He CEO of Uber, Dara Khosrowshahi, worked on the platform for several months and discovered the harsh conditions faced by drivers or ‘partners’ of the app. He ‘Project Boomerang’, as the experiment was named, was implemented to understand why it has been so difficult to hire new drivers, as well as to evaluate the experience of the service. As a result, you will now see major changes to the platform.
From director to driver, the CEO of Uber worked as a driver for months and lived through the harsh conditions of the ‘partners’
The Iranian-American businessman revealed the details of the project and its results in an interview for The Wall Street Journal. Khosrowshahi related that he chose a car Tesla Model Y (second hand, by the way) to work as an Uber driver for several months. During that time he toured the streets of the city of San Francisco under the alias of Dave K.your member name in the travel app.
The CEO of Uber discovered that being a driver of the app is not easy
Since its inception, the private transport platform has focused on improving the user experience. However, the experience of the drivers had been left behind on his list of priorities.
Now that the CEO of Uber has experienced firsthand what it is to work on the app, he found details that were not pleasant. What disturbed him most was the amount of uncomfortable situations that the partners live and and how rude some customers can be.
Khosrowshahi reported that he came to feel slighted by the passengers. Some openly talked about his personal problems and work as if there was no one else in the vehicle.
But the executive director was not limited to transporting people, and also He registered as a bicycle delivery man for Uber Eats… and the experience was not pleasant either.
In the same interview, Dave K. He recounted that many customers promised to tip more in the app, but ended up giving much less on delivery. He also counted on Twitter how were his ‘rolls’ making deliveries in the Californian city: he confessed that at first he was nervous and that almost killed in city traffic.
But that’s not all, Dara experienced the most common complaints from drivers. Among them, the process of “frustrating record”, in the words of the businessman. In addition, he revealed that he came to suffer anxiety about trying to maintain a high grade.
“The whole experience was quite complicated”pointed khosrowshahi.
To meet his goal of achieving a 5-star rating, the CEO provided passengers with cables to charge their phones and created several playlists of Spotify for the different tastes of users.
Will there be changes after Khosrowshahi’s experience as a driver?
When energy and fuel prices skyrocketed in 2022, driver pay fell sharply. For this reason, many of the workers left the platform or were forced to work for less pay.
The executive hinted that retaining employees and making Uber work for them is key to maintaining its current surge in drivers. Furthermore, he claimed that “Being a non-founder CEO gives you more scope to make innovative changes.”
So these could include more efforts to win drivers over and keep them from leaving. However, he did not say anything about concrete actions about what changes he is going to make in the company.
The ‘Undercover Boss’, the practice that opens the eyes of businessmen
Have you seen ‘Undercover Boss’? More than a television show, it should be a common practice. It is a program where the top managers of companies leave the offices to infiltrate different operational areas of their business. So they can really see first hand what it’s like to work for them. Generallythese bosses acquire a very different perspective from the one they initially had on the company and the employees.
Currently we already have other examples of business leaders seeking to become more involved in the operation of companies. For example, the new CEO of Starbucks, Laxman Narasimhan, will don the iconic green barista apron once a month, to learn more about the business from “the trenches.”
Therefore, it is an enriching experience that reminds them of how important workers and human talent are in an organization. Not everything is selling, having high numbers and a good face to the world, when inside it is something else.
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