‘Like day one’: Uber Australia’s head takes on global role
My Uber driver struggles to find the tech giant’s Melbourne headquarters because the offices are unmarked, tucked away discreetly at the back of a building in South Yarra in inner Melbourne.
It’s perhaps not surprising that the $130 billion company which has attracted scrutiny for everything from its refusal to classify its drivers as employees to the hefty commission it takes from local restaurant industries wants to keep a low profile at times.
I’m headed to Uber’s offices to meet Susan Anderson who has spent the last few years as head of Uber for Australia and New Zealand working to overhaul the company’s controversial reputation.
Just a year after Anderson started at Uber the company was rocked by a 2017 blog post by employee-turned-whistleblower Susan Fowler outlining a culture of sexism and bullying.
“My journey through Uber has been one Uber’s also going through – this very serious and real transformation and how it thinks about diversity and culture,” Anderson says. “The early part of my 30s and 20s I was very regularly the only female in a room and I would look around and there would be me and that would be it… that does not happen to me anymore.”
Fowler’s whistleblowing lead to the ouster of Uber’s founder Travis Kalanick and his replacement by chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi in 2017 who lead the company to its successful initial public offering.
Anderson says the leadership transition also resulted in more broad reaching changes throughout the company.
In Australia, Anderson formed a strong partnership with local Uber Eats head Jodie Auster with the pair working hard to change the company’s culture, investing in training for managers and linking diversity and inclusion directly to compensation for the executive leadership team.
“One of the real advantages of working in Australia within a global company is it gives you a real opportunity to innovate and test and try new things,” Anderson says.
She points to Uber’s premium tier dubbed ‘Uber Comfort’, Uber’s rider rating cap which blocks users with bad ratings from using the platform and its delivery option ‘Uber Connect’ which all originated in Australia.
Uber Connect was created in the depths of the coronavirus pandemic and is something Anderson is particularly proud of after the transport side of the company’s business dried up overnight and Uber had to quickly diversify beyond its food delivery offerings.
Anderson describes the pandemic as “extremely difficult” for the company but says it has proven Uber’s resilience and it is now playing in a much broader space.
“If you need to go somewhere, if you need to get something, we are working to try and make sure there’s solutions that are both for consumers as well as this really growing enterprise space where we’re seeing a lot of demand and an appetite for us to operate,” Anderson says.
The tech giant ditched its more ambitious offerings such as its self driving cars program and its flying taxis through Uber Air which Melbourne was initially touted as a hub for.
“We did a lot of work over the last 12 months really thinking about where do we focus resources,” Anderson says. “It is really focusing on mobility, focusing on the delivery aspects to the core capabilities, but actually I think we are innovating as much as we ever have.”
Uber’s most recent financial results show losses of $US6.77 billion ($8.74 billion) for 2020 with the company continuing to lose around $US1 billion a quarter with revenue driven mainly by Uber Eats as its transport business slowly recovers.
Now Anderson is taking on her biggest challenge yet getting ready to move to San Francisco as the global head of the tech giant’s Uber for Business operations.
Uber for Business is a significant arm for Uber and is in growth compared to 2019 with Uber reporting in its February results that its bookings grew roughly 45 per cent for the most recent quarter.
“We’re back growing even over a two year period and partly that is we are seeing that shift in mindset around business yes there’s business travel, but also the other business solutions that has really kind of helped drive that growth,” Anderson says. “From my perspective I think that’s really exciting and interesting to see how that plays out.”
Anderson sees potential for more growth in business customers ordering food through Uber Eats when travelling and corporates packaging Uber’s products like insurance companies offering Ubers when cars are being serviced or Sky TV in the UK offering gift cards to tie television programs to food delivery.
Oxford educated and with a background as a consultant for Bain, Anderson is described by her peers as “super smart”.
Former Uber colleague Amy Kunrojpanya who is now vice president of communications for Netflix for the Asia Pacific region says Anderson is a “prolific” organisation builder who is tough but fair.
“I think she has the ability to also build a vision that people rally around very easily and immediately,” she says. “The pursuit of excellence means that you do have to be very clear about what you’re looking for, and also clear about when things don’t hit the mark.”
The new role also puts Anderson in Khosrowshahi’s inner circle and signals a role for her as a potential successor.
It’s not lost on Kunrojpanya that Uber for Business is an “incredibly important” part of Uber’s portfolio.
“Susan has the ability to go in whatever direction she wants from here and being given a global portfolio I think is a great vote of confidence in what she can bring,” she says.
For her part, Anderson is excited about the challenge ahead once she overcomes the logistics of relocating her family in the midst of a pandemic.
“There’s just so much opportunity to go and have a crack and it feels like it’s day one,” she says.
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Cara is the small business editor for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald based in Melbourne
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