mile) system for global business—that is, taking the “blood” of
commerce to the “organs” of business, globally.
Getting atoms (stuff) around is still a huge issue for firms and
people, and Uber could be the equivalent of the transporter from Star
Trek, only safer and cheaper (if a bit slower). It’s likely that, without
yet recognizing it, we are seeing a celebrity death match take shape
between Uber and Amazon for control of the last mile. Meanwhile,
FedEx, UPS, and DHL are about to get a lesson in disruption.
Uber checks almost every box in the T Algorithm: differentiated
product, access to visionary capital, global reach, big data skills. That
said, beyond execution (no small thing) Uber has only one obstacle,
but it is a significant one, to getting to a trillion-dollar valuation:
likability. Uber faces challenges on this factor along two fronts.
First, its CEO is an asshole, or at least he’s perceived as an asshole.
This fact gave rise to a few instances where consumers were
encouraged to delete the app, and many did. Where the firm likely lost
$10 billion plus in value in forty-eight hours was not the number of
people who deleted the app, but the discovery of substitutes, as Uber
isn’t vertical, and Lyft was able to access many of the same drivers. It’s
not just the CEO throwing up on himself. In 2014, an Uber senior vice
president suggested—in the presence of a journalist—that Uber hire
opposition researchers to dig up dirt on journalists who wrote
unflattering stories about the company. There have been a series of
reports that Uber management uses the technology’s ability to track
riders in real time for entertainment or other personal reasons,
including members of the press.^27 In France, Uber ran an ad campaign
that, at best, was sexist, and arguably suggested that Uber was a great
way to hire an escort service.^28 In 2016, Uber paid a $20,000 fine as
part of an investigation by the New York attorney general into the
misuse of its tracking capability.^29
Worst of all, Uber’s likability took a major hit with Susan Fowler’s
corporate sexual discrimination charges in February 2017.^30 Actions
by midlevel and C-level management ranged from callous to
reprehensible in dozens of instances. Scrappy start-ups can sometimes
get away with this sort of thing, but industry giants are expected to
display greater maturity. Heads should have rolled, and some did, if
months later. In June 2017, despite recommendations by external