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The Uber Board Deliberates: Is Good Governance Worth the Firing of an Entrepreneurial Founder? by BRUCE KOGUT *
ID#190414 CU242 PUBLISHED ON MAY 13, 2019 The Uber Board Deliberates: Is Good Governance Worth the Firing of an Entrepreneurial Founder? BY BRUCE KOGUT * Introduction Uber Technologies, the privately held ride-sharing service and logistics platform, suffered a series of PR crises during 2017 that culminated in the resignation of Travis Kalanick, cofounder and longtime CEO. Kalanick was an acclaimed entrepreneur, building Uber from its local San Francisco roots to a worldwide enterprise in eight years, but he was also a habitual rule- breaker. 1 In an effort to put the recent past behind the company, the directors of Uber scheduled a board meeting for October 3, 2017, to vote on critical proposals from new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi that were focused essentially on one question: How should Uber be governed now that Kalanick had stepped down as CEO? Under Kalanick, Uber had grown to an estimated $69 billion in value by 2017, though plagued by scandal. The firm was accused of price gouging, false advertising, illegal operations, IP theft, sexual harassment cover-ups, and more.2 As Uber’s legal and PR turmoil increased, Kalanick was forced to resign as CEO, while retaining his directorship position on the nine- member board. His June 2017 resignation was hoped to calm the uproar, but it instead increased investor uncertainty. Some of the firm’s venture capital shareholders (VCs) marked down their Uber holdings by 15% (Vanguard, Principal Financial), while others raised the valuation by 10% (BlackRock).3 To restore Uber’s reputation and stabilize investor confidence, the board in August 2017 unanimously elected Dara Khosrowshahi as Uber’s next CEO. -
Download and Use Applications from Third-Party Developers
4 Complexity and Obfuscation in Evolving Platform Pricing by Banda Shruti B.Tech. Computer Science and Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Warangal, 2012 Post Graduate Diploma in Management, Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, 2014 Submitted to the System Design and Management Program in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Engineering and Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology February 2018 @ 2017 Banda Shruti. All rights reserved The author hereby grants to MIT permission to reproduce and to distribute publicly paper and electronic copies of this thesis document in whole or in part in any medium now known or hereafter created. Signature of Author_ Signature redacted Banda Shruti System Design and Management Program Graduate Student September 13, 2017 Certified by_ Signature red acted______ Catherine Tucker Sloan Distinguished Professor of Management Thesis Supervisor Signature redacted Accepted by MASAcu S INSTE Joan S Rubin OF TECHN4OLOGY *1 Executive Director, System Design and Management Program JUN 2 0 2018 LIBRARIES 1 ARCHIVES (This page is intentionally left blank) 2 Complexity and Obfuscation in Evolving Platform Pricing by Banda Shruti Submitted to the System Design and Management Program on September 8, 2017 in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science in Engineering and Management Abstract Two-sided platforms include some of the largest and fastest-growing businesses of the past decade. They are composed of three parts: two distinct groups of end-users and a platform. Two-sided platforms face unique challenges such as design, pricing, governance rules etc. The pricing decision specifically has been the subject of rigorous research. -
NFAP Policy Brief: Immigrants and Billion Dollar Startups, March 2016
NATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR AMERICAN POLICY NFAP POLICY BRIEF » M A R C H 2 0 1 6 IMMIGRANTS AND BILLION DOLLAR STARTUPS BY STUART ANDERSON EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Immigrants play a key role in creating new, fast-growing companies, as evidenced by the prevalence of foreign- born founders and key personnel in the nation’s leading privately-held companies. Immigrants have started more than half (44 of 87) of America’s startup companies valued at $1 billion dollars or more and are key members of management or product development teams in over 70 percent (62 of 87) of these companies. The research finds that among the billion dollar startup companies, immigrant founders have created an average of approximately 760 jobs per company in the United States. The collective value of the 44 immigrant-founded companies is $168 billion, which is close to half the value of the stock markets of Russia or Mexico. The research involved conducting interviews and gathering information on the 87 U.S. startup companies valued at over $1 billion (as of January 1, 2016) that have yet to become publicly traded on the U.S. stock market and are tracked by The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones VentureSource. The companies, all privately-held and with the potential to become publicly traded on the stock market, are today each valued at $1 billion or more and have received venture capital (equity) financing. Among the key findings: - The research finds that 51 percent, or 44 out of 87, of the country’s $1 billion startup companies had at least one immigrant founder. -
The Untold Story of How Calgary's Garrett Camp
The untold story of how Calgary’s Garrett Camp changed the Internet, blew up the transportation industry and became the third-richest man in Canada—all while remaining virtually anonymous BY STEPHEN M. BALDWIN ILLUSTRATION BY M.ORE 36 MAY 2016 / REPORT ON BUSINESS really just more of an adviser to Uber, he engineering. His thesis was on information retrieval through collaborative interface design insists. “I can talk about it generally,” he and evolutionary algorithms. In other words, combining technology with a tight-knit com- says, “but when you’re on the board of a munity to improve search results. When he and his friend Geoff Smith, along with two company, you don’t have the daily exposure of Smith’s co-workers, began batting around ideas for their own company, the notion of to these sorts of issues. I just don’t think building a community-driven tool to help users find interesting web pages emerged as the it’s your place to comment on something obvious choice. StumbleUpon—the name was Camp’s idea—launched in November, 2001. UBER BRO Uber owes its brash unless you’re well-informed.” Camp summed it up this way: “Google is cool if you know what you want. But what if you and combative Truth be told, Camp has already moved don’t know what you want?” Users would select general categories they were interested style to its CEO. past Uber—let Kalanick deal with the in, then “stumble” through related pages with the click of a button. They could also give THERE’S NOTHING Here are a few classic PARTICULARLY cease-and-desist orders from municipali- pages thumbs-up or thumbs-down reviews, which taught StumbleUpon which content Travis Kalanick ties worldwide, the scores of lawsuits and users wanted. -
