as good as before. A number of programmers who joined the company two or three years ago told Tencent Finance that it was a pay cut and a job change to Uber. Now, Uber has encountered a "talent shortage." A Uber middle-level leader told Tencent Finance that since the end of last year, he wanted to expand his group, and half a year later, it was far from the original goal.
“I didn’t lower the standard because of the difficulty of recruiting. Uber’s in-service staff is quite high.†The middle-level leader told Tencent Finance, “Although the negative news in the past six months will lead some people to leave, overall, Uber’s turnover rate In the normal range, even lower than other technology companies."
Tencent Finance was informed that Uber told employees on Tuesday that it will increase benefits, such as employees can work more at home, "is also a stable military."
At the daily operational level, multiple business units were previously authorized by TK to operate independently and therefore did not suffer much.
The company has developed too fast pain
TK is the soul of Uber. A Uber employee told Tencent Finance that although TK does not intervene in specific business, in the company, the status of TK is irreplaceable.
But although TK is a continuous entrepreneur, the company that has successfully exited the home has only eight employees. Since 2009, TK and two friends founded Uber. In just eight years, Uber has grown into a giant with 14,000 employees.
At the beginning of the venture, Uber is very cohesive. The image of TK in the minds of employees is derogatory and has a strong leadership. Uber No. 2 employee Ryan McKillen recalled that in 2012, she worked for 48 hours in a row, very exhausted, out of the San Francisco office, and directly hit Uber to relax in Las Vegas 7 hours away. The Uber fare of up to $4,000 was naturally recorded in the company's account.
TK gave a lot of tolerance to similar events, and in the team, they were also outspoken about each other's problems. Just after having tens of thousands of employees, Uber headquarters will meet weekly meetings as usual, and each office will be remotely connected at the same time, and will have 30 minutes to ask all employees.
A Uber employee told Tencent Finance that there was a disagreement with the leadership. He directly asked TK why he did not give up the position of the CEO. Some people also reported in the media that TK had brought a group of executives to visit bars and find wine in Korea. The real name asks the ins and outs of this matter.
Unlike other companies, Uber's corporate structure is very fragmented. Its headquarters in San Francisco has only 2,000 employees. The rest are scattered in other cities, with more offices and more employees. At one time, the company faced thousands of people, the Ministry of Personnel. Only 2 HRs are managed up and down.
In the company's expansion, 40% of Uber's leadership positions are the first time they are managers. These world-class programmers need to adjust themselves when they first assume management positions.
“Leading the team is different from completing the programming tasks. It also needs to check the working status of the team members and coordinate the internal contradictions. These are the programmers who have never touched before.†A Uber employee in a leadership position told Tencent Finance, “This pair TK is also a huge challenge."
There are many friends of TK in Uber's senior management. "Some of them are not good at Uber's reputation. Their ability is not to be said first. Some executives are ganging at the company, which makes others very disgusted." Uber employees told Tencent Finance.
And those executives who have no personal relationship with TK are also effective. "No Silicon Valley company has so many Vietnamese people like Uber because we have a Vietnamese CTO," an employee told Tencent Finance. Although this kind of comment is inevitably biased, similar ideas exist in Uber.
Uber's future
On Monday, Uber senior consultant, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's campaign team manager Bradley Tusk, who was re-elected in 2009, wrote that the reset button was finally turned on.
Most investors have told Tencent Finance that Uber has encountered problems that many companies in Silicon Valley have experienced too fast, but the way Uber has broken out is extremely extreme. "But this is better than having problems after listing." An investor said, "The current situation may prompt Uber to speed up the listing, because investors will not stand idly by."
Uber is out of the quagmire and finds a good price in the capital market that needs a lot of change. First of all, this company must grasp its core competitiveness. After all, it has subverted the way people travel, which has brought great shock to the traditional industry.
Since entering New York City in 2011, Uber and taxis have been fiercely competing. At that time, the Taxi and Limousine Commission ("TLC") was also full of confidence in the New York taxi license market. Uber's growth rate is staggering, and the license price of New York taxis has jumped from $1 million in the summer of 2014 to $690,000 in the summer of 2015. Allan Fromberg, TLC's director, told Tencent Finance that many things that I had never thought of before were happening one after another. Uber not only transformed the taxi industry, but also changed our regulatory agencies.
In fact, after Uber's volume has grown, the company has begun to pay attention to its words and deeds. It is not willing to admit that it is a disruptor in the taxi industry. Allan Fromberg told Tencent Finance that the data from TLC and Uber jointly showed that after Uber entered the New York taxi market, the overall occupancy rate in New York City increased, which means that the original taxi market in New York is not saturated yet. Uber is not robbing full time. The taxi driver’s business is to make the cake bigger with the car.
Second, outside of the business, Uber needs to adjust the architecture and corporate culture in a mindset of a large company. Wang Jinlong, founder of Hai Investment, told Tencent Finance that Uber's main business is still in the leading position in the industry. In the future development, it is necessary to pay more attention to the construction of corporate culture, compliance issues and business associations such as insurance companies. relationship.
Third, it is important to deal with the departure and return of TK. Tencent Finance was informed that TK's departure was the decision of Uber's board of directors on Sunday. In some people's eyes, it is not wise to let him leave the company.
Uber is in urgent need of finding a COO with management experience and connections. According to sources, there are no shortage of candidates for COO candidates, but the COO needs to have a good working relationship with TK, just like Facebook founder Zuckerberg. Like COO Sheryl Sandberg, “It seems that it’s not the best option to let TK leave the company for a while and deal with the company’s problems.â€
(Editor: 娄在霞)
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