Case Study - Away Travel: Leadership and Organizational Excellence Away Travel, a direct-to-consumer luggage brand founded by Steph Korey and Jennifer Rubio in 2015, is renowned for revolutionizing the luggage industry and creating an unprecedented customer experience. Their thoughtful organizational leadership played a crucial role in shaping the company's success and growth trajectory.

1. Leading Organizations Presentation
Case study about Away Travel
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2. Away Travel Case Study - Case Question
How did Away’s corporate philosophy and organizational culture
become misaligned?
Are the HR policies and leadership style outlined by Jen Rubio
likely to realign them?
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3. Korey described an
account manager as
“brain dead” 2 with
allegation of toxic
workplace.
Steph Korey
● Away is an American luggage and travel
accessories retailer
● Raised $31 million in financing
● In 2017 Ad week called AWAY
“Breakthrough Brand with Ingenious
Marketing” 1
Jen Rubio
Away Travel Case Study - Overview
Sales dropped by
90% 3
Co-Founder
& Current
CEO
3
AWAY Founded
2015
Raised $8.5 M
2016 2018
150 Employees
2019
$1.4 Billion
Valuation
2019
Verge Article
About a toxic
workplace in Away
2019 2022
Korey Steps
Down &
Rubio is CEO

4. What they said What they did
Create the kind of company that people love to
work at.
Built a culture of fear and intimidation. Stretching a
few people as thin as possible to ensure that they are
working to their absolute limit.
Away’s core company values: empowered
employees
Employees didn’t schedule time off when things were
busy, regardless of how much they’d been working.
Away’s core company values: Customer-obsessed Employees did whatever it took to make consumers
happy, even if it came at the cost of their own well-
being.
Being in it together, reminding ourselves to take
the work seriously, but never ourselves.
Korey thought of her style as part of a business
strategy and became a passive-aggressive boss.
How Away culture become misaligned?
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5. What they said What they did
Away’s core company values: thoughtful 4 Admonishing people in front of other staff
is a really stupid way to manage, and is not
indicative at all of “hustle.” In fact it’s
wildly counterproductive.
Iterative to respond to the evolving needs
of our business, our team.
Bedraggled and emotionally manipulated
lower-level employees.
Being accessible to encourage
transparency and collaboration
Banning email and forcing communications
into the open on Slack.
How Away culture become misaligned?
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6. 5 Reasons Away culture become misaligned
1. They didn’t practice “Participative Leadership 5 “ - Leaders who involve others in
decision-making, whereby leaders listen to their employees and involve them in the
decision-making process. It requires an inclusive mindset, good communication
skills and the ability to share power.
2. Away management was not a Team-Oriented Leadership 5
3. They didn’t follow up the needs for Humane Oriented Leadership 5
4. As a leader, it is important to find a balance between achieving the company's
objectives and thinking about the well-being of the team. Both are decisive in
comprehensive management. The well-being of the collaborators should never be
forgotten in the process of achieving the tasks.
5. They tried to build a Strong Culture…but didn’t stay true to it.6
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7. New leadership style & HR policies by Rubio
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Rubio’s actions & new direction How this will impact Away organizational culture?
Listening to your employees has to be more than
just lip service. 9
This will have a positive impact for Away
employees and will help them express their views
to management more freely.
Take a look at how I lead, how I show up, and how
it's perceived by the team. 9
Reviewing how she is leading is important and how
her team is viewing her leadership style in an
important step in Participative Leadership
management.
Reassess Away’s values. Another step in the right direction as outlined in
“Developing a corporate philosophy”
How important communication is with the team
and share the direction that Away is heading in.
When employees participate in high-level
decision-making, they feel “truly” empowered.

8. New leadership style & HR policies by Rubio
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Rubio’s actions & new direction How this will impact Away organizational culture?
Regular check-ins with all of her employees to talk
about the direction of the brand vision.
Participative Leaders must be better listeners and
receive inputs from their employees and
encourage them to speak up. This way, Away Team
will feel connected and devoted to the company.
Emphasizing work-life balance and expanding
Away's leave policy. gender-neutral policy that
supports paid leave for all new parents for 16
weeks
Keeping the line between productivity and stress
clear will let Away team know that they matter,
and improves work quality.
A paid-time-off "swap" program to accommodate
varying personal values.
Positive action that will show leadership
commitment to Away team wellbeing and
respecting diversity.

9. New leadership style & HR policies by Rubio
● Overall actions taken are positives and will help introduce new vision that
hopefully is a reality for employees in Away.
● Would have liked Rubio to talk more about why it happened and how she will not
allow this to happen again.
● Rubio has a disadvantage that she was already part of the pervious management
team and her team might question how serious is she is about change.
● There was no announcement for new top management in for People Management
that would have sent a strong message about Away’s commitment to change.
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10. Away Travel Case Study - References
1. 5 Breakthrough Brands With Ingenious Marketing That Hit a New Level in 2017 - ADWeek 2017
https://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/5-breakthrough-brands-with-ingenious-marketing-that-hit-a-new-level-in-2017/
2. The Tyranny of Customer Service Jobs - Slate 2020
https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/01/away-suitcase-scandal-tyranny-of-customer-service.html
3. Away cofounder Jen Rubio says she never planned to be CEO. Here’s what changed her mind - Fortune 2021
https://fortune.com/2021/04/23/away-luggage-ceo-jen-rubio-interview-steph-korey/
1. The Lessons of Away’s Weird Company Culture- New Yorker 2019
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/12/the-lessons-of-aways-weird-company-
culture.html#:~:text=Korey%20often%20framed%20her%20critiques,much%20they'd%20been%20working
2. Leadership Fundamentals - Quantic EMBA Training
https://app.quantic.edu/course/learn-leadership-fundamentals--quantic/e0575521-49b8-4311-b722-a7d75c4b3524
3. “Away” Luggage – When Millennial Brands Go Toxic - Brand Culture
https://brandculture.com/insights/away-luggage-when-millennial-brands-go-toxic/
4. The 5 Keys to a Top-Notch Company Culture, According to the Co-Founders of Away - INC Mag 2017
https://www.inc.com/steph-korey/away-suitcases-travel-company-culture.html
5. Emotional baggage - The Verge Dec 2019
https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/5/20995453/away-luggage-ceo-steph-korey-toxic-work-environment-travel-inclusion
6. Employees Called Her Company Culture Toxic, and Then Sales Dropped 90 Percent: A CEO's Turnaround Playbook - INC
Magazine
https://www.inc.com/tim-crino/jen-rubio-ceo-away-company-culture.html
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