Whilst having a cuppa my news feed apparently picked up that the co-founder and CEO of Groupon had been given the arse and had written a rather whimsical note to staff about his sacking.
This is the note –
“People of Groupon,
“After four and a half intense and wonderful years as CEO of Groupon, I’ve decided that I’d like to spend more time with my family. Just kidding – I was fired today. If you’re wondering why . . . you haven’t been paying attention. From controversial metrics in our S1 to our material weakness to two quarters of missing our own expectations and a stock price that’s hovering around one quarter of our listing price, the events of the last year and a half speak for themselves. As CEO, I am accountable.
“You are doing amazing things at Groupon, and you deserve the outside world to give you a second chance. I’m getting in the way of that. A fresh CEO earns you that chance. The board is aligned behind the strategy we’ve shared over the last few months, and I’ve never seen you working together more effectively as a global company – it’s time to give Groupon a relief valve from the public noise.
“For those who are concerned about me, please don’t be – I love Groupon, and I’m terribly proud of what we’ve created. I’m OK with having failed at this part of the journey. If Groupon wasBattletoads, it would be like I made it all the way to the Terra Tubes without dying on my first ever play through. I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to take the company this far with all of you. I’ll now take some time to decompress (FYI I’m looking for a good fat camp to lose my Groupon 40, if anyone has a suggestion), and then maybe I’ll figure out how to channel this experience into something productive.
“If there’s one piece of wisdom that this simple pilgrim would like to impart upon you: have the courage to start with the customer. My biggest regrets are the moments that I let a lack of data override my intuition on what’s best for our customers. This leadership change gives you some breathing room to break bad habits and deliver sustainable customer happiness – don’t waste the opportunity!
“I will miss you terribly.
Love,
Andrew”
Apparently the blogtwitshphere has come over all gushy at this letter. So lets put this in perspective with a chart.
Groupon is down about 80% from listing under the watch of the ex CEO. Add to this the knocking back of an offer of $6 billion for the company pre listing and you have a CEO who probably should not be running an ice cream van.
It could just have easily read:
I apologise for taking us to IPO technically bankrupt, for using abnormal accouting practices to report 60 million in income, instead of 420 million loss. I apologise for giving away nearly all of the venture capital raised, as cash pay outs to founders.
His one true statement comes at the end:
“maybe I’ll figure out how to channel this experience into something productive”