7 ms·

Side note: This new guy is an outspoken trump critic. Meg is a republican, and ran as one for california governor #deleteUber was started and accelerated par

by tmh79 9y ago

Side note: This new guy is an outspoken trump critic. Meg is a republican, and ran as one for california governor #deleteUber was started and accelerated partially by assumed associations between Uber and Trump I wonder if the politics had any influence in the decision to pick him over meg.

tacomonstrous 9y ago
Whitman was a Hillary supporter: http://fortune.com/2016/08/31/meg-whitman-is-all-in-for-clinton/ http://fortune.com/2016/08/31/meg-whitman-is-all-in-for-clin...
- tmh79 9y ago
  fair, for the next 4 years, I believe "wokeness" is going to be a lot more valuable for public facing roles (leadership & comms) than it used to be. Companies without "wokeness" will experience more and more twitter/media wrath.
  - pbiggar 9y ago
    Unclear why you got downvoted. Very valid point and considering the relationship between "wokeness" and the issues uber is facing internally, it's presumably a consideration (though perhaps they did not use "wokeness" internally as they discussed it).
  - riot504 9y ago
    Companies who use the term 'wokeness' will experience the wrath of people who no longer want to do business with them. People don't want to hear what CEOs or other private sector leadership political thoughts are such as we don't care for celebrity or sports figure opinions either.
  - amyjess 9y ago
    Relevant article: https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/8/17/16162226/corporations-replacing-churches-americas-conscience https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/8/17/16162226/corporatio... The thesis of the article is that corporations are replacing the role of churches as the moral voice of society. Interestingly, this applies on both sides of the spectrum: both liberal and conservative corporations are becoming more and more outspoken on issues.
  - s73ver_ 9y ago
    "Wokeness" being the cynical term for a leader that doesn't tolerate sexual harassment in the workplace like the former one did.
    - tmh79 9y ago
      #deleteUber happened weeks before Susan Fowler's blog post, was accelerated because TK was on the Trump business council at the time (assumed connection between the two) and had a much larger impact on the business metrics. A more "woke" CEO would have been able to stem the bleeding from that situation or have avoided it all together.
hn_throwaway_99 9y ago
I doubt it. Whitman was probably the most outspoken Republican against Trump, called him a "demagogue", and stated publicly "I will vote for Hillary, I will talk to my Republican friends about helping her, and I will donate to her campaign and try to raise money for her." Plus, given Uber's issues, being a woman had to be a big plus for Whitman.
- Kluny 9y ago
  > Plus, given Uber's issues, being a woman had to be a big plus for Whitman. Seems to me that if she had been offered the job, she'd be set up for failure. I'm glad they went with the other one.
- adamnemecek 9y ago
  She's a bad CEO tho.
0xbear 9y ago
Bingo. Anyone who thinks the pile-on on Kalanick was the result of Fowler's expose is naive beyond belief. It was a coordinated punishment campaign, the bro culture story just served as a convenient starting point. Now high profile CEOs will think twice before they as much as talk to anyone not approved by the liberal establishment, let alone sit on any council.
- tim333 9y ago
  I suspect the Waymo business was a bigger deal.
- s73ver_ 9y ago
  Except everything that came out against Uber was things that they had actually done. Susan Fowler wasn't planted. Waymo wasn't planted. And these things started long before Trump took office.
  - tmh79 9y ago
    everything that "came out against uber" had little impact on the business metrics. The bad event for uber was a widespread campaign to delete the app that started in january when Tk was on trumps business council and uber caused some outrage when they turned off surge during a "muslim ban" strike by taxi workers at JFK.

by tmh79 9y ago

tacomonstrous 9y ago

Whitman was a Hillary supporter: http://fortune.com/2016/08/31/meg-whitman-is-all-in-for-clinton/ http://fortune.com/2016/08/31/meg-whitman-is-all-in-for-clin...

tmh79 9y ago
fair, for the next 4 years, I believe "wokeness" is going to be a lot more valuable for public facing roles (leadership & comms) than it used to be. Companies without "wokeness" will experience more and more twitter/media wrath.
- pbiggar 9y ago
  Unclear why you got downvoted. Very valid point and considering the relationship between "wokeness" and the issues uber is facing internally, it's presumably a consideration (though perhaps they did not use "wokeness" internally as they discussed it).
- riot504 9y ago
  Companies who use the term 'wokeness' will experience the wrath of people who no longer want to do business with them. People don't want to hear what CEOs or other private sector leadership political thoughts are such as we don't care for celebrity or sports figure opinions either.
- amyjess 9y ago
  Relevant article: https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/8/17/16162226/corporations-replacing-churches-americas-conscience https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/8/17/16162226/corporatio... The thesis of the article is that corporations are replacing the role of churches as the moral voice of society. Interestingly, this applies on both sides of the spectrum: both liberal and conservative corporations are becoming more and more outspoken on issues.
- s73ver_ 9y ago
  "Wokeness" being the cynical term for a leader that doesn't tolerate sexual harassment in the workplace like the former one did.
  - tmh79 9y ago
    #deleteUber happened weeks before Susan Fowler's blog post, was accelerated because TK was on the Trump business council at the time (assumed connection between the two) and had a much larger impact on the business metrics. A more "woke" CEO would have been able to stem the bleeding from that situation or have avoided it all together.

hn_throwaway_99 9y ago

I doubt it. Whitman was probably the most outspoken Republican against Trump, called him a "demagogue", and stated publicly "I will vote for Hillary, I will talk to my Republican friends about helping her, and I will donate to her campaign and try to raise money for her." Plus, given Uber's issues, being a woman had to be a big plus for Whitman.

Kluny 9y ago
> Plus, given Uber's issues, being a woman had to be a big plus for Whitman. Seems to me that if she had been offered the job, she'd be set up for failure. I'm glad they went with the other one.
adamnemecek 9y ago
She's a bad CEO tho.

0xbear 9y ago

Bingo. Anyone who thinks the pile-on on Kalanick was the result of Fowler's expose is naive beyond belief. It was a coordinated punishment campaign, the bro culture story just served as a convenient starting point. Now high profile CEOs will think twice before they as much as talk to anyone not approved by the liberal establishment, let alone sit on any council.

tim333 9y ago
I suspect the Waymo business was a bigger deal.
s73ver_ 9y ago
Except everything that came out against Uber was things that they had actually done. Susan Fowler wasn't planted. Waymo wasn't planted. And these things started long before Trump took office.
- tmh79 9y ago
  everything that "came out against uber" had little impact on the business metrics. The bad event for uber was a widespread campaign to delete the app that started in january when Tk was on trumps business council and uber caused some outrage when they turned off surge during a "muslim ban" strike by taxi workers at JFK.