Case Study: Management, Leadership, and the InternalOrganization: TripAdvisor
TripAdvisor's mission is to empower travelers around the globewith the insights that they need to confidently explore andexperience our world. Co-founder and CEO Steve Kaufer has achievedthis mission on a grand scale—with more than 455 million monthlyusers and 570 million unbiased reviews by travelers across theglobe. As the world's largest travel site, TripAdvisor offerstravelers advice, travel choices, planning features, and seamlesslinks to booking tools that check hundreds of websites to find thebest hotel prices.
Growth of this nature hasn't happened without carefulmanagement—planning, organizing, directing, and controlling. As atechnology company in a cutthroat and hyperchanging travelindustry, TripAdvisor settles for hiring nothing less than the besttalent in each department throughout the organization—and much careand consideration are taken to manage its coveted base ofemployees.
The company's informal and internal motto, “Speed Wins,” isalso part of its rich culture, which promotes finding successfuloutcomes while sponsoring novelty, new ideas, and even failure.Tolerance for failure, not out of sloppiness but from outcomes thatjust didn't work out, is the way TripAdvisor's management teamsubscribes to learning—which results in better long-term decisionmaking. TripAdvisor's top leaders subscribe to responsiveness andspeed, with the belief that if a response isn't quick andimmediate, decay can set in. As part of its “Speed Wins” culture,TripAdvisor hires employees in search of a less bureaucraticcompany environment who can move and execute quickly. With 3,000employees worldwide, getting everyone on the same page tounderstand the company's mission, business objectives, and how eachjob connects to its mission can be a challenge. TripAdvisor's topmanagement team invests a huge amount of time thinking aboutcreating alignment by communicating consistently, constantly, andwith candor and transparency.
TripAdvisor's management team is organized on a functionalbasis—according to the traditional functions of sales &marketing, product, engineering, and finance. In fact,TripAdvisor's managers, fearless of change, are well versed in awide variety of disciplines when it comes to managing theirindividual departments while viewing the changing travel space on aholistic basis. A common characteristic of all managers is thewillingness and openness to change and to question the way thingshave been done in the past—while focusing on what can be donedifferently in the future.
TripAdvisor's business is built upon travelers sharing candid,transparent, and unbiased reviews with other travelers. Throughoutits community of users, the company expects trustworthy, unbiased,clear, and accurate information that represents the experiences ofthe travel community. Given the company's 570 million unbiasedreviews, this philosophy of trust extends to the company'smanagement and leadership philosophies. The company's leaders arefocused on being inclusive, constructive, and positive.
Strategic planning is an ongoing process—particularly in thecutthroat, hi-tech travel space. Kaufer admits that the biggestchange impacting his business is the way in which travelers usetechnology—namely, the shift to mobile devices. TripAdvisor has hadto adapt to the changing nature of today's business and technologyenvironment. This includes investing in in-destinationfunctionality for their products so that people can use theTripAdvisor app not just to plan their trip but also in shortbursts while they are traveling around with their mobile devices.Longer-term strategic planning efforts include virtual reality andvirtual tours—where travelers can “experience” a place virtuallybefore ever booking that trip using their belovedTripAdvisor.
Answer the following question:
1.?Using the SWOT analysis framework, discuss a few ofTripAdvisor's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, andthreats.
2.?How might TripAdvisor's mission change as Internet travelsites and competitors create intensified competition?
3.?How would you describe TripAdvisor's corporate culture?Based upon what you know and with some further research, do youthink the company's growth has impacted its culture?
