The Human Side of Digital Business Transformation

Chapter 3A Tale of Two Start-up Cultures

In February 2017, Susan Fowler, an ex-employee at Uber, wrote a blog post about the negative culture at the company that eventually had worn her down, forcing her to leave. Uber had already been struggling with reputational issues relating to female passenger safety; several lawsuits had been filed against the company, and there had been several rounds of bad press. However, the blog post triggered a media firestorm that eventually resulted in the company's CEO and founder being forced to resign.

Uber Technologies, Inc., more commonly known as Uber, is a “mobility as a service” provider with operations in over 900 metropolitan areas worldwide. The company was founded in 2009 and quickly grew to become one of the world's most valuable start-ups. However, in addition to facing fierce resistance from the taxi industry and government regulators during its expansion, Uber's corporate culture was reported to be highly hostile, sexist, and quite offensive to many people.

The company's values, as well as the actions and decisions that reinforce them on a daily basis, become a critical element of the culture. In the case of Uber, the founders had infamously defined a list of 14 values emphasizing meritocracy and fierce competition to deliver growth and revenue targets as a priority, including making bold bets, winning champion's mindset, and “always be hustlin’.” Although these values contributed to the company's meteoric success, they also resulted ...