Uber APAC – Brochure 2020 by B2e Media

Maximum impact Project partner

Maximum impact Brish Bhan Vaidya, Head of Strategic Sourcing & Supply Chain at Uber APAC, discusses why procurement is even more important than you think, and how it continues to drive the transformation of the business

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N el l Wal ker Gr eg Chur c hi ll

or a relatively young company, Uber hasn’t wasted any time becoming a house-

hold name. Our media is flooded with the ride-sharing giant’s name, as it sweeps the globe with its expanding roster of services, and it’s even become a common benchmark, with startups all over the world describing themselves as ‘the Uber of (insert service here)’. The name has become a mark of expertise and good business sense, and allowed the business to find exciting footholds in rapidly growing markets, such as the Asia-Pacific (APAC) area. Brish Bhan Vaidya, Head of Strategic Sourcing & Supply Chain at Uber APAC, was one of the early members of the sourcing function, globally, and the first

lost on him. “When companies want to improve

of the sourcing function’s employees in

upon their revenue, the method is to sell

the India South Asia region (and second

more, and if they want to reduce opera-

in APAC region, including ANZ). At the

tional expenses and get into profit mode,

time, the company was experiencing

the largest contributor to that – after

rapid growth in India; now, the business

sales – is always the procurement func-

has expanded into every APAC coun-

tion,” Vaidya explains. “Sales can define

try. It is thanks, in part, to procurement

what the margin is, but it’s generally the

experts such as Vaidya that this level of

procurement function which has the

growth has proven possible, which is

significant impact.”

why many other branches are repositioning themselves to invest in and prioritise

A spotlight on procurement

strategic sourcing. This importance of

Traditionally thought of as a back-of-

shining a spotlight on procurement is not

fice function, procurement is now much

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something which holds hands with every

and my team meet a lot of decision-mak-

other function in a business – but that

ers, including the CXOs from the supplier

doesn’t mean those partnerships are

side, and we don’t forget to pitch Uber for

necessarily straightforward, and a great

Business (U4B, the team catering to the

deal of strategic thinking has to go into

ground travel needs of the corporates) to

making it seamless. For Uber, this meant

them in our discussions,” Vaidya explains.

a top-down approach – something which

“I was doing a deal with a large telco in

is made easier thanks to advanced tech-

India and we asked if they would accept

nology – and, for Vaidya, it helps to work

us as a partner when their employees

closely with operations and other teams

travel. Those kinds of deals can become

and ensure that both sides of the busi-

very easy to negotiate, and management

ness operate in equal harmony.

is very supportive of such ideas.”

“One of the interesting partnerships I

Vaidya believes this is one of the

can mention is the 360-degree approach

unique features of the way Uber marries

that we have with our suppliers. Myself

its various functions (e.g. sales, safety and w w w . c p o s t r a t e g y. c o m

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quality, community operations etc.) and

the procurement team brings to their

procurement – it’s something not many

business, where procurement not only

companies do. “I’ve rarely heard of sourc-

possesses procurement acumen, they

ing people pitching their company’s prod-

have business acumen too. In Vaidya’s

ucts to suppliers, but here at Uber, we

experience, many businesses think their

have a product that’s used by every type

procurement is of world-class quality, but

of company, because everybody trav-

in his experience, that’s not always the

els.” This kind of pitching of the compa-

case. “They might claim to have great

ny’s offering, between two procurement

procurement, but the moment you start

teams, helps to support what the sales

benchmarking them against the stand-

teams does and stimulate new avenues

ards and comparing to other organisa-

of growth.

tions, they realise there is a lot to achieve still,” he says.

A question of procurement maturity

“As a simple example, most organisa-

One reason the procurement and other

tions run multiple enterprise and func-

operations - including sales and BD -

tion level tools which do not talk to each

partnerships have been working so well

other, and, even if they are integrated, the

for Uber, while others might still keep the

information is either not used by all or not

two segments more separate than they

used fully. This is not the sign of a mature

need to be, is the trust that they have

organisation. Similarly, if a procurement

built with each other. Most of the busi-

organisation claims to manage 100%

ness stakeholders know the value that

of the spend effectively, they still keep

“This people-centric focus extends, of course, to suppliers. Uber’s strong supplier relationship model focuses on collaboration, and showing suppliers what the value is for them” — B R I S H B H A N VA I DYA , H E A D O F S T R AT E G I C S O U R C I N G & S U P P LY C H A I N AT U B E R A PA C

