Bit by bit: The UBER master- or disaster plan
UBER breaks their own record week by week – new investment and a very high valuation have been a part of UBERs short history. The total raised capital since the birth of UBER is insanely 2.7 billion dollars.
But how can a six-year-old company be worth more than the iconic Harley Davidson, the cereal brand Kellogg’s or Mattel, one of the favorite brands among kids around the world? If you are shaking your head and don’t understand what’s going on then look no further, I will invite you into the DeLorean DMC-12 from the movie with Michael J. Fox, “Back to the future”, and take you into the future to see UBER’s master plan and when we return safe home to the present, I will take you on another trip, but this time to see UBERs disaster plan. But lets start with the masterplan and travel three years into the year 2018.
The year is 2018
People all over the world have tried to stop UBER but the cars are still seen in the streets. There have been massive demonstrations and some violence against drivers from UBER. Former top political advisors who now working as spin-doctors at UBER have disseminated and spun the news about these innocent drivers. There is a demand for easier transportation and UBER has established a brand and has obtained massive impact with their newest funding that gives them a valuation in top five of Fortune500. A survey from several local brand agencies has shown a significantly higher brand equity than the year before. UBER has offered several unemployed people a job and a way to survive, the payout to the drivers have been massive and more and more drivers are joining the UBER fleet around the world.
In stealth mode UBER has been using significant amounts of their investment on finding the right experts in drones, robots and artificial intelligence.
Let’t travel two years further into the future to the year of 2020
Postal companies as we know them around the world are non-existent. UBER has a market share of over sixty percent with everything transported in shorter range. UBER Truck, UBER Now and UBER Instant are brands that all companies know about – just like the former transport companies DHL or UPS. – or the former UPS that was acquired by UBER back in 2019. Regulations for drones that are transporting packages and other minor items have been made legal, and many startups that have invested in time and money in this field finally have business models for what they have hoped for, for several years. UBER has already made several talent aquisitions with companies in this new thriving sector.
UBER is now the wealthiest company in the world. Travis Kalanick, the founder, and CEO is seen as the new Steve Jobs and starts paying forward to schools, startups and several other NGOs around the world.
Lets try to go one step further into the future and visit 2025
There have been a couple of drone and UBER accidents but with no lethal outcome. Furthermore, massive demonstrations have taken place initiated by former employees at UBER, The number of employees has almost reached 1,000,000 people around the world, but the day 19. September 2025 is a day that people will remember. The new CEO and master mind of the newest UBER strategy faces the many employees at the annual event where the CEO speaks to the entire crowd of employees. But this year is different: The CEO shortly informs about the strategy and thereby also a huge change. 99 % loose their jobs that day. Robots, drones and other autonomous vehicles take over.
The executives from UBER and the massive group of investors are invited to the new CEO’s yacht and celebrate a plan excellent executed and a job well done.
We are back in 2015 again and are not surrounded by technologies unknown today. If the master plan succeeded, UBER have a world domination in the transport and logistics sector, and have become the most valuable company in the world.
But what if the plan turns out to become a disaster? We head back into the DeLorean DMC-12 and into another future. But this time we take a parallel track into a new year 2018, where the UBER plan haven’t turned out to be a success.
A different 2018
The brand UBER is equal buble and failure. The massive investment is lost, and the milestones for the terms in the individual investment contracts are not reached. UBER have had bad publicity from every part of the established industry, and even though the power to change is there, UBER has failed and several international and local startups have conquered the market.
The founder and CEO of UBER is fired in late 2016 when Washington Post journalist digs up even more dirt about UBER and write a article series about the real DNA of UBER. News are spread through social media, and the panic in the eyes of the investors becomes more and more apparent during the publication of the article series. Local independent organisations that help the taxi industry are forming a global alliance against UBER. TITF – taxis in the future, lobbies against UBER, and with success. UBER tries to add several changes to the business model and market focus, but the massive investment during the first couple of years hits the company like a boomerang. The knowledge to the brand UBER is among the biggest in the world, and the image of UBER is at a stage where it can’t be saved.12. December 2016, the investors decide to pull out and one of them is quotes “Dont invest good money after bad money”
We are back in the DeLorean DMC-12, and before we land safely, we almost hit an UBER car during an intersection. The year is 2015 and UBER is one of the most valuable tech Companies and growing fast. They are on a journey towards world domination or failure. What path they take, only the near future can tell, but the recent billion dollar convertible debt loan from Goldmann Sachs shows that they are still hot property for VC and hedge funds.
