OLA Cabs CEO Hemant Bakshi moonlighting as a cab driver to understand customer expectations

Hemant Bakshi, the recently appointed CEO of OLA cabs has revealed that he moonlights as a cab driver by night in Bengaluru to gain better understanding of customer experience, expectations and service level requirements.

A former Unilever Indonesia chairperson, and executive vice president of the Marketplace, Bakshi has been appointed CEO of Ola Cabs, the ride-hailing arm of ANI Technologies. The company is reorganised into three units - ride hailing and mobility, financial services, and logistics and e-commerce. Ola founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal has stepped down from the role as the company streamlines operations.

Bhavish Aggarwal, the former CEO, has stepped back as part of the company's efforts to streamline operations. Bakshi, who served as the executive vice president at Unilever and chaired Unilever Indonesia, recently joined Ola after returning to India four months ago.

Bakshi, who is piloting the ride hailing operations, emphasised on the value of first-hand experience. Perhaps this is the reason behind his experiment of driving his car around the city at night, moonlighting as an OLA cab driver.

During a media briefing on January 25, Bakshi stated that he offers ride-hailing service at night to gain firsthand experience and better understanding of customer requirements.

Bakshi is not the first CEO of a mobility platform to moonlight as a driver. To understand the challenges faced by drivers amid the pandemic, Uber’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi revealed his experience to go undercover as a driver for several months. This experiment prompted him to critically reassess every assumption made by the company. Over the next few months, the Uber CEO wheeled numerous passengers across San Francisco. In April 2023, he told The Wall Street Journal that, the experience of working incognito as an Uber driver and delivery agent helped him to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by delivery partners and implement strategies to resolve their issues more effectively.

Meanwhile, Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal has stated that he will remain “fully involved” with the business. At the media briefing on Thursday he mentioned, “There is a partnership between Hemant and I. He brings the strategy and operations, while I am the proverbial entrepreneur, thinking about newer ideas and innovating,”.

Read More: Unilever’s Hemant Bakshi joins Ola as chief executive officer