w w w . c p o s t r a t e g y. c o m

running analysis to understand the tail-end spend from time-to-time.” For Uber, the last four years have marked a turning point in its own procurement maturity. Back when Vaidya joined the business, there were only seven or eight sourcing and procurement employees working for the company in the entire world – prior to that, every major deal was happening within the US and the rest of the world simply followed. “Now, we’ve done a lot of optimisation, where processes are set, tools are available and talent is at work,” says Vaidya. “The initial challenge, when I joined and happened to be the first in the region, was introducing myself to businesses by saying, ‘this is my role; this is what procurement looks like’. Almost four years ago, when I joined Uber, the average age of Uber employees in India was 28 or 29 with a lot of them in their first ever job. For a lot of the employees, there were 2-3 major functions which were core for the organisation’s success, and procurement was not a known function at all. It was difficult, going in and saying, ‘okay, let’s work together and I can help you get the right suppliers in place to reduce risk for the organisation, and do price benchmarking so that we can improve our procurement costs’. As the focus was only business growth rather than cost, they weren’t worried about that. That’s where the top-down approach works, because the management was convinced that to stay in the field for a long time, cost, compliance, and risk needed to be focused on.” When some of the potential risks include the possibility of getting into legal challenges, mature stakeholders do listen. If something does happen – for example, an 45

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w w w . c p o s t r a t e g y. c o m

SMS sent without knowing what the local

Asia, but the entire APAC region across

regulations are – the recipient can lodge

all the functions, thanks to the business

a legal complaint against the sender;

gaining confidence. This was bolstered

that’s not just the loss of a customer, but

by Vaidya’s ability to cut costs, improve

the brand reputation as well as the right

control and compliance and help put

to send any further customer communi-

supplier relationship management

cation through the same channel. Now

processes in place. By the third year of

that attracted the attention of the rest of

the sourcing team’s existence in India, he

the functions, and the procurement func-

was invited to be part of the core leader-

tion’s determination, under Vaidya’s lead-

ship team focusing on cost optimisation

ership, to change attitudes towards itself

across the region. Today, anything that is

slowly increased engagement across the

done in India, which involves either the

company and allowed him to focus on

spend or the requirement of a supply

pure strategic sourcing.

base, he is part of, and the country leads

Now, the sourcing function is experiencing great success not just in South

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the way for the organisation in APAC. Now, other large markets – like Australia

and New Zealand – have begun looking

Building trust with stakeholders

to India to shape the way Uber operates

Clearly, the journey Vaidya has under-

for them.

taken with Uber APAC has been a wind-

“Transformation is happening, in Uber’s

ing, shifting and constantly-evolving one.

procurement, now that we touch almost

Now in an enviable global position, this

every function,” says Vaidya. “There are

segment of the business is inspiring its

some regions where we still have do

many other arms to be better – but the

slightly more. We have the demand from

original approach to the roadmap-plan-

the business and we are focusing there

ning process was actually fairly simple.

slightly more now. APAC as a region is

Vaidya and his team looked at the high

little ahead in terms of procurement matu-

spend areas, to begin with, research-

rity. Thanks to the stakeholders in the

ing what supplies should cost and which

region who have not just trusted us, they

areas in the supplier engagement could

have cooperated too. And, thanks to the

be improved, which is what some of the

wonderful talent in the team too, who

early benchmarking centres around.

have delivered per expectations.”

“I remember one of the initial sourcing

w w w . c p o s t r a t e g y. c o m

projects I started working on, and had

direction in 2017; the plan included what

huge success in, not just bringing the cost

the India and South Asia region wanted

down, but putting a strong governance

to achieve in 2017 in terms of trip count,

process around,” he explains. “These

the number of cities it wanted to launch

initial successes helped build a great

Uber products in, what the guidelines for

level of trust with the regional leadership

spending were for each of those cities,

team. One of them was to do the bench-

and what procurement policy and compli-

marking of telco rates for cloud telephony

ance needed to be put in place. Now,

against what Uber was paying for. After

thanks to the formulae and processes the

connecting with some major suppliers in

sourcing team has implemented, the past

the country to understand their operating

two-to-three years of Uber APAC have

model, costs, et cetera, and then doing

been very straightforward.

