The Uber case and why more people need to answer for it

Travis Kalanick speaks at TED2016 – Dream, February 15-19, 2016, Vancouver Convention Center, Vancouver, Canada. Photo: Bret Hartman/TED.

Susan Fowler has opened the much needed can of worms. While her story raises questions about the imminent future of Uber, it also raises other fundamental issues.

One of them is culture.

There’s been a lot of rhetoric around it, but anyone who has ever been in an organization will know that the real test of commitment to culture is when the pressure for numbers are high. That’s the time we see culture thrown out the window. Anyone close to the startup world knows that entrepreneurs are so focused or bogged down with scaling and getting revenue, that culture is the last thing on their minds.

I have met a couple of entrepreneurs who have kept these aspects in mind, even at the start of their venture. However, (a) these entrepreneurs are few and far between and (b) they are most likely the ones growing a business for keeps, not to sell.

Culture, regardless of what we say at conferences, is a feel-good factor to be focused on when times are good.

What the Uber case demonstrates clearly is that a neglected culture has its own way of coming around and hitting the business hard, where it hurts the most (and in the case of Uber, when it hurts the most).

Now here’s the question I want to reflect upon: Who is accountable for culture? The VP of HR or the CEO?

Culture, being the touchy-feely type of thing, is usually put into the HR department’s hands. However, culture is less the outcome of posters, value cards, and the recognition that HR is responsible for, and more the result of actual behaviors, work habits, and decision-making of the entire leadership.

This includes:

• VP of operations
• VP of sales
• VP of product
• VP of finance
• VP of supply chain
• VP of marketing
• VP of HR
• VP of whatever else the organization has appointed

Guess who has control and influence over the behaviors of all of the above? The VP of HR or the CEO? The answer is obvious. HR may facilitate or enable some aspects of culture or advise as subject matter experts, but the CEO has a role to play. CEOs hire a head of HR suited to their purposes. So while HR may have influence over the company culture, the very hiring of a VP of HR builds it.

HR is a strange function in some ways. It has no power of its own, but anyone who wants power in the organization needs power over the department.

In organizations driven by fear, dominance, and authority, control is driven through performance management. Even Susan mentioned that her performance rating was manipulated, impacting her eligibility for a sponsored education program. Performance management, promotions, and firing employees are all HR functions. So, CEOs interested in controlling organizations rather than leading it, tend to hire weak HR heads.