Dara Khosrowshahi made a political fashion-statement on stage at DLD Munich 18: The new Uber CEO wore a protest-slogan T-Shirt “We are all dreamers” – an immigrant himself, Khosrowshahi wants to support the DREAM Act, which provides a citizenship path and support for undocumented immigrant children in the United States. In his new job, he also has to deal with protest: While Uber has revolutionized the way, people move in cities around the world, it’s equally true that they have got things wrong along the way. Before Khosrowshahi took over as the CEO, there was basically one scandal after the other: sexual harassment, data leaks, bad payed drivers…
Tanit Koch, editor-in-chief of BILD, asked Khosrowshahi about his thoughts when he was offered this job. He laughed and answered: “No thanks!” But he was convinced by recognizing that Uber is a company wanting change. In the conversation about Uber’s next chapter the businessman makes clear that he wants to drive change by running Uber with humility, integrity and passion. “If Uber is about me we have a problem. The cult of a personality is bullshit. To me what makes Uber, is the great team.” With the introduction of culture and governance improvements, along with a focus on being better partners with cites and drivers, Khosrowshahi is on his way to putting his stamp on the company. “I believe that Uber is going to make the world a better place.”
On the business side Khosrowshahi said that the food delivery company “Uber Eats” will become more important worldwide and he tells about his vision of “Uber Copters”. Koch jokes that you could call the flying taxis “Uber den Wolken.” It sounds like “Über den Wolken” – a popular German song, which means “above the clouds”. The company also invests in “Autonomous Driving”, but Khosrowshahi thinks there is a lot of work to do and it will become reality earliest in 10 years.
For the Uber CEO Germany is a market with huge promise and he plans to come back to German cities this year. Khosrowshahi pointed out: “When we stepped into Germany, we behave in a manner that was wrong.” He explained that growing with partners is very important and that Uber has learned its lesson.