Marketing in the Madness

Why diversity is the key driver for innovation at Uber #BONUS

• Street Agency, Katie Street, Paul Wright

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As businesses navigate an increasingly competitive landscape, fostering diverse teams goes beyond doing the right thing; generating ideas and solutions that resonate with a wider audience is crucial.

In this BONUS episode of Marketing in the Madness, Katie welcomes back Paul Wright, Head of International for Uber, to discuss the intersection between diversity and innovation.  Paul shares his insights on building diverse teams from scratch, the significance of authentic culture, and how it can unlock innovation.

At Street, embracing diversity within a team gives us a better understanding of our client’s needs and market trends. By prioritising diverse teams, businesses can enhance their internal culture and drive better results for their clients.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:

🚀 Building from Scratch. Paul discusses the advantages and strategies of starting a diverse team at Uber, including the importance of representation and how they achieved a 55% female workforce.

👥 Authenticity in Culture. Learn why authenticity is crucial in attracting the right talent and how to foster a workplace culture that values diversity.

💡 Recruitment Strategies for Diversity. Paul shares practical tips for creating inclusive job ads and practices that attract a wide range of candidates, ensuring fair representation across various demographics.

🛠️ Empowering Employee Resource Groups. Discover how ERGs (Employee Resource Groups) play a vital role in shaping company culture and supporting employees.

🌍 The Impact of Diversity on Business Success. We discuss the benefits of diversity beyond buzzwords—how it enhances product development and customer experiences while driving overall success.

If you’re looking to enhance your company’s diversity initiatives, this episode is packed with actionable insights. Tune in to learn why diversity is the key for innovation in your business, leading you towards a sustainable growth.

Connect with Katie Street:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katiestreet/
https://www.instagram.com/streetmate/

Follow Street Agency:
https://street.agency/
https://www.instagram.com/street.agency/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/streetagency/


Paul:

We're lucky in the sense that you're starting from scratch. This is what we want to achieve. We want to have diversity of experience, and we want to have diversity of people.

Katie:

That's breaking a model, though, right? Because it's hard if you haven't got a culture, because there's no one there, how do you display and attract the right people? It

Paul:

comes down to authenticity. People see through very clearly. If it's if it's a fake someone's talking about culture, it doesn't really exist.

Katie:

Putting things in that will help attract women. So changing the language and how am I going to attract different cultural groups? How am I going to position us so that we recruit fairly?

Paul:

We ended up with this team's 55% female. That type of representation is really important. We have a great belief in Uber is that library is going to think the same way

Katie:

some that maybe are starting on this journey from scratch. For me, whether you're trying to drive cultural change or creating it, you've got to invest in it. Hi guys, and welcome back to marketing in the madness now, this is one of my marketing in the Mad fest takeovers. As part of our collaboration with Mad fest, we record some really interesting content for the female leaders club. Something that is incredibly close to my heart is businesses innovating by being more diverse, and of course, for all of us, developing more equal workplaces that are fairer for us all to work in and provide equal opportunities. And you may well have heard myself and Paul already chatting. Paul Wright is joining me today from Paul I'm going to say the job title wrong, so I'm going to get you to

Paul:

say it. Okay, Head of International for Uber advertising,

Katie:

Head of International for Uber advertising, and Paul has been on quite a journey over the past few years, setting up a hot or setting up Uber advertising, basically, and as part of that pool, a big play for you has been ensuring that you create a really diverse workforce. So can you tell me how you've done that at Uber advertising? Yes.

Paul:

I mean, we were lucky. I mean, we're lucky in the sense that you're starting from scratch, and it was very much. So I talked to our recruitment team and said, This is what we want to achieve. And they bought into it, because it's part of our general ethos. Is we want to build diverse teams. So we went and we're building a team. I guess. We built a team of about 40 odd now in the UK, from some of them work in my team, and some support my team, but I'm, you know, pretty much involved in in all of the hiring somewhere along the line. So when we started, we said, right, we want to do two things. We want to have diversity of experience and we want to have diversity of people. So when we got people applying, we made sure that we processed every single CV, and we said, right, we want to make sure we get this right and with and the interesting thing is, I don't think we actually forced ourselves to say we need to do X, Y, Z. It sort of came together, because we'd set it out as a as a thing at the beginning, and we interviewed and we interviewed and we interviewed. I think I did 250 interviews in one year, something like that. Were you doing

Katie:

anything else? Well, I

Paul:

suppose I was generally as well, but it was, but I think it was really important. Because I think one is, when you're building a new team, I think everybody wants to meet the person who's going to be the team lead, of course. So that's important. But we also just felt trying to it was like a jigsaw puzzle, putting together a team with this diversity of experience and diversity of of everything. And it sort of worked really well. I mean, we ended up with this team. I think it's, it's 55% female. I

