Introduction
In the study of any kind of organization and its management by its authorities, a lot of factors determine the role of every organizational facet that is established at first. In the context of the various tech start-ups that have cropped up all over the world these days, Uber formerly called Ubercabs, has set a great example of the various organizational and management concepts and theories being put into practice (Bryman & Bell, 2015).
The objective and the scope of this report are limited to analyzing and assessing the various organizational structuring and framework in the context of the chosen MNC and how the various internal as well as external factors contribute to the upkeep and management of the organization and subsequently enable it to achieve the organizational goals (Brocke & Rosemann, 2014).
Discussion
About the company: Uber
Uber, with its client-driven approach, gives clients the likelihood to get a taxi regardless of where they are. Furthermore, it gives them a chance to track the whole course of the ride, and, at last, permits them to make a cashless installment with their Visa. What is remarkable about this approach is that every one of the exercises portrayed above can be advantageously drawn in from their cell phone. The administration depends on direct customer-to-driver collaboration, so there is no requirement for a dispatcher or, then again, far more atrocious, remaining on the walkway and waving, trusting that you can hail a taxi (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2014). This lessens the operational cost for Uber. Also, the best-preferred standpoint of Uber is by and large bringing down costs in contrast with customary taxi administrators, and, as a rule, a higher nature of autos. Another advantage is the common rating framework in which clients can pick confirmed and appraised drivers before beginning the ride and drivers can pick travelers with great ratings. This rating framework likewise empowers Uber to monitor the nature of drivers utilized in the organization (Green, 2013).
Uber, with its qualities specified above, has productively tended to the various issues that were a part of the conventional taxi hiring systems across the world. By bringing in the autonomy of every willing cab driver and at the same time delivering a swifter and technologically enabled way for the customer, Uber was successful in aggregating the various seemingly incoherent aspects of the business into a functional business unit. Thus, Uber’s way of dealing with taxi drivers and cab services has rapidly spread the world over as the taxi markets exist all around (Jeston & Nelis, 2014).
Organizational structure, governance
Uber, started way back in the year 2009 when the entire world was seeing an unprecedented surge in the use of digital platforms for enhancing the very simple products and services that people avail in their daily lives. It first operated out of San Francisco and now has made its presence felt in more than 58 countries all over the world.
One of the most interesting and logistically enticing facts about Uber is that, even though the company itself has been valued at over $50 billion, it does not own any pool of cabs or means of transport facility by itself. In the beginning, Uber adopted a business model that was based on pooling the existing cab services under one umbrella and intervening and enabling it with technological upgrades that can be accessed with smartphones and computers (Lee & Lee, 2014).
The concept that was used in implementing this simple idea of an enhanced cab service in different cities was started in the most tech-savvy of all cities i.e. San Francisco, where it gained an overwhelming response from the user base. The entirety of cab services had achieved a technological milestone and was seen as a quintessential part of most urban populaces in developed countries.
SWOT analysis
Strengths
- Availability of round-the-clock on-demand taxi services that are almost homogenous across the different cities and countries. The homogeneity in the quality of services serves as a huge incentive when it comes to the brand perception of the company
- A large pool of cabs and cab owners. Uber brings in as many as 50000 new partners every month all over the globe and adds them to the existing fleet of cab services it has established over the year.
- Superior user experience about the very first step of hiring an Uber to the drop off at the destination. Uber uses software applications for carrying out all the ground-level business processes such as acceptance of an order, tracking the cabs, etc.
Weakness
- At the center of these shortcomings and weaknesses on the part of the company, is the issue of reliability. With the developing rivalry, particularly from national players with similar services such as Ola cabs in India, Uber lost a major part of its business partners consisting of cab drivers who joined the rival cab services.
- Uber is as of late getting a great deal of negative press because of the organization’s morally sketchy associations with drivers, who are considered contractual workers as opposed to full-time representatives by the organization, and thus despise the advantages of the lowest pay permitted by law, additional time or wellbeing protection. Drivers additionally grumble about low profit contrasted with the high expenses of being a driver, and the application doesn’t permit tipping. Driver disappointment has as of now been shown in urban areas, for example, New York, San Francisco Los Angeles, and most other cities in the US where tipping the service providers is a norm in most systems (Reichert, Hallerbach & Bauer, 2015).
