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Masters of Scale · June 11, 2019 · 38m

How to Turn Around a Company in Crisis

Dara Khosrowshahi took over Uber after Travis Kalanick's ouster — inheriting a company with brilliant technology, toxic culture, and lawsuits everywhere. His turnaround strategy: change the values without changing the ambition.

This summary was generated from show notes and public descriptions, not from a full transcript review. Details may contain inaccuracies.

Canon

Khosrowshahi argues that Uber's pre-2017 behavior — the aggression, the rule-breaking, the internal competition — wasn't caused by bad people. It was caused by a system that rewarded aggression and punished caution. Change the system, change the behavior.

Highlights

Culture turnarounds require changing norms, not changing people
Khosrowshahi didn't fire most of Uber's leadership — he changed the norms. New values ('We do the right thing. Period.'), new decision frameworks, and visible accountability for the CEO himself transformed behavior without replacing the talent.
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