Uber CEO Travis Kalanick's Leadership

This assignment analyzes the leadership style of Travis Kalanick, former CEO of Uber. It examines his approach through various lenses, referencing academic theories of leadership, contrasting his methods with established practices, and analyzing both successes and failures based on news reports and expert commentary. The goal is to provide a comprehensive understanding of Kalanick's leadership impact on Uber's trajectory.

What Makes a Good
Project Leader?

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................1
BIOGRAPHY- Travis Kalanick.................................................................................................1
LEADERSHIP STYLE DEPLOYED BY HIM.........................................................................1
EFFECTIVENESS OF THE BEHAVIOUR DISPLAYED.......................................................2
IMPACT OF LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOUR ON COMPANY..................................................2
COMPARISON OF CONCEPTS AND LITERATURE............................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERNCES...................................................................................................................................5

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Every project needs a leader who can guide people involved in it on a right path and
achieve the stated goals. Currently, there is a trend that is going in the market as new start-up's
are forming and growing at a very fast speed. Every project undertaken by these start-up's
requires a approach that would allow them in achieving goals for which they exist. They require
leaders who can take on different task without any issue and reflect great achievement by
motivating people and guiding them towards a common goal. This report is based on Travis
Kalanick who is a ex CEO of UBER. He is one person who had a very exciting career as an
entrepreneur. He had failure and success which came after a hard fight in market. This report will
allow researcher in exploring facts about a leader and required leadership that can turn a business
around.
BIOGRAPHY- Travis Kalanick
Travis Kalanick is a co-founder of highly successful and controversial company UBER.
He was born in Los Angeles, USA, while he spent his young age in Northridge, California where
he completed his graduation from Granada Hills High School. Later on he joined University of
California to further grow his knowledge in the field of computer science. He started his first
start-up known as Scour which was a file sharing platform in competition to Napster (Northouse,
2015). This company failed when giants of industry filed a lawsuit against both companies. After
this he started Red Swoosh which was also a peer to peer file sharing company. This was sold to
Akamai Technologies for $19 million dollars. Later on he joined Garret camp and co-founded
UBER.
LEADERSHIP STYLE DEPLOYED BY HIM
Travis Kalanick is known for running company with the aid of his core team which was
known as the A-Team of UBER. He displayed the qualities authoritarian leader who liked to run
a one man show. But the company can not be operated with this style for long and without
hindrance. This type of leadership causes a sudden emptiness as investors and employees have
no one to whom they can consult about various decisions (Schein, 2010). This is what happened
when Travis went on leave due to family tragedy.
In case of authoritarian approach this is the most expected outcome which was deployed
by Travis. He kept many key positions unfilled, like the post of chief operating officer, chief
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financial officer, chief marketing officer and general counsel. It is really surprising as company
has a revenue of $7 billion dollar and is valued at $70 billion dollar at the moment (Steve Tobak,
2017). The main thing that causes issue is the very aspect that only few executives have a
experience little to Mr Kalanick.
All criticism aside, Travis is known for bringing the best of company which no one took
serious at the time of launch (Wheatley, 2011). He is also known for his determination which
kept him in market and made him to introduce changes that changed the course of future.
EFFECTIVENESS OF THE BEHAVIOUR DISPLAYED
There are different type of behavioural changes that were seen in Travis after each
venture he was into. At the very beginning when he launched Scour, he was seen as a highly
determined and authoritarian leader who was not ready to listen to other opinion. But with time
and learning, there are certain changes that took place within him but his core style remained to
be a One Man Show (Minda Zetlin, 2017). Today, he is considered to be a highly successful
entrepreneur because of his approach towards various functions.
He might have been in news for wrong reasons lately but he displayed all the right
characteristics that are required in a leader. It is due to Kalanic style and capabilities that UBER
was able to grow this much in such as short period of time. The very first way which made his
style effective for a start-up like UBER is that Authoritarian style allows a leader in getting
things done effectively and ensuring that they are not hampered.
Basically, kalanick knew the way he had to realise the idea into reality by guiding people
on right path. Today, UBER is present in more than 500 cities and 68 countries which makes it
one of the fastest growing global company after Facebook. It is due to his approach of never
giving up and fighting to survive that organisation grew at a rapid pace (Chen, 2011). Moreover,
there are many changes which were introduced by him to over come issues where managers used
their power to harass sub-ordinate. He is also known for his approach of extreme prejudice.
Which made him a free speaker and allowed him to explore variety of options present in market.
IMPACT OF LEADERSHIP BEHAVIOUR ON COMPANY
There is a certain level of effect on the company and its culture due to the leadership
adopted by its founder or present CEO. Travis Kalanick style of putting up a one man show
states about both the contribution and issues that are faced by company. To be precise, this type
of leadership is good in the beginning of start-up but with time and increase in competition the
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leader has to change his own approach. This facilitates him in adapting and being flexible with
