Comprehensive Strategic Audit: Uber's External and Internal Factors

This report presents a strategic audit of Uber, a global transportation and food delivery company. The analysis begins with an introduction to strategic auditing and its importance for business development. The report then delves into an external analysis of Uber using the PESTLE framework, examining political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors influencing the company's operations. Following this, an internal analysis is conducted using a SWOT analysis to identify Uber's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report highlights Uber's competitive advantages, such as its efficient services and dynamic pricing, while also addressing weaknesses like reliance on internet connectivity and the impact of driver behavior. Opportunities include capitalizing on unorganized markets and increasing technological adoption, while threats involve rising competition and operational costs. The report concludes with a summary of findings and implications for Uber's strategic direction. It emphasizes the importance of continuous market research and organizational audits for sustained success.

STRATEGIC AUDIT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK1.............................................................................................................................................1
1)External analysis of UBER company..................................................................................1
2)Internal analysis of UBER company...................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Strategic audit is the method through which company is able to plan out several strategies
and tactics so that a firm will be able to identify weaknesses that is pertained to it. With help of
this an organisation is able to develop and grow in a competitive market. It is very essential for it
to analyse all those aspect which are having great impact on its operations and activities so that
managing plans can be made and through this firm will sustain for long period of time in market
place (Bowlin, 2011).
UBER is private company which is dealing in more than 570 cities all around the world.
There are 12000 employees working for this company. It is developing its market and operating
the UBER car transportation and food delivery mobile apps. Its annual revenue by year 2016 is
US$6.5 billion. In this report, environmental audit of company will be performed so as to
understand the factors that are affecting firm's operations and strategies that can be used by
company to overcome them.
TASK1
1)External analysis of UBER company.
External factors are the environmental aspects which are affective business activities of
any of the organisation. It is very essential for company to carry out a market audit through
which can be able to understand external elements that are hampering functions and operations
of a company. With the help of PESTLE analysis company can be able to know all those aspects
that affecting it its activities. It is as follows-
PESTLE ANALYSIS
Political factors Political factors effects are those aspects which is having a direct
impact upon operations and functions of a company. One of the
major issues that UBER has faced is the controversies. It has come
with many controversies till now. Company also faced scrutiny,
many cases are there against it. There are ban for using UBER car
in many Asian countries. Though many problems are there,
company is still having several advantages regarding political
aspects (Bowlin, Hobson and Piercey, 2015).
1

Economic factors Company is basically based upon the sharing economical aspects.
Physical and intellectual resources have been shared by firm.
Company is hiring drivers so that they can drive and respond to
customer's needs and wants. UBER is providing services in very
inexpensive manner. There are many nations who banned it as
because they are not adapting fair practices against their
competitors. It is very essential for the cited organisation to concern
about the aspects that are related to economic factors so that they
can cope up with challenges of the market.
Social factors Social factors are the aspect that is concern with people of the
society. It is very essential for the firm to understand the needs,
wants and preferences of them so that firm can avail them best
services that can satisfy them (Bruynseels and Willekens, 2012).
UBER is very effectively performing in market, customers are very
much enjoying the services that has been offered by it. Best part of
the firm is the prices that it has set is very much affordable by
customers of any class.
Technological factors Technology is most important element of macro or external factor.
It is changing in a very subsequent manner. Company need to adapt
the latest technologies that will help company in carrying out all its
activities in most effective manner. UBER is very much updated,
with help of online channel it is dealing with its customers. These
factors impact in positive ways as they are using latest technologies
and techniques.
Legal factors Legal factors are those aspects which is related to the law and
legislation of a country. As company, is operating in many
countries, so it is very necessary for it to consider the legal aspects
of all the nations. As it is determined that company is not practising
fair trading practices with its competitors in numerous countries,
also in many places services of the firm has been banned by the
2