The Rise of Ridesharing Platforms
The Rise of Ridesharing Platforms An Uber-assessment of bits and atoms Magnus Ofstad Master Thesis Design, Use, Interaction 60 credits Department of Informatics UNIVERSITY OF OSLO 05/2017 II III The Rise of Ridesharing platforms: an Uber-assessment of bits and atoms IV © Magnus Ofstad 2017 The Rise of Ridesharing Platforms: an Uber-assessment of bits and atoms Magnus Ofstad http://www.duo.uio.no/ Trykk: Reprosentralen, Universitetet i Oslo V Abstract This thesis is a case study of Uber. The research questions are 1. How do ridesharing platforms evolve from startups into large-scale market disrupters? 2. How can ridesharing platforms augment its user base and capture more segments within the transportation business? Uber’s scaling is traditional. The initial growth consisted of capturing the high end of the market. Later on, Uber moved down market, making ridesharing affordable for the masses. The master stroke was to devise a scalable business model that was replicable in different markets. More unique is Uber’s managerial approaches. Uber has devised novel strategies to overcome challenges thrown up in front of her. In short, Uber has leveraged its vast user network and partnered-up with outside forces to solve intractable tasks. These task networks have corroborated to turn the tide against the push back from taxi operators and unfriendly regulatory authorities. They have also aided Uber in the competition against other ride sharers. Uber’s decentralized structure consists of multiple innovative task networks. Local teams take initiatives which continuously spawn out new services and products. Simultaneously, Uber’s autonomous car project is a vast innovation network. -
Uber's Bumpy CEO Search 2 August 2017, by Tracey Lien, Los Angeles Times
Uber's bumpy CEO search 2 August 2017, by Tracey Lien, Los Angeles Times fill the void that Kalanick supporters believe he left - that of a tenacious visionary who can help Uber grow into a company that competes with the likes of Apple, Google and Amazon. "And that's a very different kind of person," Tusk said. The candidates whose names have been floated - such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman and departing GE chief Jeff Immelt - fall into the first category of manager, thanks to their experience running large legacy businesses. People with knowledge of the matter said that Whitman, who has startup experience from her time at eBay, was viewed as a promising candidate, but she announced on Twitter last week that she was not considering the role. Recode reported that she Getting rid of Travis Kalanick may have been hard had not yet met in person with every board member for Uber's investors and board of directors. But at the time of her announcement. replacing him could prove harder. Immelt is still believed to be in the running. As the company's board inches ahead in its search for a new chief executive to run the embattled ride- Uber declined to comment on the process of hiring hailing company, candidates are dropping out a new CEO. before they've even met with every board member. Kalanick himself is rumored to be angling for a The difficulty of the board's search has been return, and some investors question whether any compounded by internal disagreements. candidate could fill its departed leader's shoes. -
Becoming One of the Most Valuable New Venture in the World
Becoming one of the most valuable new venture in the world A study on how such ventures arise Final thesis, June 22nd, 2016 Name: Lisa Boschma Student number: 11092963 Qualification: MSc in Business Administration – Entrepreneurship & Innovation Institution: University of Amsterdam Supervisor: dr. Ileana Maris – de Bresser Second reader: dr. Wietze van der Aa Statement of originality This document is written by Student Lisa Boschma who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document. I declare that the text and the work presented in this document is original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it. The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents. Table of contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................................. 5 1. Introduction ....................................................................................................................................... 6 2. Literature review .............................................................................................................................. 9 2.1 Nature of opportunities ................................................................................................................. 9 2.2 Entrepreneurial approaches ........................................................................................................ -
To Mainstream in San Francisco
How Ridesourcing went from ‘Rogue’ to Mainstream in San Francisco Written by Onesimo Flores Dewey and Lisa Rayle Transforming Urban Transport – The Role of Political Leadership Sponsored by Volvo Research and Educational Foundations (VREF) Hosted at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design Table of Contents Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 San Francisco, a City Where “You Couldn’t Get a Cab” .................................................... 5 THE RESILIENT TAXI MEDALLION SYSTEM ..................................................................... 6 The Limo and Black Car Industry ................................................................................ 8 Ridesourcing, Technically Possible and Financially Viable .............................................. 9 Sidecar ........................................................................................................................ 10 Lyft ............................................................................................................................... 11 UberCab ...................................................................................................................... 12 From UberCab to Uber ............................................................................................. 13 Uber-Competitive ...................................................................................................... 14 Ridesourcing as a Rogue Operation