Airbnb and CEO Brian Chesky: leadership in times of crisis
When the worldwide pandemic Covid-19 wrought havoc on the entire world at the beginning of 2020, travel-and-experiences company Airbnb was not left intact from the wave of restrictions put in place by governments all around the globe. As an organization operating in the tourism industry, Airbnb witnessed an all-time-high cancellation rate compounded with no reservations, all at once. The firm lost around 80% of its revenues in 8 weeks (Chesky, 2021). The inevitable decline of business as usual caused by external uncontrollable events called CEO Brian Chesky and the whole company for brave leadership, intelligent management, and authentic communication. As Squire Bill Widener once put it (quote attributed by Theodore Roosevelt in his autobiography): “Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are” (Roosevelt, 2006). The organization needed to pivot and adapt to the current environment very quickly, to not get out of business in no time. Resilience was needed. And resilience might be the main concept that seems to have characterized the response of Brian Chesky and Airbnb. According to the Cambridge English dictionary, resilience is "the ability of a substance to return to its usual shape after being bent, stretched, or pressed".
On account of the huge downturn in the economic and business situation of Airbnb, the company had to undergo drastic job cuts during the first months of 2020. One of the possibly toughest tasks of laying off employees in such an uncertain context for everyone is communication. It is how to communicate the decisions made by the management in an effective manner, providing sufficient support and transparently stating the reasons behind such a change occurring. In his letter to employees (May 2020), CEO Brian Chesky leans into emotional intelligence and honest communication while explaining the job cuts that are going to inevitably take place at the company. First of all, Chesky begins by clearly addressing the "elephant in the room" in the first paragraph: "Today, I must confirm that we are reducing the size of the Airbnb workforce" (Chesky, 2020). However, he does not stop at that. He continues the message explaining systematically the details that made the management arrive at the decision, the guiding principles behind the decision, and "what we are doing for those leaving, and what will happen next". Among the services provided for those leaving Airbnb, there are health insurance throughout 2020, mental health support, career services to increase the chances of finding a new position, and the permission to keep the company-provided laptop, as "a computer is an important tool to find new work" (Chesky, 2020). Chesky embodies Airbnb's vision of belonging in the letter to employees, by making it clear that no one will be left alone, with personal and organization-wide responsibility shining through every sentence.
"Culture is what you do in the darkest of days" (Chesky, 2021)
In a period of time that CEO Brian Chesky defines as the most stressful of his life, packed with sleepless nights (Chesky, 2021), but also as the most defining moment for the development of his leadership, Airbnb unleashed the potential of boundaries in creativity. The organization managed to dynamically pivot to expanding their business activities and developing "virtual experiences" that could replace the core business of the company, irreversibly impacted by the pandemic, at least in the short term. Remaining true to the company's values and principles, Airbnb has been navigating the crises courageously, and went public in December 2020, convincing investors and regulators of the solidity of the organization and his clear future direction in such a human-needs-based industry as travel and experiences. The Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Airbnb was the biggest of 2020, at more than 100 billion US$ (Hussain and Franklin, 2020), putting an end to a tumultuous year that CEO Chesky describes as a "rebirth" of the company (Chesky, 2021), and an authentic opportunity to hone leadership and change management skills in a time of deep crisis.