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Uber-Case
Analysis
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Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Uber.................................................................................................................................................3
Problem Summary...........................................................................................................................4
Uber International Business Operations..........................................................................................4
Problems related to Uber International Business.........................................................................5
Corporate Social Responsibility......................................................................................................6
Problems related to CSR..............................................................................................................6
Uber Strategic Management............................................................................................................8
Internal factors:............................................................................................................................8
External factors............................................................................................................................9
Problems related to strategic management................................................................................10
Additional Researched Problems 300............................................................................................10
SWOT Analysis.........................................................................................................................11
Recommendations......................................................................................................................12
For Uber International Business Operations..............................................................................12
For Uber CSR............................................................................................................................13
For Uber Strategic Management................................................................................................14
For Additional Researched Problems........................................................................................15
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................17

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 Uber Case Analysis
Introduction

This case is about the online ride-sharing business named Uber, and the study is an in-depth

analysis of how online businesses has changed the meaning of ‘sharing economy’ concept. This

case highlights the issues related to the innovations of the businesses and how Uber has not

fulfilled the promise of sharing the economy and following the ethics. What are the societal

promises and responsibilities of Uber towards the economy, and how they are operating their

business aggressively? The problem is that they are not following the ethics of sharing. This

study is conducted to highlight the issues related to these types of business models in which the

customers are linked to the third parties for getting services. And the third party is the person

who can utilize his personal asset to generate some profit. These business models are creating

problems related to social, economic and environment.

Are these businesses providing the customer a technological platform to connect with the third

party; who wants to be an independent business person, or Are these business models are

applying all the rules and regulations which the traditional companies follow? These are the

questions that are raised in this study. Moreover, the paper is addressing the issues of regulation,

safety, environment, and labor. Is the company following all the regulations of the government?

Is the company adhering all the transport rules and regulations? The International business

operations of Uber are discussed, and the problems related to international business operations

are mentioned, and what is the impact of these problems on its operations are defined.

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Similarly, the corporate social responsibility of Uber is defined, and the issues related to CSR

are highlighted with its impact on company. The strategic management of Uber and the internal

& external forces are discussed with their impact on strategic decisions. Additional research

problems are also stated with the present and past issues of Uber and how they solved the

problems. In the end, recommendations for every problems are suggested in this study. By

following the recommendations, Uber can solve the problems easily, and it can help the company

in future operations.

Uber

The business environment of Uber is aggressive, many competitors came soon after the launch of

Uber, but Uber is still at the top because of its aggressive business style. The growth of Uber is

fast, and it became very popular in a short period. The company is successful, yet it is

controversial too because it had done many activities against the regulations and it remains the

hot topic of transport news due to its innovative business model which is based on sharing the

economy but in reality there is no such thing, instead of sharing the economy the company is

involved in disruption of regulations.

The company launched its app in 2009, in San Francisco, the founders are Travis and Garrett

(Uber, 2019). They first launched the app with the name Ubercab, which was changed later to

Uber due to the controversy that it doesn’t obey the transport regulations (TechCrunch, 2010).

With the rapid success of the company, many investors started billions of investments despite the

fact that the company was private company at that time. But with passage of time, the aggressive

business style and the approach of Uber ‘No hold barred’ while dealing with its rivals became

the cause of its bad reputation.

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Problem Summary

Several problems are mentioned in the case study. These problems are related to the International

Business operations of Uber, Corporate Social Responsibility and the Strategic Management of

Uber. The problems are affecting the society, economy and the environment worldwide. The

problems have an impact on the safety of the customers, labor rights and environmental

sustainability. Some of the problems are related to sexual harassment. And mostly Uber does not

take responsibility for the problems. Instead of taking action, the company always gives a

surprising response, and they blame the driver for all the problems.

It is also creating issues related to business taxes, and many countries had sued the company for

not complying the tax rules of business. The company is not following a healthy competition, but

they are involved in unethical conduct while dealing with their competitors. The taxi drivers are

so disappointed with this unfair system because the taxi drivers have to follow many strict

regulations, but the Uber driver is free of all the regulations. All these matters must to be fixed,

and the company should follow government rules of every country in which it is doing its

operations.

Uber International Business Operations

Uber is operating worldwide in many countries, and it is operating differently in every country.

The company CEO Travis said that every country has its own transportation rules, and almost

everywhere there are problems related to public transport, and that’s why Uber wants to

accommodate everyone with its service of ride-sharing. The key factors for the growth of the

Uber are basically the huge revenue of the Uber and the cost of revenue and cost of other

expenses from which the company is driven to achieve more success by expanding its

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operations. The International Business strategies include the changing in the mobile app and

changing the business model to fully localize into the culture of the market they are targeting.

