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Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick on Tuesday decided to take a leave of absence for an unspecified period, days after Emil Michael, who was senior vice-president of business, and Eric Alexander, who was heading the Asia-Pacific business, left as the San company battles a wave of scandals.Michael, particularly, had a key role in driving investments into the company's India operations, according to analysts and company executives. They anticipate that Uber's aggressive growth drive in India and other international markets will be scaled back until the company can sort out the crisis before it, mostly related to its culture.
"Emil, Travis and especially Eric were very clued into the India business operations,“ said a senior executive at Uber India, declining to be identified. “Minus their presence, we understand that India will temporarily not be a focus area in the coming months. It's the same with the other countries too till things settle down at the headquarters."
The company's focus now is on ensuring that the day-to-day operations run smoothly without hiccups, the executive said. Uber did not reply to email queries from ET.
The cab-hailing company is battling allegations of widespread mismanagement and a toxic workplace culture, especially since former employee Susan Fowler in a blog post in February wrote about her experience at Uber. Analysts and employees are wary of what impact any changes in Uber's culture will have on the company's growth. "Getting acquainted to a completely different work culture may not be easy and will definitely take several months," said the Uber executive quoted earlier. "Working at Uber does inculcate an entrepreneurial spirit, where one does anything to get the work done, basically, hustling one's way through till the goal is met. There is a fair amount of confusion pertaining to the systemic changes at the moment ".
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Sandeep Murthy , partner at Light box Ventures, said while it was definitely possible for Uber to turn things around culturally , the company faced a bit of an identity challenge at the moment. "Uber has moved at the fastest pace any tech company has but needs to evolve culturally . Also, Travis' background is such that he does push the limits to achieve growth and that's the reason they are where they are today, but being ethically responsible is important," he said.
The developments come at a time when India's largest taxi aggregator, Ola, backed by Japan's Soft Bank, is locked in a battle with Uber for dominance in Asia's third-largest economy. India is viewed as the next big battleground for global consumer internet giants as they scour for opportunities outside their home markets and China.
For Uber -currently valued at about $70 billion -India has emerged as a particularly critical market since its exit from China, where it sold its operations to domestic market leader Didi Chuxing after spending billions of dollars to gain market share.
Uber employs about 400 people in India and has about 4,00,000 drivers in 29 cities. Ola has about 5,50,000 drivers on its platform across 110 cities.
Uber's board, on Sunday , unanimously adopted recommendations made following an investigation led by the law firm of former US Attorney General Eric Holder, whom the cab-hailing company retained to look in to its culture and practices.
The report resulted in Michael's exit and a decision to reduce Kalanick's sweeping authority.
Based on it, Uber will also institute more controls over spending, HR, the behaviour of managers, and the company's culture -including prohibiting intimate relationships at the workplace and issuing clearer guidelines around funds for social events and alcohol consumption.
As part of ongoing investigations, Uber has fired about 20 staff for numerous violations and at least 100 more are being investigated.
Alexander was fired after two law firms investigating into the allegations of widespread sexual harassment and mismanagement at Uber found that he had accessed the medical reports of a woman who had been raped by a driver on its platform in India in December 2014.
