Dara Khosrowshahi
Dara Khosrowshahi speaking at the 2016 GeekWire Summit in Seattle. (GeekWire Photo / Dan DeLong)

In his new role as Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi admits that, among other things, he’s spent the first couple months “dealing with a few firefights” at the embattled ride-hailing company.

In a new post on LinkedIn, Khosrowshahi — who spent 12 years leading Bellevue, Wash.-based online travel giant Expedia — wrote about experiencing the entrepreneurial culture and fearless approach that Uber is known for. But to get to the next level, he said that culture and approach and will need to evolve.

“Our values define who we are and how we work, but I had heard from many employees that some of them simply didn’t represent the kind of company we want to be,” Khosrowshahi wrote. “For instance, ‘toe-stepping’ was meant to encourage employees to share their ideas regardless of their seniority or position in the company, but too often it was used an excuse for being an asshole.”

To craft new cultural values for the company, Khosrowshahi said, “Rather than ditching everything, I’m focused on preserving what works while quickly changing what doesn’t.” He also went directly to his employees, and more than 1,200 of them sent in submissions that were voted on more than 22,000 times.

Those employees “wanted to make clear that we will put integrity at the core of all our decisions,” Khosrowshahi wrote.

Here they are as listed in his post. Go to LinkedIn to learn more about how Khosrowshahi and Uber define each new “cultural norm.”

  • We build globally, we live locally
  • We are customer obsessed
  • We celebrate differences
  • We do the right thing
  • We act like owners
  • We persevere
  • We value ideas over hierarchy
  • We make big bold bets
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