The leadership style of the Uber is aggressive and abrasive. The senior-level officers run the

company unethically, and this has a link with the strategic management values of the company,

and the unethical conduct of leaders has a bad impact on the company. Recently, the company

CEO Travis’s video got viral in which he is arguing with an employee for overpayment, and the

style of the CEO is found aggressive. The challenge for leaders in the different cultures of every

market. Many of the customers are happy with service of Uber, while some faced some serious

issues like sexual harassment and rude behavior of drivers, and the other stakeholders such as the

drivers, regulators, competitors, and Uber partners are not happy with Uber.

Problems related to Uber International Business

 The problems related to the Uber International Business are that Uber does not follow the

Local regulations when it starts to operate in any local market, it does not follow what the

other traditional business is following (Bogle, 2019).

 The next problem is that Uber used an aggressive approach for doing business, and it has a

‘No hold barred’ approach when it deals with its competitors.

 Uber is devaluating the regulations imposed by the government by going against the rules

and regulations. For example, Uber had devaluated the government regulation that all

drivers must have government issues license for driving (Nytimes.com, 2015).

 Whenever dealing with the government officials and regulators, the company senior-level

officers used a strategy of ‘Principled Confrontation’ by making the officials do what they

want from them and giving them rewards for this (Nast, 2014).

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 Uber has made a network of agents in which they have a contract with lobbyists and lobbying

firms. They are using the strategy where they can easily do what they want by simply

lobbying with officials. And they also called customer lobby where they felt that only the

customers could save them (Bloomberg.com, 2015).

 Uber is also a threat for reselling the licenses.

 The anti-competitive practices are also not a good practice of Uber (Sullivan, 2014).

Corporate Social Responsibility

The Company started the business with the approach of ‘sharing the economy,’ however, nothing

found like this in the business model of Uber. The innovative business model is found to be more

destructive than constructive for economy. Some efforts are made for spreading the message that

the company is ‘sharing the economy’ such as the launch of UberPool, which is although not

profitable for the company because it can be used by more than two passengers with the

permission of first passenger in exchange of low fare. And it also cut carbon dioxide emissions,

which is good for environment (Uber Blog, 2019). The company CEO said that UberPool is not

profitable, but it is the direction the company wants to take in the future. The ride-sharing has

reduced traffic pollution, and most of the people think that it’s easy to use Uber than to buy a

new car which will have maintenance cost and parking issues. UberPool is saving resources of

the world too. But the company has not done any CSR activity, and it has not issued any report

of Uber CSR.

Problems related to CSR

 There are problems related to Corporate Social Responsibility that Uber takes no

responsibility and blame its drivers for every issue that takes place with the safety rules,

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 transportation regulations, labor rights, and taxes of the business. All the burden is on the

drivers.

 There is no altruistic motivation seen in the executive officers or drivers of Uber connoted

with the term sharing, and everyone is making their own profit, not applying the approach of

sharing the economy (Slee, 2017).

 Unethical conduct of Uber towards the regulations of the local market.

 Bad relations with the competitors and almost every stakeholder is unhappy with Uber due to

its aggressive business style.

 Disruption of the regulations by Uber, they do not respect the regulations of the local market,

and they operate with their own rules (Cramer and Krueger, 2016).

 The company does not respect the other stakeholders such as taxi drivers who follow all the

regulations and have the license of the driving, while the Uber drivers are driving without

license.

 The aggressive business practices in which Uber uses business tactics to let down

competitors' efficiency. The competitor of Uber, Lyft has claimed that Uber makes bogus

calls to Lyft’s driver and then cancels the rides to decrease the efficiency of Lyft. And this

act is not ethical at all (Fink, 2014).

 The Vice President of Uber Emil was reported saying that Uber can hire such persons that

can dig up dirt on the journalists who are anything against Uber, and then Uber has to

apologize for this.

 And the serious problem that Uber does not guarantee the quality of its service, it do not

guarantee the sustainability, safety, and capability of the driver. All the risk is on the

customer whether to choose Uber or not (Uber.com, 2017).

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 Moreover, a case of misleading the customers about the safety of the services is filed against

Uber.

