[Mac-BR] Uber’s C.E.O. Plays With Fire

[Evandro Vieira Ouriques]

Uber’s C.E.O. Plays With Fire

Travis Kalanick’s drive to win in life has led to a pattern of risk-taking
that has at times put his ride-hailing company on the brink of implosion.
By MIKE ISAAC <https://www.nytimes.com/by/mike-isaac>APRIL 23, 2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/23/technology/travis-kalanick-pushes-uber-and-himself-to-the-precipice.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=image&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

Travis Kalanick, the chief executive of Uber, visited Apple’s headquarters
in early 2015 to meet with Timothy D. Cook, who runs the iPhone maker. It
was a session that Mr. Kalanick was dreading.

For months, Mr. Kalanick had pulled a fast one on Apple by directing his
employees to help camouflage the ride-hailing app from Apple’s engineers.
The reason? So Apple would not find out that Uber had been secretly
identifying and tagging iPhones even after its app had been deleted and the
devices erased — a fraud detection maneuver that violated Apple’s privacy
guidelines.

But Apple was onto the deception, and when Mr. Kalanick arrived at the
midafternoon meeting sporting his favorite pair of bright red sneakers and
hot-pink socks, Mr. Cook was prepared. “So, I’ve heard you’ve been breaking
some of our rules,” Mr. Cook said in his calm, Southern tone. Stop the
trickery, Mr. Cook then demanded, or Uber’s app would be kicked out of
Apple’s App Store.

For Mr. Kalanick, the moment was fraught with tension. If Uber’s app was
yanked from the App Store, it would lose access to millions of iPhone
customers — essentially destroying the ride-hailing company’s business. So
Mr. Kalanick acceded.

In a quest to build Uber into the world’s dominant ride-hailing entity, Mr.
Kalanick has openly disregarded many rules and norms, backing down only
when caught or cornered. He has flouted transportation and safety
regulations, bucked against entrenched competitors and capitalized on legal
loopholes and gray areas to gain a business advantage. In the process, Mr.
Kalanick has helped create a new transportation industry, with Uber
spreading to more than 70 countries and gaining a valuation of nearly $70
billion, and its business continues to grow.

But the previously unreported encounter with Mr. Cook showed how Mr.
Kalanick was also responsible for risk-taking that pushed Uber beyond the
pale, sometimes to the very brink of implosion.

Crossing that line was not a one-off for Mr. Kalanick. According to
interviews with more than 50 current and former Uber employees, investors
and others with whom the executive had personal relationships, Mr.
Kalanick, 40, is driven to the point that he must win at whatever he puts
his mind to and at whatever cost — a trait that has now plunged Uber into
its most sustained set of crises since its founding in 2009.

“Travis’s biggest strength is that he will run through a wall to accomplish
his goals,” said Mark Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks owner and billionaire
investor who has mentored Mr. Kalanick. “Travis’s biggest weakness is that
he will run through a wall to accomplish his goals. That’s the best way to
describe him.”
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