When Uber first approached current CEO Dara Khosrowshahi about leading the company, he ignored the call.
It’s 2017 and the ridesharing app is going through “tough times in its history,” Khosrowshahi told LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky in an interview. recent interview. Uber has faced a host of problems, including sex ring allegations, an FBI investigation and a bunch of shoot involved a workplace culture investigation, just to name a few.
“When I first got the call, my first thought was, ‘Damn it,'” he said. “I thought, ‘Why would I do that?'”
Khosrowshahi is also not in the market for a new job. He’s entered his twelfth year as Expedia’s CEO and is still “having a great time,” he told Roslansky.
He was prepared to call Uber’s board of directors and withdraw himself from running for CEO — until a conversation with a friend led him to change his mind.
That friend happens to be Daniel Ek, founder and CEO of Spotify.
The pair were having cocktails at an investor conference when Ek asked if Uber had called him, revealing that he had recommended Khosrowshahi for the CEO gig.
Khosrowshahi admitted that he was considering joining Uber because he was happy with Expedia. Then, “Daniel looked at me with cold Scandinavian eyes and said: ‘You know Dara, since when is life happy? It’s about impact. You have to make an impact,'” he said.
That conversation with Ek was a “special moment” that made Khosrowshahi rethink what he wanted out of his career, he added. While content to lead Expedia, Khosrowshahi realized that running Uber, one of the most influential companies, fastest growing business at that time, through the chain of crisis, will allow him to have “too big of an impact” on the world.
The next morning, Khosrowshahi called the head hunter again—and in August 2017 he was announced as Uber’s new CEO, following a unanimous vote from the board.
Early in his tenure at Uber, Khosrowshahi revised the company’s cultural norms, abandoning the “growth at all costs” ethos popularized by Travis Kalanick, his predecessor and co-founder. Founder of carpooling app, to support Rule like “Build with heart” and “Do the right thing”.
While Uber continues to face challenges from lawsuit arrive drivers strikecompany’s public image and Profitability has improved significantly under Khosrowshahi’s leadership.
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