Uber Strategic Management

The strategic management of the Uber is not as efficient as they could be. They had always done

the things which are against the regulations. Strategic management involves all the senior

executive officers, and they make decisions that are not effective and do not promote

sustainability (Schechner, 2015). The CEO and Co-founders of Uber have the business model,

but they did not follow the rules which are applicable, and the company should follow these to

maintain a good reputation. Instead of being ethical with the unique idea of business, they always

had unethical ways, and they also invest in lobbying to run their operations in the local markets

of different countries. And they do not follow the rules of the local market. Strategic

management has a mission that they will make the journey easy by ride-sharing but they do not

take responsibility for their safety, and they are also not good with their drivers. The company

hires the drivers by saying that they are independent, and they are their own boss, but they act

like traditional employers and do not give the drivers the employee rights.

Internal factors:

Uber business Culture: the Business culture of Uber is aggressive, and the drivers are not

treated well. The company does not follow the regulations, and they give a very weird response

in all their misconduct and unethical activities. They always say that Uber is not the primary

reason behind all the wrong things. Uber blames the drivers for all the unethical conduct. Uber is

not setting a good example for their followers.

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Management: The management style of Uber is not suitable, the management takes no

responsibility, and they do not manage the efficiency of the operations of Uber. The executive

officers have always defended the company, and they also had to go to jail, but they cannot listen

anything against their company (Schechner, 2015).

Drivers: The drivers of Uber have many complaints about the company. They think that Uber

does not give them basic rights and that the company acts as the traditional employer, but they do

not treat the employees in a way they should treat them. They do not give the employees the

basic rights of safety or insurance.

External factors

Political: Uber is involved in lobbying, and the lobbies also involve the government officials and

the political parties to get favor from them. The company gives them favors, and in exchange the

company wants to do anything they want to do in that market.

Legal: Uber has also made lobbies with legislative bodies to get favors because there are many

legal officers who had taken steps against Uber, but later they stepped back, and now they are

satisfied with Uber operations.

Economical: The business approach is ‘sharing the economy,’ but Uber is not following this

except sharing the ride. They are involved in disruption of regulations, and their unethical

conduct is not good for the economy of any market in which they are operating.

Environmental: There are some projects that are in favor of the environment, such as the

UberPool, which saves the emissions of carbon dioxide.

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Impact of these factors on decision making and operations

These factors have an impact on the decision making and operations of the company because

these are the factors that are responsible for the operations of the company. Uber has to consider

all these factors in order to make decisions and strategies of the company.

Problems related to strategic management

 The problems related to strategic management is the leadership style of Uber, the leadership

style of Uber’s officers is not effective, and they use an aggressive and abrasive behaviors.

 The strategic management of Uber has not set the labor rights for the drivers of the Uber.

 Strategic management is unable to make the company able to follow the regulations without

making lobbies to win the projects (Parkinson, 2015).

 The strategic management is involved in anti-competitive activities, which is not good for

any market in which Uber operates.

 Even the CEO had agreed that he reached the potential investors of its competitor Lyft just

before the Lyft’s fundraising program and tried to convince them to invest in Uber (Yarow,

2014).

Additional Researched Problems 300

Almost every problem is highlighted in the case, but by doing research on Uber, some more

problems are identified, which are due to the operations of Uber. The first problem is related to

payment to drivers. The company says that it takes only 20%, but the reality is that it takes

almost 30 to 35% commission from the drivers, and yet the drivers are not treated well. A French

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taxi driver had slammed an Uber driver by saying that he is an economic terrorist and Uber is

doing Economic terrorism (Business Insider, 2019).

The concern the CEO showed towards the Trump made the company lose two lac customers who

deleted the Uber app when they got the news that Kalanick announced that he is going to be the

member of Trump’s advisory council of economy (Business Insider, 2019).

A study of the Wall Street Journal stated that Uber has used other business tactics by making

non-GAAP adjustments and adding non-operating income in it and then adding it back to the Net

Income. The disclosing of the adjusted entries is not consistent and this is making the analysts

and investors confused to predict the performance of Uber (Maurer, 2019). Another study of

Harvard Business Review reveals that Uber drivers have some problems by being managed by

the algorithms. The drivers said that they are managed by the app, and they feel lonely. There is

no socialization (Mohlmann and Henfridsson, 2019).

The International Business Times reported that Uber is laying off 350 employees during the

division of the company. And it’s not the first time Uber is laying off the workers. The layoff has

a great effect on employees (Geske, 2019).

SWOT Analysis

Strength:

 Big-name of brand and awareness of Uber.

 Confident and Dominant Leaders.

 Low cost of operation.

 It is highly rated for its feature of convenience.

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 Diversified services of Uber, like UberPool, UberEats, UberBikes, and UberBlack.