time (Nahavandi, 2016). Basically, the company is impacted by the leadership style that is
implemented by the CEO or leader himself. In case of Travis Kalanick the style he adopted
impacted organisation in many ways: Operations: There are various functions and operations that were carried out by different
people working in the company (Tom Tees, 2017). Mr Kalanick kept many crucial post
such as CFO, COM, MD, etc vacant as he was the one who was responsible for every
single task that has to be done. Planning: There are different plans that were prepared by the core team of UBER and
they all had to be approved by Kalanick Himself. Basically, he kept all the power with
him which left organisation with no alternatives when he was not there. Decision making: The style adopted by Travis allowed him in ensuring that no major
decision was taken without his permission and all task were done with his prior approval
(Shiv Sujir, 2015). But this also slowed down decision making within company as the
managers had to wait for the approval of boss. Favouritism: This is another issue that came into existence due to Kalanic approach.
Basically, all those who were close to him earned a artificial protection from any issue
(Raelin, 2011). For example, Travis had a A-team which was the core group of company
and close to the CEO. They committed many mistakes but action was taken due to the
favouritism.
 Strategic approach: The strategic approach of company was also impacted as Kalanick
used win at all cost expansion strategy. Basically this approach increased the cost of
expansion, while growth was there but added cost was also there.
COMPARISON OF CONCEPTS AND LITERATURE
There are different types of articles, journals and books examined to analyse the type of
leadership that was shown by Travis at his workplace. Many researchers have researched about
the type of people and their reactions in certain situations (Jackson and Parry, 2011). This is what
differentiates leaders from other. They respond with a solution instead of confusion.
According to Zhang and Bartol, (2010), The leadership style differs as every person is
different in his approach and way of analysing the situation. The perception of individual as well
as ability are very much different. The authoritative people like to get things done according to
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their own wishes. They are the one who like to run a one man show. While democratic leaders
listen to everyone opinion and take decision which provides best output for everyone.
There is not much difference of opinion with other researchers who said something
similar. Basically, Kalanick used authoritative style which promoted speedy executive decision
and made sure that every resource is invested after his prior approval (Maya Kosoff, 2015). But
this style is good in the beginning. For long run, a company as well as leader has to become
transparent and more flexible as to survive the dynamics of market. The issue faced by company
is profitability which will be there only after there are changes in leadership style.
CONCLUSION
There are different aspects which are covered in the above research. Leadership style is a
very vital portion to make any project successful. Basically, today the companies which are
prosperous are led by leaders who had a vision and dream to achieve. They found different ways
to solve the issues which existed within the immediate environment. In this report, the leadership
style used by Travis Kalanick, CEO of UBER was described and how it had impact on the
company abilities. It allowed researcher in understanding the reason behind the rise of the
company which has transformed taxi-cab industry. Though Travis belonged to a middle class
family but due to some exception skills like pursuing dreams made him a successful entrepreneur
who handles project very well. But there are certain issues which were identified and stated
which hampered UBER cruising growth and caused controversies.
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REFERNCES
Books and Journal
Northouse, P. G. (2015). Leadership: Theory and practice. Sage publications.
Schein, E. H. (2010). Organizational culture and leadership (Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons.
Wheatley, M. (2011). Leadership and the new science: Discovering order in a chaotic world.
ReadHowYouWant. com.
Chen, T. (2011). Structuring versus autocraticness: Exploring a comprehensive model of
authoritarian leadership (Doctoral dissertation, City University of Hong Kong).
Nahavandi, A. (2016). The Art and Science of Leadership -Global Edition. Pearson.
Raelin, J. (2011). From leadership-as-practice to leaderful practice. Leadership. 7(2). 195-211.
Jackson, B., & Parry, K. (2011). A very short fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book about
studying leadership. Sage.
Zhang, X., & Bartol, K. M. (2010). Linking empowering leadership and employee creativity:
The influence of psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and creative process
engagement. Academy of management journal. 53(1). 107-128.
ONLINE
Steve Tobak, 2017, UBER CEO Travis Kalanick's Leadership problems. [Online]. Available
through: <http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2017/03/02/uber-ceo-travis-kalanicks-
leadership-problem.html>. [Accessed on 29th September 2017].
Minda Zetlin, 2017, 7 Leadership Lessons You Can Learn From Travis Kalanick's Departure
over Uber's Culture Crisis. [Online]. Available through: <https://www.inc.com/minda-
zetlin/7-leadership-lessons-you-can-learn-from-travis-kalanicks-response-to-ubers-
cultu.html>. [Accessed on 29th September 2017].
Tom Tees, 2017, Profile: The rise and fall of Uber's Travis Kalanick. [Online]. Available
thorugh: <http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/06/21/profile-rise-fall-ubers-
travis-kalanick/>. [Accessed on 29th September 2017].
Maya Kosoff, 2015, A look inside the insanley successful life of Billionaire Uber CEO Travis
Kalanick. [Online]. Available through: <http://www.businessinsider.in/A-look-inside-
the-insanely-successful-life-of-billionaire-Uber-CEO-Travis-Kalanick/articleshow/
47961364.cms>. [Accessed on 29th September 2017].
Shiv Sujir, 2015, 5 Lessons on life and leadership from UBER CEO Travis Kalanick. [Online].
Avaialble through: <http://lmt-lss.com/5-lessons-on-life-and-leadership-from-uber-ceo-
travis-kalanick/>. [Accessed on 29th September 2017].
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