Uber has hired a well-known Harvard Business School professor to help address its big management problems.
Frances Frei, the school's UPS Foundation professor of service management, has been hired by Uber as its first senior vice president of leadership and strategy, Recode reported Monday evening. The news site said Frei's role will have a broad mandate, including training managers and executives, developing a zero-tolerance policy on sexual harassment and making Travis Kalanick a better CEO.
Uber's hiring of Frei comes as the San Francisco-based company seeks to fix various problems that have bubbled to the surface over the past several months, including reports of sexual harassment, a toxic work culture and bad relations with drivers. The company is expected to release this week to employees a report based on a wide-ranging investigation by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and another partner at Holder's law firm, Covington & Burling.
"My goal is to make this a world-class company that can be proud of itself in the end, rather than embarrassed," Frei, who is the author of "Uncommon Service: How to Win by Putting Customers at the Core of Your Business," told Recode. She will commute to Uber's headquarters from Cambridge.
Before taking the new job, Frei had already spent several months with Uber as an advisor and consultant. USA Today reported last month that Uber had been putting its supervisors through leadership skill-building sessions designed by Frei.
"Frances has spent many hours together over the last few months with our leadership team and many of our employees, so she understands our company: who we are and where we are going," Uber said in a statement on its website.