Weaknesses:

 The business idea can be easily copied.

 Safety issues and Unethical practices.

 The relation with drivers is not strong.

 Various scandals of the company.

Opportunities:

 Customers prefer Uber over traditional taxies because they don’t have to wait long for Uber,

and the prices of fare are reasonable.

 More services can be introduced in addition to UberEats etc.

 Most of the external factors are in favor Uber, like the income of the consumers is increasing,

and there is a lack of parking services in many areas, and people prefer to use Uber instead of

own car.

Threats:

 There are many countries that are not imposing strict legal restrictions to ban Uber in their

countries.

 Drivers are protesting against Uber for low incomes.

 New competitors are also a threat to Uber, and thus fraud and anti-competitive activities are

increasing.

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Recommendations
By deeply analyzing the case study and additional research problems, now some

recommendations will be suggested to Uber for making their business operations run smooth and

well and how Uber can avoid legal restrictions from many states of the countries. The

recommendations are presented as;

For Uber International Business Operations

 As the case stated that there are several problems related to the Uber International Business

Problems, Uber should follow the local rules and regulations of the market.

 The business approach should be changed from aggressive to flexible, and it should adopt

the things which are in favor of the company instead of making the reputation of the

company bad in the eyes of the people.

 The company should not devaluate the regulations of the government. Instead, they should

follow and respect the regulations of the government.

 Instead of making agents and lobbies for expanding the business, the company should make

the rules of the company, which attracts the people to praise the activities of Uber, and then

every country desire to have such brand in their country for the convenience of the people.

 Uber should clearly check the licenses of the drivers, and it should monitor the drivers to not

resell the licenses. The company should devise a policy of monitoring the drivers.

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 The company should avoid the practice of anti-competitiveness as it does not promote

healthy competition and it is unethical. Uber should make good relations with competitors

and introduce practices that can lead the company to be at the top by ethical practices.

For Uber CSR

 As the case highlighted that Uber had not worked especially for CSR, and It is involved it

many unethical conducts, which should be eliminated immediately. Uber should take

responsibilities for any misconduct happened in the name of company, and it should address

the issue as soon as possible.

 Uber should introduce some motivational sessions which will motivate the employees and

drivers to be altruistically motivated about sharing the economy term and present some

creative ideas to use this approach of the company.

 The corporate social responsibility also includes to make good relations with all the

stakeholders, and Uber has not good relation with its competitors, the taxi drivers, and

regulators. Uber should change the thinking and design the model of the business, which

does not promote bad relations with stakeholders.

 Uber should not use bad business tactics. Instead, the company should focus on its own

operations and make it better, so the threat of competitors becomes low.

 The senior officers of Uber should not make such statements which are political and hurt

someone or hurt any community. The senior officers should reflect a good image of the

company.

 Uber should not mislead the customers about anything for which the company does not

guarantee the customer. The company should make the advertisements according to the

statements of the company and according to reality.

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 Uber should give a guarantee to the customers about the safety and sustainability of the

driver, and it should recruit the driver on the basis of some tests. Proper screening of drivers

should be done in order to be Uber driver.

For Uber Strategic Management

 The Leadership Style of the Uber should be changed, and it should not be aggressive. The

leaders lead the company, and if the leaders have an aggressive style then its employees and

drivers also follow the style of their leaders. The leaders should be responsible and work for

the better of the company.

 The strategic management should take care of the labor rights, as they state that drivers are

independent, but they treat them as employee by being a strict employer. So they should also

take care of their rights.

 Strategic management should take such steps that will make the company able to follow all

the regulations of the market.

 Strategic management should not promote such programs, which are the practices of anti-

competition. Instead they should promote a healthy competitive environment.

For Additional Researched Problems

 More researched problems include the driver’s pay for which Uber states that they take 20%

commission, but in reality they take 30 to 35% commission, which is not ethical. They

should take the commission as they mention before and do not change the statement later.

 Uber should introduce activities that are in favor of the economy and try to avoid the things

which are depleting the economy. The company should follow all the International laws of

doing business (Rauch and Schleicher, 2015).

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 Uber’s executive officers should avoid their presence in political matters because the

businesses should not involve in political matters as this can affect the reputation of the

business.

 Uber should not make accounting frauds to mislead their investors. The investor should be

delivered with correct information about the company.

 The company should manage some programs which involve the interaction of the drivers,

and they should arrange some programs which help the company to build good relations with

their drivers. And the drivers can also socialize with their partner Uber drivers.

