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Monthly Archive for: ‘March, 2017’

  • Uber’s Toxic Culture Harms Investors

    Uber has been in the news lately… for the wrong reasons. It seems what is a toxic corporate culture is spilling over into the public eye, affecting the bottom line, and investor money. While Uber is setting up for an IPO that, at one time, was projected to be one of the hottest initial offerings of 2017. In the past two months some experts have cooled on their projections given the company’s struggles lately and the exodus of staff escaping what appears to be a toxic corporate culture. Read more here

    The root of these problems for many companies seems to be the way that they view their business. Corporations that view their business as a way to provide a benefit to society seem to be more successful and have less of these types of issues. Look no further than some of America’s most successful people (Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Warren Buffet, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey etc.) to see examples of this. What the above individuals have in common is they all sought to add value to the marketplace. They focused on long term growth rather than high risk short term goals.

    This “Value Added” mentality leads successful companies to invest in talent and create a culture where talent at every level of their business is valued and encouraged. Contrast that with the recent leaked video of Senior leadership at UBER berating an entry level driver for having opinions.

    We have yet to see for certain exactly how much impact Uber’s culture will have on their bottom line. But one thing is for sure, in this writer’s opinion long-term vision and successful talent management is part of the recipe that investors should look for.