[Im Cheol-yeong's Cheonggyeongudok] The Tragedy of Uber Caused by Blind Growth

"Will Win No Matter What" Founder Kalanick
Achieved Rapid Growth Through Aggressive Business, But Collapsed Amid Successive Scandals

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] A startup company valued at 130 trillion won, expanding to 70 countries worldwide with 100 million customers. A representative company symbolizing the sharing economy and the 'Gig Economy.'

Since its founding in 2008, this has been Uber's title. Uber's status is unrivaled to the extent that it is hard to talk about without mentioning its dazzling growth story.

Uber ran with the goal of 'moving everything in the world.' Founder Travis Kalanick raised revenue from $1 billion in 2013 to $10 billion in just two years by 2015. He presented 14 core principles with what is called a 'super pumped' talent profile and a passion to 'win at all costs.' 'Super pumped' is a term coined by Kalanick meaning 'a state filled with the highest passion and energy.'

Kalanick benchmarked the leadership principles of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. The core principles are ▲ constantly pushing forward ▲ acting as an owner ▲ investing boldly ▲ expanding to new cities ▲ obsessing over customers ▲ thinking backwards ▲ enabling doers to work ▲ showing magic ▲ merit-based system ▲ optimistic leadership ▲ principled dissent ▲ super pumped ▲ champion mindset ▲ being yourself ? all aggressive and competitive from start to finish. At the time, U.S. media described Uber as a 'rapidly growing,' 'combative,' and 'powerful and massive' company.

Uber created a corporate culture faithful to the founder's core principles. Engineers from companies like Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Tesla, and Google flocked to Uber. At least until 2016, Uber was a new land of opportunity among 'tech bros' dreaming of becoming billionaires. Kalanick declared infinite growth as 'X to the power of X' fueled by the passion of tech bros.

In June 2017, 40-year-old Kalanick, who seemed destined to continue an endless success story amid the sharing economy and gig economy wave, suddenly stepped down as CEO. This dramatic event stemmed from scandals and controversies surrounding the once confident leader.

The core values of Kalanick, once considered a blank check for tremendous growth, paradoxically turned Uber into an unrestrained, unethical, and unscrupulous company within two years. The success story of one founder turned into a tragedy caused by blind growth and unsympathetic internal competition.

"Super Pumped," written by Mike Isaac, an IT reporter for the U.S. daily The New York Times, focuses not on Uber's success story that the world paid attention to but on the crisis caused by founder Kalanick's various scandals and controversies. The author included Uber and Kalanick's worst 12 months based on confidential documents obtained over several years and interviews with 200 current and former employees and executives.

Uber's crisis and Kalanick's precarious moves continue from Chapter 20, "The Revealed True Face." Despite fierce competition with Chinese company Didi, Kalanick failed to enter the Chinese market. Determined to make a comeback, he stepped away from the Democratic camp and joined the policy advisory board formed by then-President-elect Donald Trump. Strong concerns arose within the company, but they were ignored.

Shortly after, an incident occurred where hundreds of thousands of subscribers were lost at once. In January 2017, allegations spread that Uber intentionally interfered with a taxi union strike protesting Trump's xenophobia and nationalism. The incident sparked the '#deleteUber' hashtag campaign, which involved one million users. The damage to Kalanick and Uber was significant.

Scandals surrounding Uber continued. In February of the same year, Susan Fowler, an employee who had joined Uber with high hopes, exposed her supervisor's sexual harassment and Uber's male-dominated elite cartel. Then, an Uber engineer became embroiled in a lawsuit over allegations of leaking Google's self-driving car core technology.

In March, the existence of an illegal program called 'Greyball,' designed to evade government surveillance, was revealed. Moreover, Kalanick's visit to a karaoke bar with female hostesses in Korea was widely reported, further damaging Uber's image. The author viewed this series of scandals as a result of a corporate culture that would stop at nothing for growth.

Until Kalanick stepped down voluntarily, internal control systems did not function properly. The sole focus on growth minimized the authority and capabilities of the compliance monitoring department and HR team. Issues such as sexual assault in India, drug trafficking in Mexico, drug use and sexual harassment by Southeast Asian managers, and personal data leaks in China were often swept under the rug.

The author evaluated Uber's 10 years under Kalanick as follows: "Kalanick's strong personality, wanting to fight and win at all costs, firmly established Uber's corporate culture. Uber lost hundreds of billions of dollars in market value due to Kalanick's reckless actions and faced six federal investigations due to long-standing cunning business strategies. Investors and employees had to worry about the company's future. Kalanick's leadership became a poison to the organization."

New CEO Dara Khosrowshahi took the helm of Uber. Meanwhile, Uber went public, but its value (at $37 per share) significantly dropped. The new CEO is striving to erase the founder's mistakes. However, whether trust can be restored remains uncertain.

Uber's 10 years serve as a warning about the distorted leadership of Silicon Valley founders, known as startup sanctuaries, and corporate cultures lacking understanding and empathy for the community.