The Case of Uber: The Challenges Facing New Fast Growing Technology Companies

Dr. John Jordan is a technology analyst and Clinical Professor of Supply Chain and Information Systems in Smeal College of Business at Penn State University. He has taught at the university for over 12 years and is a guest-lecturer for the computer science capstone course (annually), energy engineering, Information Sciences & Technology, and industrial engineering. John is the co-author of a widely cited article on cloud computing in Communications ACM and has written for the Wall Street Journal. During his time as a principal at EY’s Center for Business Innovation, John consulted with companies in nearly every industry on 4 continents regarding strategic implications of emerging technologies and online commerce. Dr. Jordan got his undergraduate degree from Duke, his first masters at Yale University, and a second masters degree then PhD from the University of Michigan.

Mobile computing, the so-called Internet of Things, and the rapid expansion of internet connectivity all over the world are combining to challenge long-standing assumptions about the mission, function, and reach of traditional organizational forms. Uber is a fast-growing company with several unique attributes: its drivers are not employees, the company does not own the majority of its productive infrastructure, and the management is often at odds with local law and custom. Uber’s rapid rise to unprecedented scale serves to illustrate the gaps between traditional organizational assumptions and the reach of current technological capability. To address these gaps, Dr. Jordan will discuss four principles for designing large-scale digital organizations.