CEO-turned undercover gig worker: Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi recently started driving and delivering food for Uber. He struggled to sign up, got tip-baited and was punished by the app for rejecting rides.
At the time, Uber was not just one of the world's fastest-growing companies - it was one of the most controversial, dogged by court cases, allegations of sexual harassment, and data breach scandals. Eventually shareholders had enough, and Travis Kalanick was forced out in 2017.
Uber CEO Dara KhosrowshahiDuring his time as an undercover Uber driver, the CEO of the ride hailing service was punished by the app for rejecting rides, was tip-baited by customers and faced several other challenges that helped him understand the issues that drivers face.
What happened? Well, as predicted, Uber didn't want to spend the $9 Billion that Lyft was asking for. In 2014, Uber tried to acquire the app with no success. Then, in 2019, Uber was prepared to buy Lyft for $7 Billion, but the ship had sailed, and Lyft rejected the idea, and instead stayed a separate entity.
Anybody tagged to be “Greyballed” would either see fake “ghost” cars or no cars on the app. In cases where somebody got through and did manage to book an Uber, the company would call the driver to cancel the ride.
1. Larry Ellison, Co-Founder and CEO of Oracle. Since 2009, Larry Ellison's salary has amounted to just $1 a year. But, don't feel too bad for the guy—he's also the fifth richest person in the world with a net worth of $43 billion.
What Does a CEO Do? CEOs are responsible for managing a company's overall operations. This may include delegating and directing agendas, driving profitability, managing company organizational structure, strategy, and communicating with the board.
Uber is owned majorly by a group of institutional investors like Morgan Stanley, The Vanguard Group, and FMR. Individual investors, especially employees of the companies — like the CEO and the COO — own a significant part of the company. The current CEO of Uber company is Dara Khosrowshahi.
Its brand reputation score hit a low of -23.4 in 2018 following its worst year of controversies. And yet, Uber keeps coming out unscathed. Brand consideration has been on an upward trajectory going from a score of 4.9 in 2016 to 18.6 in 2022, according to YouGov data.
According to Uber's 2019 to 2020 safety report, there were 101 deaths that occurred in 91 fatal Uber accidents. Most of these collisions (32 percent) involved at least one speeding vehicle. The second highest cause was from alcohol-impaired drivers (23 percent).
The program helped Uber drivers avoid being ticketed. Greyball used geolocation data, credit card information, social media accounts and other data points to identify individuals they suspected of working for city agencies to carry out the sting operations, according to the Times.