Desperation sometimes drives innovation.
Dara Khosrowshahi
Any time there's significant change, there's going to be some people who embrace the change and others who are against the change.
We don't believe in a world of us versus them; we look at the world as all of us together.
Put the right people in the right places, and then you trust them to do the right stuff.
A CEO of a multinational global company can't say what to do; you've got to plant the flag.
My family emigrated to the U.S. after the Iranian revolution in 1978.
I think I wanted to be a doctor. In Iran, the engineering and medical professions are worshipped. My father very much wanted me to be a doctor. I was certainly eager to please as a young man - as a kid, I should say.
It was a choice between a paint factory in Indianapolis - a management training program to maybe run the paint factory one day - or go to New York City and become an investment banker. It wasn't a very difficult decision.
Companies don't like uncertainty; travelers don't like uncertainty.
Failure can teach you something, and as long as you're moving very, very quickly, you're going to start piling up the wins. Speed gives you the luxury to be able to fail.
As companies get bigger, they tend to slow down. It's a universal law.
Uber is a company that is redefining the transportation industry on a global basis; to be part of that story is something that is interesting and would be a real privilege.
The American dream is you come here, you believe in democracy, you believe in the Constitution, you work hard, you can make it.
When I was in my 20s, I learned not only how to work hard but about the importance of focus.
My family owned a bunch of pharmaceutical manufacturing plants and other consumer-goods manufacturing plants. We would license Western goods and manufacture them in Iran and distribute them throughout the Middle East.
I think from a personal standpoint, maybe I appreciate a little more that there are two sides to every story, and the way that the U.S. is sometimes is viewed outside of the U.S. can be pretty tough, depending on what the U.S.'s actions are.
If you don't optimize for the consumer on the Internet, you're dead.
Taking big risks combined with having a team you believe in and that believes just as much in you as a leader make for long-term wins, even in a game of inches.
We found that travel, especially online travel, has been quite resistant to economic cycles.
When you let travelers vote with their clicks, and you put that at the center of your decision-making, you build the product they want, and ultimately, their business will follow.
I started in investment banking at Allen & Company in 1991. It was the go-go days of media mergers, and we were incredibly busy with one deal after another. Unlike typical investment banking groups, even in the midst of merger mania, we didn't have a formal face-time culture - and I felt empowered by that.
When we grew up, our family and kind of gaggle of cousins would go to the south of France for the summers. And we just had a grand time.
While Expedia is outbound-focused, Wotif is much more about domestic travel.
Traveloka is the clear online travel leader in Indonesia and is expanding aggressively throughout Southeast Asia.
As we move over to more of a mobile device-centric world... I think the interaction model with devices is going to be much more voice-based.
When you go to a voice-based interaction, you can't tell people, 'Ask me this question and structure it in this way.' And if they ask a question, and you have a bad answer, first time, maybe they'll be okay with it. Third time, they're going to say, 'This is a complete waste of time. I'm going away.'
We sure didn't feel like refugees, but in hindsight, I guess we were - my father and mother left everything behind to come here - to be safe and give their boys a chance to rebuild a life.
I remember my father taking us to meeting with lawyers, interviews with immigration officers, doing everything he could to get us that treasured Green Card - and the happiness, the sense of relief, when he finally did - we knew that we were welcome now, and we would be welcome tomorrow.
I think where Trump just has it dead wrong is this is a world of us versus them.
You have to empower your employees to make their own choices and trust that they will make the right choices.
When you see the sacrifices that your parents make for you, you want to do well for them.
Chinese consumers don't book hotel rooms that are as expensive as U.S. consumers.
I thought all those channels on cable TV were really cool.
It is important to have safe borders, but at the same time, we can't forget what brought us here. This is an immigrant nation.
Anytime you introduce volatility, it is not good for business and not good for travel.
If you get the product and technology right, then the rest usually falls into place.
I think that, in the end, the consumer's going to win on the Internet.
I think a lot of Americans don't appreciate just what an incredible country this is, how lucky they are, how safe they are, how empowered they are.
I think my background, coming from Iran, which is a great country but is going through its share of troubles, really allows me to appreciate what we have here.
Consumers may put off buying a car, but they don't put off buying a vacation.
Where people work and their environment is becoming more and more important, especially for millennials.
Rail in Europe is incredibly important as far as a transportation medium.
Alternative accommodations is a $100 billion-plus category.
There's simply no better company out there doing mobile travel apps with the same level of design sensibility and utility as Mobiata.
One of the early lessons that I learned in leadership is that it's the leader's job to always go against the flow.
There's a lot of distrust of the United States, and I certainly see that. But at the same time, everything that I've seen is that the U.S. is a genuine force for good in the world.
My family had to flee Iran... the revolution, and we were very, very lucky to come to America and have opportunities presented to us. And that's... one of the things that makes America great.
The power of immigration, the power of the American dream, if you think about the American dream, it is the best brand out there.
It's definitely a problem inside the technology industry - not just gender discrimination. Diversity is an issue within technology, within Expedia.
I love Expedia.
