Case Study and Response: Uber (Case Study Sample)

OBE63885 Case Study and Response: Uber Case Study: Uber the Future The taxi industry has remained largely the same for many years. Davies (2015) attributes this to the ability of stringent regulations to hinder new players from competing with the older ones. Consequently, this has caused deterioration in the provision of this service. Harrop (2015) asserts that people have problems finding taxis, that the drivers provide low-quality service, are unreliable, and the cars are usually damp. Such a description would make one dread being in a situation where they have to rely on taxis to get them from one point to another. Even with new technological innovations, the industry's traditional players have failed to accommodate technology in a way that would improve this service. Davies (2015) elucidates that taxi cabs are in short supply in both urban and rural areas. Further, those that are there serve the purpose of making large profits for the owners of the car rather than the employees Davies (2015). Another problem is the need for more people to increase their income to pay their debts and make ends meet. For example, Pattinson (2015) points out that paying off student loans has become increasingly difficult for many graduate employees. Therefore, there is need for other work options that can help them offset this. Uber Taxi comes in to attempt to resolve this problem. It is a GPS-powered smartphone application that allows people to get cabs without having to suffer the inconvenience of actually standing outside and hailing a taxi. The app links the user's credit card to the service. Therefore, it eliminates the need to use cash. When a user requests for a cab using the app, he/she inputs their intended destination in it. This enables them to find out the time it would take them to get there and how much it would cost. The company, using the app, finds an active driver within the vicinity and assigns the nearest one to the customer. This means that the response to the request for a cab is fast. The rider can identify the driver using the app's provision of the motorist's name, photo, and the car that they are using. Increasingly, car owners are finding driving more of a liability than a benefit (Harrop, 2015). These drivers would change their attitude if they became Uber partner-drivers, as it would enable them to advance themselves. The service allows drivers to earn money as soon as they have transported the customer to their destination (Dryvver, 2015). The system also enables the business to keep track of its employees' quality of service through a rating system that allows the rider to relay their experience to the company (Dryvver, 2015). Uber Taxi usually has competitive rates on slow days and times. However, when demand increases, they also hike their fares. At such times, drivers get to earn about 80% of the fare when they use their own car; therefore, it increases the number of drivers during these peak times (Davies, 2015). This makes the service more expensive at these times, but more attractive to their partner-drivers. Case Study Response Innovation The service is innovative in that it has utilized technology to improve a service that was deteriorating. As Dryvver (2015) points out, Uber has not come up with any new technologies. However, it has combined existing technologies to come up with a transport service that is efficient and reliable (Dryvver, 2015). The technologies include GPS (Global Positioning Systems), smartphones, credit cards, and the application itself: Uber Taxi. The capability to improve security in the transport service by eliminating the use of cash and providing information about the driver's identity is also innovative (Dryvver, 2015). This is because these aspects had no place in the transport service industry before, but do now. Disruption The business has been expanding rapidly since its start in 2009 (Dobbs, Manyika and Woetzel, 2015). It is competing with major taxi companies such as Didi Kuaidi for the Chinese and South Asian markets (Chadha, 2015). The reaction to its expansion in other countries such as London shows that it has significantly shaken up the transport service industry. When governments and employees of taxi companies protest the permeation of an enterprise, it becomes clear that the competition is suffering substantial losses due to the new player (Pattinson, 2015). Uber is disruptive because it has made convenience, reliability, and security the norm in the taxi industry. Its competitive prices, impeccable services, and quality control measures have made this apparent. The company has been able to outdo its competitors such as Hailo, Addison Lee, and Kabbie (Dobbs, Manyika and Woetzel, 2015). These taxi companies have been unable to make use of the advantages that Uber enjoys. In London, these companies use black cabs with a specified number of drivers. Unlike Uber, they cannot use private-hire vehicles since attempts to do so culminate as a betrayal to the drivers of the London black cabs (Dobbs, Manyika and Woetzel, 2015). Another way in which Uber is disruptive is through the amount of data it collects from its riders. Dru (2015) points out that Uber obtains information on customer preferences as it transports people to various places. These include favoured gyms, restaurants, places of work, and holiday destinations. This means that the company is providing Big Data to hotels, airlines and other companies that use it to inform the improvement of services in various industries. The business is therefore slowly but surely making great leaps to outmanoeuvre other Big Data Sources such as Amazon, Facebook, and Microsoft (Dru, 2015). Sustaining Innovation The company has shown the ability to maintain its capacity to come up with innovative ideas to make their services essential to their customers' lives. As it permeates international markets, it has shown that it recognizes the differing needs of the different market segments in which it operates. For instance, Chadha (2015) points out that Uber delivers food to its customers during the month of Ramadan in countries in South-East Asia such as Indonesia. This shows that it identifies the needs of the Asian market and seeks to meet them. Another example of its innovation is the use of uberPOOL. This feature enables riders to share an Uber taxi or private-hire vehicle to get to their similar destination (David Plouffe on Uber and the American Worker, 2015). This has enabled the business to reach a consumer base that may not be able to afford to pay the fare for an Uber taxi alone. Other examples include uberCOMMUTE and uberMILITARY (David Plouffe on Uber and the American Worker, 2015). These are employee-centred hence making the company achieve customer and employee loyalty. Competition Uber Taxi has come in to revolutionize the taxi industry. Therefore, it finds itself engaging facing substantial competition from other companies that use different concepts and others that employ a similar one. This puts pressure on it to market itself aggressively and engage additional partner-drivers to succeed. In the global markets, the enterprise has to face competition from already existing taxi companies that offer services that mirror theirs. This is the case in China, where there are various competitors including the company's chief rival: Didi Kuaidi (Tzu-Wen, 2015). The latter uses both private-hire cars and local taxis (Tzu-Wen, 2015). Uber does not have this advantage in China, hence putting it in a precarious position. The birthplace of Uber is San Fransisco, where other taxi apps and companies existed before it. These include ZipCar and Car2Go (Hayden and Webster, 2014). The firm's originators sought to improve the taxi industry through their innovative ideas. As expected, the taxi industry responded to Uber by coming up with other similar services such as Hailo and Ridelinq (Hayden and Webster, 2014). Therefore, even in its country of origin, the business is facing competition from old and new players in the industry. Future of Work To some commentators, the innovative idea of making money as a freelancer in any field has come up to change the face of work today and in future. For Uber, engaging partner-drivers in providing services to riders is their contribution to this ‘revolution'. This is because it has allowed flexibility in work especially for those seeking temporary work arrangements. Therefore, it reduces the number of employees seeking unemployment benefits from the government, as some form of work is better than receiving aid (David Plouffe on Uber and the American Worker, 2015). This contractual relationship enables them to work more than one job at a time, to develop themselves and to have more time for family. All this seems very attractive, but the impact of such an arrangement has its own implications in people's lives. First, as independent contractors, drivers working for Uber do not have health and other employee benefits that full time and select part-time employment arrangements provide. Uber is seeking to establish that the partner-drivers are not their employees as the name denotes (Hill, 2015). This is to prevent the company from incurring costs in form of taxes and employee benefits (Hill, 2015). The issue has not been resolved yet hence leaving the partner-drivers in a pool of uncertainty. Uber partner-drivers do not see their engagement with the service as a permanent sour...