Groupon Tibet Viedo Controversy

When the word Superbowl comes to mind football, parties, and commercials come to mind.  Companies pay millions of dollars to receive just one slot in the commercial line up.  A company that has been trying to build their name and used humor appeal to gain attention was Groupon.  The commercial that drove a lot of controversy is the one about Tibet and they were trying to create humor and raise awareness issues. But, this did not go over well for many people and they expressed their feelings in many ways such as blogs and twitter.

The CEO of Groupon, Andrew Mason, obviously had to take a lot of heat for this uproar.  Therefore, Mason gave sent out an apology to those he had offended.  But, this didn’t seem to satisfy people because they did not feel it was a sincere apology.  From a marketers point of view the bad publicity that was caused met the goal of increasing brand awareness but in a negative way.  But from a leadership point of view, especially a CEO, it is your responsibility to lead toward a positive change.  The fact that Mason was trying to point fingers at other people in his apology did not help his case.  According to the trait approach, there are five distinct traits that help describe a leader.  I think that Mason lost some of his integrity through the commercial choice and the “non-apology” letter.  Because of these commercials and the response that they got employees might start having a hard time trusting their CEO.  This can be a dangerous place to be as a leader because as I have learned if you do not trust the person running the company, how can you trust that you are working for a reputable company.  Not only are employees going to question their place in the company but potential consumers are going to have a hard time trusting the company and wanting to be a part of it.  I think that Groupon could have raised awareness with humor in a different way then they portrayed.

This also makes me think that why didn’t anyone in the company think about how offensive the commercials might be.  Is Mason leading in a way that does not give a chance to other people to express their ideas and thoughts? The employees were able to make the commercial, but were they willing?  This leads into the Situational Approach as to what kind of leading is he doing inside the company.  Because Mason would have wanted his employees to be both able and willing, he must have been leading in a directing style.  If they were not willing, this possibly could have allowed other people to speak up and give other ideas for the commercial.  This would have allowed more feedback to be given and possibly a different result would have came from the company.

The question that I raise to you is do you think that Mason could have earned some integrity back by taking the blame instead of defending himself and what type of development level do you think Mason was leading his team?

http://blogs.wsj.com/venturecapital/2011/02/07/groupon-ceos-non-apology-apology-letter-for-super-bowl-ad/?KEYWORDS=ceos

Video Commercial:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVkFT2yjk0A

--Posted by:   Devan Pritchett

John Donhoe, CEO of eBay, with his new vision for the future of eBay

Leading change in the corporate world is not an easy task. The leader must set a clear vision for the change they plan to make. John Donahoe, the current CEO of eBay, 27 years ago had the vision that he would not live the rest of his life as a consultant with the mega firm Bain. These were his very powerful words at the time, “I will not live the life of a management consultant.” Donahoe embodied self-confidence and determination within his self which helped reach the vision he set 27 years ago. Early off Donahoe expressed his strong leadership traits as a consultant that would eventually help him prepare for his CEO position with eBay.   

                Donahoe has become a very influential leader as the CEO at eBay. Since his takeover of the company in 2008, he has already revived the organization in many ways. He has lead to organization to increase earnings and stock prices. Shareholders and employees are very pleased with the current direction of the organization. Donahoe recently created a new vision for eBay. John Donahoe plans to make eBay the model company for developing woman executives. Many believe his biggest influence on this is his wife, Eileen, who is a U.S. ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council.

                Impacting an organization is what John Donahoe is in business for. As he began his career as a consultant, he is now consulting new way to take eBay over the top with its competitors. Last month eBay held their first ever top women executives conference in San Francisco. Over 200 women from 15 different countries attended the event.  During the conference Donahoe stated that he intends to be better than Amazon, Google, and Visa. He visions eBay as the leading organization with women as top level executives. I feel that this is a great transformation for the leadership field and will give many women the opportunity to become top level executives with prestigious organizations.

