It is not easy to step in as a CEO of a company that went from being Silicon Valley’s most talked about unicorn to a company plagued with a series of crises. But Dara Khosroshahi, Uber’s new CEO seems to be taking the right next steps to regain lost credibility. I listened to his recent talk at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco and the communications nerd in me couldn’t help but observe how brilliant he was in carefully responding to what I call “curveball questions”. Watch his talk at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu4K0OYqr1g
Every CEO MUST prepare for tough questions he/she is bound to be asked especially if your company’s reputation has taken a beating. Here’s what the new Uber CEO does from a communications perspective based on his TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco talk that we can all learn to emulate:
- Speak about the future with conviction while acknowledging the past: The very first thing you notice about Dara is that he exudes confidence in a bright future for Uber. This is extremely important as he is on a critical mission to regain lost trust in the Uber brand. The CEO’s words and his/her body language must exude a sense of trust. That happens when you speak with a genuine conviction. Any semblance of flakiness can further hurt the brand’s already weakened reputation. You cannot fake conviction. It has to come from within and there is no doubt Dara has it. What’s even more valuable is when you speak with conviction but stay humble about some of the mistakes made. As a CEO who has been appointed to transform a company that has earned the wrath of its stakeholders, it is critical that you remain mindful of the company’s past while always staying focused on it’s present and more importantly it’s future. Dara does this brilliantly acknowledging Uber’s missteps but is quick to punt to “let me tell you what we are doing today to change that.” He doesn’t dismiss or act oblivious to what happened and that’s crucial to trust-building.
- Address a key concern for the company right off the bat: A minute and half into his interview, Dara masterfully addresses how he is going to improve Uber’s partnership with drivers, how he plans to help them make money off the platform. He made this a part of his response to the very first question he was asked on stage, “What’s it been like doing the right thing?” This is a brilliant way to address a major complaint against your company right off the bat when you are doing an interview so you can try to steer the conversation to focus on other more positive developments around innovation, futuristic trends etc. Addressing key concerns that you know will be top of mind for your interviewer early on as part of your response to the standard ice-breakers is an effective technique many CEOs who are media-trained deploy. This allows you to spend the bulk of your conversation to speak about the positives, what’s next for your company.
- Exhibit deep understanding of industry and customer needs: Hardly a year into his job and no previous experience in the ride-sharing industry, Dara touches on a wide variety of topics in the 30-min interview, ranging from technology, policy, international trade and gender equality issues that affect Uber. He talks about local regulators influencing Uber’s growth globally, disaggregating the car to meet personal transportation needs, routing algorithms to maximize user engagement, the next phase in personal transportation and all this while also building a company where women are treated equally. What he has done by coming across as a CEO who deeply understand his industry and his customers’ needs is that he has convinced us that Uber is in good hands under his leadership. This instills faith in the new CEO and makes those who abandoned Uber may be download the app again. As a CEO, you are also expected to come across as a thought leader, a visionary, someone who knows his/her industry in and out. Too often while doing interviews, CEOs don’t look at the big picture and position themselves as an industry expert first before speaking about their company’s value-add. That’s like trying to convince you to buy an autonomous car without telling you the shifting needs and trends that will require you one day to make that decision. Speak first as an industry expert and then your company spokesperson just like Dara does masterfully at Disrupt SF 2018.
What are your thoughts? Do you think the new Uber Chief is doing a good job at communicating the next phase of Uber’s growth?