Description
MBA 500 Module Five Presentation Guidelines and Rubric
Overview
You have analyzed the current financial records of your organization and evaluated whether the operational plan aligns with key performance indicators of the finance department.
Now, your CEO wants you to present to senior management how your department (or any individual department) can contribute to the financial success of the organization.
Prompt
Analyze Uber’s financial success and present your findings to senior management. In your findings, you will identify financial key performance indicators, industry financial benchmarks, and accounting guidelines related to Uber. Review the Uber Case Study provided in the textbook, and review the additional information related to Uber provided.
Review the Uber Case Study provided in the textbook.
Critical Thinking Case: Uber: Riding the Gig Economy
Review the following additional information related to Uber.
Investor information for Uber balanced scorecard/financial: In the annual report, review Uber’s balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement.
Uber: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environment, social, governance (ESG) metrics
Create a presentation for your CEO and senior management, discussing the following key criteria:
Identify the financial key performance indicators of Uber’s success.
Analyze how different functional areas, departments, or both of Uber contribute to its overall financial success.
What common industry financial benchmarks should Uber consider in developing its strategies to grow the business?
Which financial benchmark can Uber adopt to measure its performance and increase its industry attractiveness? Use Porter’s five forces to support your answer.
Are there any critical elements of accounting guidelines that will be crucial for Uber to meet? Explain your reasoning.
What to Submit
Using PowerPoint, create a presentation that is 5 to 7 slides in length, and include references cited in APA format. Consult the Shapiro Library APA Style Guide for more information on citations.
Unformatted Attachment Preview
Uber Riding the Gig Economy
In many ways, the gig economy has begun to revolutionize how people consume products and
services. Companies such as Airbnb, for example, provide an online marketplace that connects
would-be renters with people seeking accommodations and eliminates the “middleman” in 192
countries worldwide. Companies following a “gig” approach are growing in number and
popularity, with more appearing every day. The list is huge and includes – just to name a few Lyft, which connects drivers with passengers; Turo, which connects rental cars with customers
in need of a car; and OpenAirplane, RVshare, Sailo, Boatsetter, Parking Panda, Closet
Collective, and Grubhub. We are seeing a revolution in the way the “market” functions … or are
we?
Uber
Perhaps, currently, the best known of the gig companies making big waves in the press and in the
new economy is Uber. And it all started because no one would give them (Uber’s founders) a
ride. In 2008, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp were in Paris and couldn’t get a cab. Their
experience led to the development of an extremely convenient, relatively safe, and also rather
inexpensive app-enabled online driver service. Founded in 2009 and currently operating in 63
countries and 700+ cities, Kalanick and Camp’s simple solution – Uber – has become a cultural
phenomenon. Uber connects customers in need of a ride with “gig” workers who pick them up.
The model is simple and extremely streamlined. Uber provides the market and takes a cut of the
proceeds. No cash is exchanged between drivers and passengers. Everything is handled by Uber,
whose app-enabled market has changed the way people think about transportation.
Untraditional Financial Models
Following in the path of other well-known new economy companies, Uber has continued to
generate eye-popping revenues – estimates put Uber’s revenues in excess of $11 billion in 2018 its balance sheet is startling, but in the wrong way. Although these kinds of sales numbers are
astonishing, particularly for a company that is only 10 years old, they have to be understood in
light of the company’s massive financial losses during the same period. Uber is estimated to have
lost nearly $3 billion since its inception (exact figures are difficult to calculate because, as a
privately held company, Uber is not required to disclose its financials). It is estimated that Uber
spends $1.55 for every dollar in revenue it generates. So, although Uber generates huge annual
sales numbers, it also spends a lot of money on drivers’ pay, incentives, and bonuses.
What Is Uber Really Doing?
Uber is spending a substantial amount of money on technology. These investments include the
recent strategic purchase of Geometric Intelligence – a start-up cofounded by academic
researchers focused on making artificial intelligence (AI) systems that can navigate in the real
world – perhaps hints at the company’s longer-term strategic intent. This intent becomes more
apparent when one considers that the company’s investments in AI coincide with the fact that
Uber is currently running fleets of self-driving cars. These vehicles are operating on the streets of
California and in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Uber is actively and aggressively
testing its AI assets on the same city streets on which you and your friends and family drive
every day. The city streets have essentially become a laboratory for Uber to road-test the
machinery of its long-term vision. Given these kinds of investments, does this long-term vision
include human drivers?
What’s the Long-Term Vision?
Although some estimates put the number of drivers currently employed by Uber at upward of
150,000, the company’s recent investments in AI, navigation technologies, and self-driving cars
suggest that this particular gig employer may not be in it for the long term, at least as far as
opportunities for human drivers are concerned. What do you think the new CEO of Uber, Dara
Khosrowshahi, has in mind for the future of Uber? What role do you think he wants this
emerging giant in the mass transit market to play moving forward? Do you think that
investments in AI and self-driving cars are a good signal for future human employment with
Uber? Why or why not? Is Uber the long-term answer for gig employees?
Case Analysis Questions
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1. Discussion Although many argue that the gig economy has opened up opportunities for
individuals to be self-employed in ways that complement their lifestyle, the investments
that gig giant Uber is making suggest a different kind of future for the uber-successful
taxi substitute. What do think Uber has in mind?
2. Discussion What are some of the potential applications for fleets of self-driving
vehicles? What role might this kind of infrastructure play in towns and cities in the
future? How might Uber leverage these kinds of assets to generate a profit? Do you see a
way for Uber to be successful while still employing human drivers? How?
3. Problem Solving You’ve been hired on by Uber’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi as the
Chief Financial Officer and asked to address the issue of huge quarterly losses, despite
massive sales revenues. The Uber fleet is not likely to be “self-driving” for at least
another five years, and it isn’t clear whether the current model will be sustainable until
then, particularly given increasing competitive pressures to raise drivers’ rates from
companies such as Lyft. What steps could you take to address these competing pressures
– market pressures to raise rates and the need to generate profits?
4. Further Research Look into some of the more well-known gig companies currently
making headlines in the financial press. Are any of these companies generating a profit?
What factors are at work here? How have these profitable companies organized to
become profitable? Are any of these companies moving toward models that remove the
“human factor” – that mechanize in the way that it looks like Uber could be seeking to
mechanize? How are the financial values of some of these gig companies being
determined? In light of the huge losses experienced by some gig economies, what factors
are likely playing a role in these financial evaluations? Are people speculating on an
unknown future?
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