Uber: Culture and Values

How have you seen the regulatory approach to ride-hailing change throughout the last five years?

We started off saying what we’re doing is good for the customer, it’s also good for creating jobs, so we have the moral right to do whatever we please, and that didn’t go down too well in some countries. Some took it well, others didn’t. Now, it’s a much more inclusive approach, working with the cities to see how we can help them solve their public transportation needs.

So, there was an arrogance about Uber in the beginning, where they were improving the customer’s welfare but didn’t really consider the wider picture around drivers?

I think it also considered drivers because you create a ton more jobs than a taxi cartel, but it was just feeling like you have the moral high ground, what you’re doing will be good for the city. But that led to ignorance around what people working in the city would feel about such an approach.

The press has documented Uber’s culture for various reasons. How do you feel the company deal with that arrogance in different regions? Did it flow through from San Francisco in terms of taking the moral high ground, we’re doing good for the city, we’re creating jobs, great for the consumer, and just fuelling that arrogance?

Certainly, our enemies in Essocar Taxi, we’re still hearing that in court hearings in Germany this year. That certainly set the picture and the frame for it. But I think it’s a very narrow aspect of the culture of Uber. It was this arrogance that what we are doing is right. I don’t think it’s just arrogance, you need a certain conviction. But if Travis had never had that arrogance, we never would’ve existed.

It’s a tricky balance between that conviction and confidence in your execution and idea and it being ethically or morally correct.

What we were doing in terms of competing with taxis and entering cities, I think that was morally okay, but it lacked a balance. When you’ve got to get to this growth at all costs, it gets a bit tricky, but it served the company extremely well to a certain point. Then, as you get massive scale, you need to be less of a cowboy. It’s just a different leadership mindset.