Marta Chamoun, ID: 160570, Course: B863, TMA 02, Fall 2016, Dr.

Jihad Njeim

Question 1:
Groupon was definitely a one of a kind-business. It was unique in its own ideas and how it was generated and how it
has been founded on the basis of collective buying power that the idea itself back then was so strange. And what
lucky was the CEO and the founder were to establish such a Unique idea that generated so much profits in such
short span of time!
Looking back and analyzing Groupons history and high performance, it has succeeded in maintaining its growth thru
many initiatives thru many strategies and tactics that has led it to become global and overlap the global challenges
to keep maintaining its growth. Groupon has prioritized growth and has succeeded to develop it thru many tactics &
Strategies: first of all, the priority was Marketing: whether It is traditional or digital marketing.: Spreading the word
was very important to Groupon to increase subscriber & merchant base worldwide! In Traditional marketing included
networks of people & word of mouth. In every country, groupon was able to acquire network of people in every city
they operated that understand the local culture well especially when they have immersed in the European market.
Knowing local culture and having acquisitions with people in a new market was essential so that Groupon targets
both merchants and Customers efficiently & effectively within the shortest period of time & lowest possible costs.
Furthermore, the digital marketing initiatives were plenty and these included:

Made deals thrilling by limiting time frames

Platform that helped businesses to attract customers by giving discounts in a Unique way
Finding best local teams and give them the tools they need to be successful
Networks to help them spread the news and attain merchants and subscribers to sign up
Provide variety of products
Expanding business thru acquisitions (Chile & clone cities in Russia and Japan)
Business development partnerships

Marta Chamoun, ID: 160570, Course: B863, TMA 02, Fall 2016, Dr. Jihad Njeim

Sending mails to subscribers with discount offerings

Email filters were thru Location and by consumer preferences
Operations were segmented into: North America &Canada // International
Digital Marketing Initiatives: Display Ads, Search Engine Marketing, affiliate marketing, referral programs
Great Customer Experience
Products: Featured Daily Deals, Deals Nearby
Daily Email, Company Websites, Mobile Applications, Social Networks.
EBay, Microsoft, Yahoo Display & Promote Groupon Deals. Operations: City Planners, Editorial, Merchant
Services, Customer Service & Technology
Consolidate Groupon Operations by acquiring Berlin-Based City Deal (Having Knowledge of Local Culture)
Was What has been done correct or no? Assess

Question 2:
Defenestration meaning
Merits & Demerits of it
Transitions are essential to the companys evolution
Company will scale faster
Not to bring CEO to the board on the 1st place.
Removing weak teams will lead to success.
Removing a person who is not Qualified enough to run a business
New CEO may bring better set of skills

Marta Chamoun, ID: 160570, Course: B863, TMA 02, Fall 2016, Dr. Jihad Njeim

Mason never had made employees nor investors trust him so it led to his failure
Remove wide gap between management assertion about condition of company
Better control of process with a new CEO who is skilled and abler to cope with the global
challenges
Transitions are never easy on the people involved
The Investors may not continue investing in it because the reason is gone

Two CEOs mean:

1. Confusing people
2. Personalities clash
3. Strategies getting muddled
4. Dont drive more success
5. Implicit mutual monitoring
Org. Challenges before new CEO
1. Continue in Invest in growth
2. Sustain growth
3. Merchant/ customer
4. Simplify or handle multiple faced businesses
5. Pressure on operations from international results
6. Groupon challenges will increase
7. Being in control of the process instead of it controlling them
Question 3:
Leadership crisis

Marta Chamoun, ID: 160570, Course: B863, TMA 02, Fall 2016, Dr. Jihad Njeim

Concept of it
Explain it @ groupon
New CEO able to meet challenges of leading the org?
Assess leadership management and its effect on the operations or org.
The big problems that led to his firing are still not solved.
Problem is aligning both needs of merchant and buyer.
Re-image the Groupon Brand & increase competitive power
Changing the way, the org operates.
New CEO should focus on programs to encourage repeat buying
Groupon should change into a mature corporation
They should shrink maybe & focus on the areas that they are profitable.
The market opportunity is much smaller than they estimated.
Changing CEO may not fundamentally change tough aspects of the business
Remove wide gap between management assertion about condition of company

Mr. Mason will retain his shares & voting rights but he has resigned from the board.