 The company should rethink about their layoff policy, as it affects the employees negatively.

The company should arrange some alternatives before laying off of huge number of

employees.

Conclusion

Uber is facing many ethical issues, and it is not following all the regulations of the market in

which it operates. The environment concern of sharing the economy is still questionable because

the company has not done anything for the environment except the UberPool. Instead they are

disrupting the economy and environment (Schneider, 2017). The safety rules are still

questionable because many cases are there in which Uber driver has done crimes. The murders

and rapes cases are there for proof. All these criminal and illegal activities are disrupting the

societies, and they need to be addressed by the senior officers of Uber. Uber needs to monitor the

drivers and do something good for society. On the other hand, the company should also do

something better for their drivers to fulfill the responsibility of labor rights. Uber should develop

a system in which the drivers are hired by proper screening methods and avoid sexual

harassment and criminal activities. The government should also impose regulations for

Page 16 of 22
companies like Uber so that there will be fewer disruptions (Poser, 2015). There should be

driving tests for Uber drivers and licenses should be checked before employment. All the rules

which are applicable to other taxi drivers should be made compulsory for Uber drivers as well. It

is for the safety of the users of Uber.

References

Bloomberg.com. (2015). This Is How Uber Takes Over a City. [online] Available at:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2015-06-23/this-is-how-uber-takes-over-a-city

Bogle, A. (2019). Uber fights back over tax in Australia. [online] Mashable. Available at:

https://mashable.com/2015/08/03/uber-fights-tax-australia/#t0bZs82OaPqH

Business Insider. (2019). 49 of the biggest scandals in Uber's history. [online] Available at:

https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-company-scandals-and-controversies-2017-11#november-

2017-news-breaks-alleging-that-uber-tried-to-cover-up-a-cyberattack-that-impacted-millions-of-

customers-4

Cramer, J., and Krueger, A.B., 2016. Disruptive change in the taxi business: The case of

Uber. American Economic Review, 106(5), pp.177-82.

Fink, E. (2014). Uber-nasty? The staff submits 5,560 fake ride requests. [online] CNNMoney.

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Geske, D. (2019). Uber Layoffs: 350 Let Go Across Several Divisions. [online] International

Business Times. Available at: https://www.ibtimes.com/uber-layoffs-350-let-go-across-several-

divisions-2845857

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Maurer, M. (2019). Companies’ Non-GAAP Adjustments to Net Income Have Soared. [online]

WSJ. Available at: https://www.wsj.com/articles/companies-non-gaap-adjustments-to-net-

income-have-soared-11571429258?mod=searchresults&page=1&pos=2

Mohlmann, M., and Henfridsson, O. (2019). What People Hate About Being Managed by

Algorithms, According to a Study of Uber Drivers. [online] Harvard Business Review. Available

at: https://hbr.org/2019/08/what-people-hate-about-being-managed-by-algorithms-according-to-

a-study-of-uber-drivers

Nast, C. (2014). Uber C.E.O. Travis Kalanick’s Warpath. [online] Vanity Fair. Available at:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2014/12/uber-travis-kalanick-controversy

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france.html?_r=0

Parkinson, H. (2015). Uber faces legal action in the UK over drivers' rights. [online] the

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uk-drivers-rights

Posen, H.A., 2015. Ridesharing in the sharing economy: Should regulators impose Uber

regulations on Uber. Iowa L. Rev., 101, p.405.

Rauch, D.E., and Schleicher, D., 2015. Like Uber, but for local government law: The future of

local regulation of the sharing economy. Ohio St. LJ, 76, p.901.

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Schechner, S. (2015). Two Uber Executives Indicted in France. [online] WSJ. Available at:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/uber-executives-ordered-to-stand-trial-by-french-prosecutors-

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Schneider, H., 2017. Creative destruction and the sharing economy: Uber as disruptive

innovation. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Slee, T., 2017. What's yours is mine: Against the sharing economy. Or Books.

Sullivan, G. (2014). Lyft accuses Uber of sabotage. [online]

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sabotage/. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-

mix/wp/2014/08/12/lyft-accuses-uber-of-sabotage/

TechCrunch. (2010). UberCab Ordered to Cease And Desist – TechCrunch. [online] Available

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Uber Blog. (2019). Make Your Impact with uberPOOL This Earth Day | Uber Blog. [online]

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Yarow, J. (2014). The CEO Of Uber Proudly Admits He Tried To Nuke His Biggest Rival's

Fundraising. [online] Business Insider. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-ceo-

on-messing-with-lyfts-funding-2014-11

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