Last month, 10 managers for Uber’s Latin American operations huddled around a table in the company’s Mexico City office and worried about the future. “Unlike everyone on this call, he hasn’t been a GM,” one general manager groused.
They were referring to Jeff Jones, the chief marketing officer for Target who had just been named as Uber’s new president, in charge of its global ridesharing business. As one of the GMs pointed out, Jones came from a retailer that conducted nearly all of its business inside the United States. Uber’s future depends on international growth—especially in Latin America.
