Uber Alles?
Even the name conveys a certain disquiet. Über is a word with the specific gravity of lead (…über alles, überlegen, Übermench). It is a preposition of the German language which means above, beyond … supreme and up to rise. A word whose decontextualized use exudes hegemonism. And that's exactly what Uber, the app that wants to reconfigure transport, develops in its own culture and action. In itself there is nothing wrong and in fact Uber is the most admired start-up in the world. Better to say, it was. It was the high and low of Silicon Valley. Now it's just the horrid, the beautiful has evaporated.
Uber is messing up a fundamental sector of the economy, such as transport, to such an extent that the Economist has coined the expression “Uber economy” to describe its effects. In the Uber economy "you eat what you hunt". Return of the homo oeconomicus Uber's action mirrors the vision of its co-founder, Travis Kalanick, 40 years old. A portrait of Ayn Rand hangs in Travis' office and on her table Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead, the two masterpieces of the writer of Russian origin, are hardly missing. Ayn is the theorist of extreme meritocracy, not mediated by equalizing actions, as the foundation of modern capitalism. Meritocracy may be a good principle for keeping a business in shape, but Uber goes way beyond that, as Gordon Gekko went way beyond.
Homo homini lupus
For Facebook's lepid "move fast and break everything," Uber substitutes sinister war cries like "Stamp your feet," "Elbow!" contractors who work for them. The work environment is distinctly Hobbesian and grimly macho. The communication style is aggressive and deliberately conflictual, respecting the rules is considered a penalizing and paralyzing option.
This is an approach that seemed to have worked well, given that the service offered by Uber, a service of public utility among other things, is impeccable for the customer: easy to activate, efficient, cheap and finally having an impact on the primary needs of a community , like that, in fact, to move. “Our main goal – said Kalanick – is to bring the cost of Uber below that of owning a car”. A Nobel Peace Prize mission.
As a result of this well-executed business, Uber's private capital market value is estimated at $70 billion. A huge capitalization, higher than the stock market value of General Motors and Fiat Chrysler combined. The business is booming, but Uber's reputation is now in shambles. Blame Tavis Kalanick of his manager team which is better known as Team A.
Travis travails
A perfect storm hits Travis' vessel and it begins to take on water on all sides. The situation is so embarrassing that many Uber shareholders feel uncomfortable even getting into a vehicle that displays the "U" on the dashboard. Many of them take the old-fashioned taxis or turn to the competition from Lyft, which puts the customer in the front seat who immediately exchanges a welcome punch with the driver. The other side of the moon. Farhad Manjoo, The New York Times tech critic, wrote that the only way to get Uber back on track is to boycott its service. Extreme measure… what ever happened to justify it?
It began with the communication chief's threat to dig into the private lives of journalists opposed to Uber, then there was Uber's failure to join the one-hour taxi strike in New York against Trump's anti-immigration ban, then c 'it was Kalanick's viral outburst against a driver, then Google's lawsuit for appropriation of trade secrets related to the driverless car project, then the complaint of sexual harassment tolerated and even encouraged by human resources management which led to an internal investigation conducted by Eric Holder (Obama's former justice minister) and costing 20 top managers their jobs. Pandora's box finally opened with the shareholder revolt and Kalanick's resignation as CEO of Uber.
A parade of scandals and communication disasters that seem to have been conceived by the Tony Soprano gang rather than by a handful of pugnacious young Silicon Valley nerds. Honestly, we must admit that there has been a certain fury of the media, especially liberals, towards Kalanick. Since they can no longer stop Trump, they focus on the pups of Trumpism on the principle that if you neutralize them as children, they do less harm as adults. Travis has recently lost his mother in a boating accident (in which his father was also injured) and this fact deserves more public respect and sympathy, as did Steve Jobs' illness, which instead received little of all this. But often one reaps what one sows even in the most tragic personal circumstances. And Kalanick has really raised storms with his reputation as an arsonist. And finally he gathered storm. The question everyone is asking now is: will Travis Kalanick return? Will it happen like at Steve Jobs' Apple? Or will his exit be permanent?
Here comes Arianna Huffington
Arianna, 66, sits on Uber's board called by Kalanick himself in 2016 after a dazzling meeting at a technology conference in Munich. Now the Board is looking right at Huffington as a possible fixer also for his relationship with Kalanick who still controls the company with his preferred shares. It seems that Huffington has the ability to bring out the Apollonian component of the young entrepreneur's personality from San Francisco.
Liberal, empathetic, helpful, spontaneously an influencer Arianna has a long history as an entrepreneur. In 2005 you co-founded the Huffington Post, the publication that more than any other has helped define the canon of journalism on the web. As an insider, you are familiar with nerdism in its most pathological forms and have become aware of the mental and behavioral mechanisms of start-ups suddenly invested with extraordinary attention, power and wealth. In a recent interview you gave a rather introspective definition of leadership. You said: "Knowing how to handle crises without being overwhelmed by them, not losing your head when everyone around you loses it, is the most important quality of leadership". How can one achieve this personal status that makes one's leadership of superior quality? With sleep and meditation. A discovery that she made almost by chance right on her skin.
Huffington's epiphany
In 2007 Arianna badly broke her cheekbone slamming on the editorial table after a sudden faint. That fall was something of an epiphany and set her on a completely new lifestyle and working pattern. You have collected the experiences and ideas gained after this event in a book entitled "The Sleep Revolution" which was then followed by a real initiative called "Thrive Golbal" which aims to indicate sustainable exits from work stress and of responsibilities.
Arianna is today a disconnection missionary and intends to spread her 30-minute relaxation practice to be implemented before falling asleep. This practice consists of a relaxing bath in the tub, wearing a particular pajama for the night and reading a few pages of a book of a genre that has nothing to do with work (poetry, philosophy, religion, etc.) . Even the bedroom is a special environment, a sort of "sanctuary" where electronic devices, pets and particular technologies replaced by candelabras and plein air paintings are not allowed.
Resting well, eight hours of total relaxation, helps make the right decisions, prepares you to listen and drives away impulsiveness. Looking at Trump, who sleeps from 1 in the morning to 5 in the morning, it seems that this is exactly the case, since the president lacks all these qualities.
Meditation
The pivot of this change is meditation which initiates a fundamental introspective work and leads to a definitive, irreversible change which will manifest itself precisely in leadership. It is the advice that Huffington gave to Kalanick and that the young entrepreneur has decided to follow. Arianna communicated to the Uber board that Travis has started a meditation practice in the breastfeeding room of the San Francisco office, lacking a special room for meditation which is something absolutely necessary. In any case, for all American companies with more than 50 employees, the lodging room is a mandatory space. At the end of this journey, Huffington promised the CDA, Kalanick will return completely different from the person who has manifested himself up to now.
Unfortunately, this reassurance does not seem to have completely convinced the Board of Directors and even less some shareholders who, instead, reached Kalanick in Chicago and forced him to resign as CEO. A sensational outlet that has stunned all of Silicon Valley and ignited the imagination of the American press which has been commenting on this story profusely for days. The sensational ouster of a figure of the caliber of the founder of Uber can only be traced back to that of Steve Jobs from Apple 30 years ago. We just have to wish Travis Kalanick to repeat the path of Jobs who, in turn, after so many years would have advised the young Mark Zuckerberg, who had sought his opinion on leadership: "Mark, pack your bags for India ”. “Travis pack your bags, meditate, and be back”.
