Why we’re all thinking the same thing about Uber’s new CEO
Uber just announced its new CEO — Dara Khosrowshahi of Expedia, Inc. According to the NYTimes, Uber was in between Whitman of HP and Khosrowshahi. Some might say that Khosrowshahi had won due to Whitman’s reluctance in maintaining Kalanick’s close ties with the company’s board members. While others argue that Khosrowshahi had the best shot in building Uber back up again to go public. But aren’t you thinking what I’m thinking? While Khosrowshahi has the brillance and exceptional experience to win over the board and strategize a plan for an impending IPO, Whitman has the charisma and confidence to fix the company’s rampant gender-discrimination problem. Not only is Khosrowshahi faced with Uber’s declining popularity, but also faces low employee morale, a lawsuit with Waymo, and not to mention the company’s staggering losses.
Ever since ex-Uber engineer Susan Fowler published her powerful blog post that spurred sexual harassment exposés overnight, Uber has been in decline on all fronts. Due to Kalanick’s lack of oversight, the company culture made a turn for the worse — people started to overlook sexual harassment. When Meg Whitman came into consideration for Uber’s next CEO, news quickly spread that she would be the ideal candidate. Whitman’s plan for the re-boot of the company was tri-fold: re-structure the board to hold less power, right the wrongs Kalanick made with his employees, and appoint a stronger management team. A plan like this wouldn’t have improved the company overnight, but sure would pushed the company in the right direction.
So why not Whitman? Appointing Whitman as CEO wouldn’t have automatically fixed all of Uber’s problems, but it would have made a statement inside the company and out. Whitman and Khosrowshahi are both seasoned professionals, willing and able to deal with Uber’s truckload of problems. But, the one thing we’re all thinking is that although Khosrowshahi has the experience to lead Uber, Whitman has the power to change the company narrative and fix the issues of sexual harassment. With Uber’s toxic bro culture discouraging female advancement in the workplace, a female leader would have not only helped reduce the gender gap quicker, but would have also demonstrated a greater commitment to diversity efforts. A female leader would send a message to male and female employees, Uber’s board and VC backers, and the company’s users.
Uber needs a restoration of ethics. Time will only tell how Khosrowshahi plans to bring Uber back to the top and prioritize company ethics. We can only hope that the issues of sexual harassment will be gone from this point on and that more and more companies will look to Uber’s experience as a wake-up call to change their company cultures for the better. Like I said before — Uber needs to re-tell their story, the question is how will Khosrowshahi do it?