- Uber, in some of the markets where it operates, has created a negative impression that it has no genuine association with the clients/drivers, even though it claims them to be its business partners. Drivers are the substance of the association. This can prove to be a major setback to the brand perception of the company leading to further loss of business
Opportunity
- One of the biggest opportunities for Uber is customer dissatisfaction with the conventionally available taxicab services because of the high costs, long waiting times, and accessibility that they provide about pick-up locations and destinations. Uber can eliminate the customer dissatisfaction out of the equation almost entirely
- It can exploit new and huge markets that are present unexplored, and emerging as the demand for such cab services is huge because the existing taxi services are badly designed or costly. This can serve as the principle focus for entering into such markers within a reasonable time frame (Shehzad & Khan, 2013).
- Another opportunity for Uber is to take advantage of rural regions where there are no taxi services and are often not well connected to the developed centers of the region.
Threats
- Threats of being substituted by local contenders that offer similar services at lower costs and surge benefits.
- Threats from loss of business due to individual cab drivers being associated with other services while being on Uber’s watch.
- Lack of awareness of the various trends and expectations of the customers from the region and hence not being able to tap into its full potential to gain market presence. When it comes to cab services, players with an international presence are often seen skeptically by the target customers.
PEST analysis
Political impact
The impact of politics and policymaking in this domain is huge when it comes to the app-driven cab service. As services of this kind have come up only a few years ago, many emerging markets do not have adequate policies about accommodating such services effectively into the existing business and industry domain of the country (Stark, 2015).
Economic impact
Before entering any prospective market, the company needs to undertake a comprehensive study of the market perception, customer wants, and demand for such services. The egg-chicken conundrum is often cited in this regard, where the company has to balance between the build-up of a customer base as well as a fleet of cabs for operating in the area. Moreover, the consumption pattern and spending money by the target population are to be understood first to avoid any unprofitable venture.
Social impact
In the recent past, there have been allegations over the safety and security of the passengers who avail of the services by Uber. Hence it can be said that the social perception of the brand can go a long way in determining how it fares in the business domain.
Technological impact
Being one of the first-of-its-kind app-driven cab services, technology lies at the center of the cab services. any changes in the existing platform that is being used by the company to gain access to the user pool can heavily impact the business operations. In the future, any technology change that is being used to operate the cab services and how the users respond to the same would be a huge determinant of the company’s success (Saunders & Lewis, 2014).
Conclusion
From the above context of organizational structuring, management, and operation of a business enterprise citing Uber as an example, it can be said that there are a huge number of areas and niches that can prove to be undertaken by various business entities to derive a business opportunity. The various risks, threats, and opportunities have been discussed concerning the entry and expansion of the company into newer markets. The analysis of the strengths and weaknesses and various other external factors can provide insight into how to make the services more efficient.
References
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Brocke, J.V. and Rosemann, M., 2014. Business process management. Wiley Encyclopedia of Management.
Carroll, A. and Buchholtz, A., 2014. Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Nelson Education.
Green, B. ed., 2013. Risk behavior and risk management in business life. Springer Science & Business Media.
Jeston, J. and Nelis, J., 2014. Business process management. Routledge.
Lee, H.H. and Lee, C.Y., 2014. The effects of total quality management and organizational learning on business performance: evidence from Taiwanese insurance industries. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 25(9-10), pp.1072-1087.
Reichert, M., Hallerbach, A. and Bauer, T., 2015. Lifecycle management of business process variants. In Handbook on Business Process Management 1 (pp. 251-278). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.
Shehzad, R. and Khan, M.N.A., 2013. Integrating knowledge management with business intelligence processes for enhanced organizational learning. International Journal of Software Engineering and Its Applications, 7(2), pp.83-92.
Stark, J., 2015. Product lifecycle management. In Product Lifecycle Management (pp. 1-29). Springer International Publishing.
Saunders, M.N. and Lewis, P., 2014. Doing research in business and management: An essential guide to planning your project. Pearson Higher Ed.