Katie:

think love that 5050,

Paul:

male, female leadership. Three of my team are actually ERG, employee, resource member. Group leads now. So one leads the pride group, one leads the immigrant group, and one co leads the Asian Uber group, which is also important to me, because I wanted us to I think when you're building a team into an existing company, you also want to make sure that it integrates into its own into the company as well, because you know what's going What's this new team doing? And I think ERGs and that type of representation is really important. So we we got there, and then we've got people from all the big big tech we've got people from Amazon and Google and Twitter and apple and all sorts of different places as well. So that was really important. So we had this real range of experience, which is wonderful to have, because everybody we have a great belief in Uber is that not everyone's going to think the same way, and that's important if you're building for fast growth. In particular, can some someone's from their own experience see a way through a problem that another person doesn't have the experience of? And we just keep promoting. Seeing that, and it's very important cultural thing, and we talk about it a lot. And I'm not, you know, I don't spend a lot of time. I like to be in with the team, working with the team. I think that's important for this as well. You've got to see that. I think with diversity particularly, you've got to see everyone's got to live it a little bit. It can't be just a sort of thing you do at the end of the month and go, Oh, yeah. How are we doing diversity type thing? Yeah, we talk about it a lot, and I think we, yeah, we were in a good place. But it's been, it's been a really interesting journey getting there, because I think it's just, as I said, we're beginning. It's so, you're so privileged to be able to build a team from scratch, you've got no real heritage, yeah. And one of the things I said to myself is I don't want to necessarily employ a load of people I've worked with before, which was also deliberate. It's really hard, not really hard, not to do that. I did employ. We did have. We ended up with two people I had worked with before, but the both of them are fantastic, but that's actually in the minority. Most of the people hadn't worked with each other before previous places. That's good. So that helps as well, because I think that's the there's no, there was no clique in the middle, yeah, which I think is also part of the problem with diversity, is you get a clique and then you get not much diversity of thought, because everyone's worked with each other before, and then they don't really want to have more people coming from the

Katie:

outside. That's breaking a model, though, right? That's how a lot of us have grown up. Like you go off, you bring in the trusted team of the people that you've worked with before. So it's a brave move, as you started. Yes,

Paul:

it's bright. It's proved very successful. I mean, I've done it many other places before, and most of the teams I've worked with, I haven't usually started with a newish team, even with my startup. I mean, we started with a group of us that worked together before, but then we brought in other people from there. And it's all, I think it's always horses, you know, you have to sort of play to what the the business outcome you want and the culture that you're working into. I mean, there are some people, for example, when I was at Amazon, Amazon has a certain culture, Apple has a certain culture, Uber has a certain culture. And you need to understand where those people would thrive in that. Now that's not saying that everything about you have to have, you know, people who look exactly the same. That's not true. It's more about how they can work in that environment to be successful. So yeah, I mean, it's been so far so good, and as we keep building, we continue to care about it. And the team who now are hiring, because I'm not doing the interviews anymore, yeah, who are now hiring, I think, have got a very clear view of what we want to do and and also, as part of the hiring process, we also tried to make sure that the experience for all candidates was as good as possible, so they got into the process they went through, and we got we actually tracked the scores back in terms of how People rate us afterwards. And that was very important as important

Katie:

as well, at that beginning phase, when you're when you're like, you know, once you've got the culture, of course, and yeah, and there are certain businesses that need to change their culture. So there'll be a few different people listening here, some that need to change it, some that maybe are starting on this journey from scratch. So what would be your top tips? Say, like, one thing that you could do to really make sure that you attract because it's hard, right? If you haven't got a culture, because there's no one there, how do you display and attract the right people? I

Paul:

think ultimately it comes down to authenticity a little bit. I think people see through very clearly, if it's, if it's a fake someone's talking about culture, but it doesn't really exist. Yeah, we had a quite a lot of people, which we encouraged to do. We said to them, if you want to talk to the ergs that are relevant for you, you can do that as part of your interview process. Nice. Okay, that's good. And that helped with that type of thing, because that sort of like prove, it gives you a proof point without you hearing it as from a sales perspective in an interview process.

Katie:

Nice. I mean, you've got to invest in it yesterday, and I think that's for me, whether you're trying to drive cultural change or creating it. I've got, can I give my two top tips? And then I promise I'll finish my two top my two top tips, one that I was taught actually, by a fantastic friend of mine, Fabrice color, who's been on the podcast before, he's at Boots now, but was at Selfridges at the time when he spoke to me about this, was about being really clear in your job ads and putting things in that will help attract women. So changing the language and being really researching that, how am I going to attract different cultural groups? How am I going to attract different sexes? How am I going to position us so that we recruit fairly? And just little changes in language can help with that? The second one is exactly like you say, is practicing what you preach at you if you're doing something, having those ERGs, having people in the business that are there to drive change, to manage the culture. To make sure that you're Yeah, you are truly doing what you say you're doing, and not just saying it. I think that's those two things. If you can do that, that helps. Yeah.

Paul:

And there's that final thing, which is that great book, Paradise by John. I make sure you read that. No, he talks about very interesting guy, but he talks about culture being the worst behavior you allow someone, allow someone to do, which I think is a great way of thinking about, yeah, nice, because it's that that's the base level. So you've got to make sure that a base level is as high as possible.

Katie:

I love it, Paul, thank you so much. I will put a link to that book in the show notes guys, so if you want to go and find it, I'm probably going to go and audible it after this. High on my agenda right now, but a big thank you, Paul, for coming pleasure. Thank

Paul:

you for having me. Yeah.