government. There are more chances that company has to shut its
operation down, as many are not in favour of the practises
performed by it.
Environmental factors Environmental aspects are the aspects which are related to the
surroundings. It is very essential for company to concern about the
environment where it is practising its operations. Vehicle should not
emit gases which harm health of the people. Thus company need to
take proper care of nature (Estampe and et. al, 2013). UBER's most
of the work is performed through internet. Due to changes in
weather it faces several issues as it could not able to reach
customers as per their requirement due to weak network.
2)Internal analysis of UBER company.
UBER is a mobile supported cab service providing company, it helps people to travel from one
place to another. easily, it is using several strategies which are supporting it to carry out all its
activities in an effective manner. This is helping the firm to serve customers very appropriately.
As to understand company's strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, it is very essential
for it to carry out an internal analysis which can be performed with help of SWOT. Internal
analysis of UBER is analysed below:
Strengths
 It provides better and effective services than other brands.
 They do not hire employees for full time. If an employee will drive for whole day then he
will get tired which might cause difficulties for them (Pešić, Pešić and Tepavčević,
2012).
 They set their prices low as compared to other taxi service providers, as price is a factor
that is of great concern by clients.
 They do not have to invest largely in setting up of infrastructure so they can help the firm
to expand its business in many untapped areas.
 Its main focus is on customer satisfaction, and tries to reach to their customers as soon as
possible so as to provide them good and faster service.
3

 UBER use dynamic pricing strategies which is mainly worked on demand and supply
policy and it depend on the economic conditions of nation. If the demand is high then
price of UBER service will also get high.
Valuation of UBER in past 5 years.
Weaknesses
 In UBER success is totally depended upon the services of its employees. Many a times
they behave in very rude manner that can affect company's brand image. (Bowlin, 2011).
 It is relying upon cyberspace connections, to get booking and to reach to the customers,
thus it can create problem for drivers when the internet connection is not appropriate.
 Still today a large chunk of population is still not connected to these technologies, so the
people who are updated with technologies can only be able to use and know about it. There are already many competitors in market so it is little hard for it to tap new market.
Opportunities
 The other cab services are little unorganized so it is an advantage for UBER in this
situation.
 As people are connecting more to the technologies they are connecting to people in more
numbers. At some places, there are poor transport facilities so it is an advantageous opportunity for
UBER to attract people towards its services.
Threats
 Competitors are rising more in the market so it has become more difficult to get drivers
for the cab (Bowlin, Hobson and Piercey, 2015).
4

 UBER drivers are getting many customers a day but problem is company is still not able
to earn much revenue due to high operational costs.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, in-depth analysis of operations of UBER company is done and
also its internal and external strengths and weaknesses are determined. With the help of this
study reader is able to understand the impact of micro and macro environmental factors. It is
very essential for an organisation to do routine marketing research and organisational audit, this
will assist in sustain in market. Internal and external factors provide a detail information to
company about all those areas where firm need to improve. This will help in expanding business
and to compete with competitors.
5

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bowlin, K., 2011. Risk-based auditing, strategic prompts, and auditor sensitivity to the strategic
risk of fraud.The Accounting Review. 86(4). pp.1231-1253.
Bowlin, K.O., Hobson, J.L. and Piercey, M.D., 2015. The effects of auditor rotation, professional
skepticism, and interactions with managers on audit quality.The Accounting Review.
90(4). pp.1363-1393.
Bruynseels, L. and Willekens, M., 2012. The effect of strategic and operating turnaround
initiatives on audit reporting for distressed companies. Accounting, Organizations and
Society. 37(4). pp.223-241.
Estampe, D. and et. al., 2013. A framework for analysing supply chain performance evaluation
models. International Journal of Production Economics. 142(2). pp.247-258.
Pešić, A., Pešić, D. and Tepavčević, A., 2012. A new strategic tool for internal audit of the
company based on fuzzy logic.Computer Science and Information Systems. 9(2).
pp.653-666.
Online
PESTLE Analysis of Uber. 2017. [Online]. Available through: <http://pestleanalysis.com/pestle-
analysis-uber/>. [Accessed on 14th July 2017].
SWOT analysis for UBER. 2017. [Online] Available through: <http://pestleanalysis.com/swot-
analysis-for-uber/> [Accessed on 14th July 2017].
6