McKinsey Consultants beating ride-hailing pioneer - Uber in its own game!

Uber changed the way we used taxi, it was Travis Kalanick’s golden idea that not only revolutionized the rental car and taxi industry but also restructured the Auto industry as a whole.

In an attempt to keep up with the changing trends and market needs, a lot of automotive companies have started expanding their ride-hailing arms.

Some companies are trying out a more innovative route towards approaching ride-hailing by catering to slightly different geographical locations or by following a different business model.

McKinsey consultants have always been in limelight either because they take on challenging projects for prolific firms across different industries or because they are living examples of a ‘tried and tested’ approach that ranks them among world-class leadership of notable organizations however, these days McKinsey consultants have been in the news for a making a different career choice.

More and more consultants from McKinsey are leaving their home territory i.e McKinsey itself to become a part of a ride-sharing and hailing company or starting a venture by themselves from scratch.

Though, most of them are far from being profitable at this stage but these executives have already made big money on their respective valuations. Its much more money than any partner in McKinsey would make!

Here are a few Asian Ride Sharing Start-ups formed by McKinsey Alumni:

Hooi Ling Tan : Grab Co-Founder

Hoi Ling Tan founded Grab with Anthony Tan. Interestingly, she took a leave for 6 months to establish Grab’s operations. Prior to forming Grab, she worked as a business analyst at McKinsey for 3 years.

While working there, Hoi Ling Tan got an admission at Harvard Business School where she completed her MBA which was paid for by McKinsey.

It was during her Master’s that she met Anthony Tan (her course mate) and also conceived the idea to establish Grab.

Hoi Ling Tan worked for McKinsey after her MBA for a year as an Associate and then invested some more time working with Salesforce. After that she joined Grab and rigorously supported Anthony in scaling Grab’s business operations into new markets.

Today, Grab is worth over $6 Billion.

Nadiem Makarim : GO-JEK CEO and Founder

Nadiem Makarim founded Go-JEK 7 years ago.

Nadiem first job was working for McKinsey for 3 years as Associate. He then went to Harvard Business School to get his MBA.

After getting his MBA, he joined Zalora (Indonesia) as its Managing Director.

Nadiem just had 3 years of experience when he was hired as Managing Director. Only way you can get a job to lead a company is if you have McKinsey and Harvard written on your CV.

After Zalora, Nadiem worked for Kartuku as its Chief Innovation Officer and then founded Go-JEK.

He conceived the idea to launch Go-JEK at Harvard and around the same time when Grab’s co-founders Anthony Tan and Hooi Ling Tan were planning to launch their own start-up.

Go-JEK is valued over $3 Billion presently making Nadiem one of the most successful entrepreneurs from Indonesia.

Mudassir Sheikha : Careem CEO and Co-Founder

Mudassir Sheikha worked as a software engineer before joining McKinsey as a Partner. After 4 years with McKinsey, he co-founded Careem.

Sheikha had a slightly different career progression from other start-up founders. He had an MS in Computer Science degree from Stanford.

The fact that Mudassir had a technical background and related field experience gave Careem an edge from day one. Careem is valued over $1.5 Billion and Mudassir is a celebrated entrepreneur in the Middle East Start-up Ecosystem.

He was also awarded 2014 Gulf Business Entrepreneur of the Year.

Ahmed Khan : Co-founder and CEO Cheetay Logistics

Ahmed Khan founded Cheetay Logistics in May 2015.

Ahmed’s path is very similar to that of Go-JEK’s founder Nadiem Makarim. They both worked for McKinsey as Associates and then both of them worked for Rocket Internet as CEOs.

Eventually they both launched their own ride sharing start-ups.

Cheetay logistics is rapidly expanding in Pakistan and has managed to raise $2 Million Series A in 2 rounds.

Ichiro Kawanabe: CEO and Founder- Nihon Kotsu Co.

Ichiro Kawanabe is the man behind running Tokyo’s biggest taxi company- Nihon Kotsu Co which was founded by his grandfather in 1928.

Kawanabe completed his MBA ftrom the Kellogg School of Management and later joined McKinsey & Co. as a Consultant.

It was during that time where he felt inspired to run his family business sooner than anticipated and when his father passed away a decade ago- the ‘Prince of Taxis’ as he is popularly dubbed by the local media, took over Nihon Kotsu’s leadership and operations.

Kawanabe plans to restructure the taxi-industry (worth $15 billion) in Japan where Uber still holds less than 1% of monthly rides, to offer services like taxi-hailing, fixed pricing and carpooling via an interactive app.

His plans have earned him his competitor’s wrath because interestingly Ichiro Kawanabe cannot order an Uber in Japan because he has been blacklisted from creating an account!

Simon Smith: Managing Director Australia- Ola

Prior to joining Ola, Simon Smith served as a CEO at eBay. He will head and develop a strategic team responsible for enhancing and strengthening Ola’s presence in Australia by expanding the company’s services to major capitals.

Simon Smith too is an ex-McKinsey Consultant and has experience working with tech giants like Sportsbet and Servcorp at senior positions.

He has joined ranks at the Indian Startup- Ola to fight tooth and nail to compete against US-based Uber, Estonian-based Taxify and Australia startup GoCatch.

Pradeep Parameswaran: South Asia Head- Uber

Uber has not backed away from bringing its A-Game to the competitive ride hailing and sharing business.

The world’s largest cab-hailing company has hired Pradeep Parameswaran, a former McKinsey executive to head its South Asian operations.

Pradeep Parameswaran has been tasked to contribute to Uber’s strategy to develop business from markets like Australia and compete effectively with the new rival on the block- Ola.

He had joined Uber India last year as its Head of Operations and soon after got promoted to Head of Asia Pacific business.

Ankit Jain: Head- Ola Play

Ola is an Indian ride hailing and sharing startup founded in 2011 which is backed by Japan Giant- Softbank as well as Chinese Internet Giant- Tencent.

Ankit Jain is an MIT post grad who previously worked at McKinsey as a consultant and proceeded to join Ola last year.

He is heading Ola Play which strategizes development of an app store for this ride-hailing venture.

Personalizing user experience to the point of playing one’s favorite music as soon as they get in a car, displaying appointments for the day and customizing playlist based on destination are few of the scenarios

Ola is working to offer its users but this is not all!

The app store will allow third parties to create meaningful experiences for riders and drivers – won’t it be magical to have a Starbucks coffee delivered to the car on your way to a meeting?

Or the app that points out nearest refueling stations or public toilets for the drivers?

The connection between McKinsey and Ride Sharing Start-ups is not strange one.

A lot of reports suggest that car-ownership will go down exponentially in the next 15 years as more and more people will adopt Ride Sharing and Hailing services to commute.

McKinsey Associates are usually at the center of making such groundbreaking predictions because they rely heavily on reading trends, leading studies, putting together analytical reports and research work- in short, making decisions backed by heavy and realistic data.

Hence, it’s only natural and logical for the Consultants to take a leap of faith on such opportunities and benefit from it by while the market potential still develops.

McKinsey is also known as CEO Factory of the World because it produces a lot more C-Level Exec’s than any other company…Read Here!!!!!