business review meetings with the incum-

“I don’t think we’re facing any major

bent supplier(s), the plan was almost clear

issues, as such, except that the pace of

and it needed just a couple of rounds of

growth is changing, new product lines

negotiations to bring the cost down by

from business are being introduced and

almost 60-70%. Needless to say, a lot of process efficiencies were the added value to the project.” After this project, doors were open to explore more spend areas and sponsorship from the region’s president came automatically. The thing that came out clearly was that the earlier negotiations were led from the US, and there were a lot of local nuances and knowledge which was missing in the previous deals. Those early discussions were very tactical, and we built a strategy around that.” That strategy was put in place by December that year, as the business wanted to throw itself into the new 49

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“Uber allows a lot of empowerment for every single person, regardless of their job level” — B R I S H B H A N VA I DYA , H E A D O F S T R AT E G I C S O U R C I N G & S U P P LY C H A I N AT U B E R A PA C

the organisation is becoming more matured,” Vaidya explains. “The sourcing team has access to most of the information it needs, be it the spend around the procurement category or the growth numbers of a country or a city at product line level. We see how the plan is being built today.”

Teamwork That sharing of information, of keeping everybody on the same page, only works when a team works well together – and that only happens when a team is content and empowered. According to Vaidya, this is a defining part of Uber’s culture. “In previous organisations, when defining the job description for a particular position, the intention was always to bring in someone who has prior experience doing that,” he explains. Simple as that. “I always followed that process because w w w . c p o s t r a t e g y. c o m

that’s how the organisational culture was,

what the value is for them – but it wasn’t

but Uber is very different. It allows a lot

always like that. Four years ago, it was

of empowerment for every single person,

not matured enough; the business was

regardless of their job level, so when I

frequently switching suppliers for the

was building my team over two years

promise of a slightly reduced cost, which

ago, I made sure to choose people who

eventually meant that a lot of vendors did

could not only deliver the sourcing and

not have high engagement with Uber.

procurement objective, but work closely

“They used to tell us that we changed

with stakeholders, believe in the organi-

our minds too often, but things have defi-

sation’s vision and are mission-driven.”

nitely changed there,” Vaidya explains.

This people-centric focus extends,

“We’re not perfect, but what we do on the

of course, to suppliers. Uber’s strong

supplier relationship management, espe-

supplier relationship model focuses on

cially with the top vendors, is make sure

collaboration, and showing suppliers

we’re transparent with them. We expect

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them to be flexible and fast-paced, wherein our business volumes can change drastically on either side and they should be ready to execute the supplies and services with no SLA breach. But a lot of our vendors understand our business and they’re happy to deal with the potential risks.”

Crisis management Speaking of risks, it would be impossible to discuss Uber’s continuous improvement journey without discussing how it dealt with the current COVID-19 pandemic. As Uber’s everyday ride-sharing business ground to a halt, suppliers were quick to get in touch and ask: how does this affect our relationship? Some difficult discussions had to happen, but ultimately, everybody involved was and is affected by something that couldn’t be foreseen. So Uber worked closely with its partners to help identify new directions and revenue streams; for example, one supplier that would have normally provided facilities management products to Uber’s offices was asked to, instead, source PPE for them, and Vaidya’s team assisted the process by talking the business through some manufacturers to approach. “Similarly, another company was doing background checks for drivers. Knowing what the capabilities of the company are, we asked them to provide certain field based services which had no relation with their existing services portfolio. There are a couple of more examples where the ask from Uber, from its supplier, utilised their core capabilities to innovate better for the suppliers. On one side, a supplier in the field of BTL activations was w w w . c p o s t r a t e g y. c o m

asked to manufacture and install safety

maintain our reputation; suppliers have a

shields in the vehicles; on the other hand,

great respect for Uber, because it’s not

a company in the domain of physical

all about price with us – it’s also about

security services was made ready to do

innovation.”

the physical distribution of PPE kits across

And if COVID-19 hadn’t happened

multiple cities. So we were able to show

when it did? Vaidya’s team was ready to

some vendors new ways of working,

support the growth in the currently oper-

and new ways of making revenue while

ational cities, expand its existing prod-

being associated with Uber, so that those

uct verticals in the new cities and work

relationships stayed strong. It’s helped

with business in launching new products

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across the region, but that didn’t happen.

through this period, its core values,”

Fortunately, the inherent agility of the

says Vaidya. “It helps that everybody is

business has meant that it has adapted

empowered to make a decision, and that

as necessary and changed its priorities.

has been key to all of our successes.”

Right now, the company is talking to each of its vendors, large and small, counting every dollar it spends and preparing for a new normal before, inevitably, returning to its initial plans. “Uber’s culture has allowed us to get w w w . c p o s t r a t e g y. c o m

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