Assignment

Business and management

Shali Moriah (First M. Last)

School or Institution Name (University at Place or Town, State)

Response to Question 1

During Groupon’s brief history, some of the important decisions made by Andrew Mason include the decision not to sell Google. Google had made Groupon a $6 billion offer in 2010, which was almost twice than what had been offered by Google for any acquisition. The buyout offer, however, was rejected by Mason. Another major decision involved making the company public and selling stocks. They filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities Exchange Commission in June 2011 for their stock’s Initial Public Offering. Thirdly, Mason brought in a customer relations manager, which helped the company retain merchants for multiple deals; a decision that played a major role in Groupon’s development.

Response to Question 2

Mason’s decisions do not seem to be unsystematic or random, and as such, do not demonstrate garbage can model. This model rejected linear organizational decision ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"a1s5qrpm2ff","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Peters, 2002)","plainCitation":"(Peters, 2002)"},"citationItems":[{"id":1141,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/5YBUMSQB"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/FGhKhGPG/items/5YBUMSQB"],"itemData":{"id":1141,"type":"article-journal","title":"Governance: a garbage can perspective","author":[{"family":"Peters","given":"B. Guy"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2002"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Peters, 2002). The decision to hire a customer relations manager, in fact, was very rational, as its outcome demonstrated. Moreover, he showed awareness of other possibilities and alternatives, when he chose not to take the buyout, calculating the likelihood of success for each of those alternatives.

Response to Question 3

When Mason envisioned Groupon, he seems to have made a very creative decision. Creativity refers to the process of being influenced by organizational and individual factors which leads to the development of useful, novel products, ideas or both. Mason utilized a rather simple idea and developed it into a modern-service that not only benefitted customers but was also fun to use. His former boss felt that Mason’s idea was worth a million dollars, which turned out to be true.

Response to Question 4

A few factors I would take into consideration before entering into competition with Groupon is, what special service am I offering that Groupon has not thought of so far? Where is the weakness in their model, and how can I make improvements in those areas? How much will I dedicate each quarter for promotions and marketing? How do I build a repute with traders and merchants to keep them interested in purchasing from me? How will I handle my business’ growth? Am I taking decisions rationally or jumping into a situation head-first that I know little about.

References

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Peters, B. G. (2002). Governance: a garbage can perspective.