NEW FROM UBER: WE MAKE BIG BOLD BETS

NEW FROM UBER: WE MAKE BIG BOLD BETS

Uber’s new CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, has been on the job for two months, and he is clearly a leader in motion. He’s wasted no time getting to the heart of it all – company culture.

Khosrowshahi recently posted Uber’s new values, or “cultural norms” as he calls them in his post on LinkedIn. He states, “The culture and approach that got Uber where it is today is not what will get us to the next level. As we move from an era of growth at all costs to one of responsible growth, our culture needs to evolve. Rather than ditching everything, I’m focused on preserving what works while quickly changing what doesn’t.”

How does an incoming CEO of a $70 billion organization get his arms around company culture? By taking it to his people. “I feel strongly that culture needs to be written from the bottom up. A culture that’s pushed from the top down doesn’t work, because people don’t believe in it. So instead of penning new values in a closed room, we asked our employees for their ideas. More than 1,200 of them sent in submissions that were voted on more than 22,000 times. We also held more than 20 focus groups with representatives from our Employee Resource Groups and our international offices.”

Uber’s new 7 cultural norms are:

  1. We build globally, we live locally.
  2. We are customer obsessed. We celebrate differences.
  3. We do the right thing.
  4. We act like owners.
  5. We persevere.
  6. We value ideas over hierarchy.
  7. We make big bold bets.

 

I look forward to watching Uber’s transformation under these cultural norms and Khosrowshahi’s leadership.

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DR. MARTA WILSON is the founder of The LEAP Enterprise, best-selling author, creator of the LEAP app, an industrial-organizational psychologist, and the CEO of Transformation Systems, Inc. (TSI). Marta has dedicated her career to leadership consultancy while serving as board member, author, catalyst, coach, mentor, researcher, speaker, trainer, volunteer, and fundraiser. With a passion to share proven strategies that drive client results, Marta has authored several business books including LEAP, Energized Enterprise, Everybody’s Business, Leaders in Motion and the Transformation Desktop Guide. Specializing in leadership effectiveness, Marta holds a Ph.D. and M.S. in industrial and organizational psychology from Virginia Tech and a B.A. in academic psychology from the University of Tennessee.