                Do you believe John Donahoe is acting in the best interest of the entire eBay organization with his new vision?

eBay CEO Donahoe bares his own work-life struggles

Posted by: Sean Gremillion

Oprah's Next Act

http://money.cnn.com/2010/09/29/news/companies/oprah_most_powerful_full.fortune/index.htm/#oprah

            As we all know, Oprah Winfrey has become a very successful business woman over the years. However, as of January 1, 2011, she took her success to a whole new level with her new cable network called OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network. This new network has split ownership, fifty-fifty, between Oprah and Discovery. With this new commitment, Oprah only has to contribute 70 hours on air annually, but nothing out of her wallet. Discovery just wanted Oprah for her name and brand. She has become so successful at her job that she is becoming an icon.

            One reason why Oprah has become such a powerful leader is due to her personality. According to the Big Five Personality Factors, Oprah mostly relates to extraversion, which is the trait most strongly related with leadership. She is extraverted because she always has a positive energy. Her whole mantra on The Oprah Winfrey Show is “live your best life.” She is also very sociable, which is clearly revealed through her successful career as a TV talk show host.

            Oprah is also very influential, which is one of the major leadership components. Almost any person that comes on her show becomes a “living brand” themselves, such as Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, and Nate Berkus, to name a few. The way Oprah affects her audience is amazing. People look up to her and trust her opinions.

            She also became an emergent leader. She started her career by just doing her job, but through her authenticity and compassion, people began to love her. There are many talk shows on TV every day, but for Oprah rise above the rest happened from her viewers. She now has followers that enjoy watching her show every time it is aired. It is highly likely that her new cable network, OWN, will become such a success like her show did.

            When you are asked to name the top ten women leaders in the world, is Oprah one that comes to mind?

-Posted by: Genise Logston

          

Chrysler Decision Making

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703293204576106472087401608.html

In large corporations big decisions have to be made on a daily basis.  Chrysler used to be the third-largest car maker, but has dropped to number 6 in its home market, trailing behind other companies such as Toyota and Honda.  Recently, Chrysler had a door handle issue with their new Charger that was supposed to be on the assembly line.  The main problem was that the latch on the door was not tight, letting water to seep in and cause the electronics to malfunction or fail.  To me, this problem should have been handled by the developers as well as the mechanics.  But, what I didn’t know was how involved the chief executive of Chrysler Group LLC, Sergio Marchionne, was with decisions such as these. 

As we discussed in class, in the “Management Skills Necessary at Various Levels of an Organization” chart, it is easy to see that top management usually does not have the technical skills that the middle or supervisory management has.  This is a main reason I was surprised that the CEO was involved with the door handle decision.  Mr. Marchionne said that he was getting updates every couple of hours on how the progress was going with the door handle.  But, it was said by the head of dealership chain AutoNation Inc. that it was remarkable to see an automotive CEO have such detailed conversations and know so much about the problem.  Yes, I agree that it is important to be involved at every level of the organization, but I do not think that there is a need for a CEO to be constantly bothered by a door handle malfunction.

The main problem I see that in such a large corporation, such as Chrysler, is that there are going to be multiple decisions that need to be made every day and there is no way that just one person is going to be able to make all these decisions.  The busy schedule that the CEO has also means that it is hard to get one-on-one time to go over tough decisions.  Although Mr. Marchionne is trying to change the culture of the organization, he needs to be able to allow tasks and decisions to be made by other people or he will begin to experience burnout.  The question here then is at what point is it beneficial for top managers to be involved in lower level malfunctions?

--Devan Pritchett

Michelle Obama, Fighting The Fat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQiC_bdiXw0

First Lady Michelle Obama has launched a nationwide campaign called “Let’s Move” to help reduce child obesity. She stated that one in three children in the United States is OBESE and that the nation is in danger because of this. Many Americans are aware of the decreasing life span of children compared to their parents. This will eventually affect their ability to work and pay taxes. It will also create numerous other difficulties in their lives. Therefore, along with her main goals seen in this video, Mrs. Obama has been working hard with major retailers such as the Wal-Mart Stores to start making food products healthier and more affordable. Her main focus has been on the poorer and working American families who simply do not have the time or the money to prepare healthy meals for their children. She has also recently helped make nutritional labels on packaged foods more clear while working to wean children off of the fattening foods such as nachos, pizza, and tater tots that they are consuming during school lunches. 
            Like any great leader, Michelle Obama has faced many critics who claim using her daughters as an example is "insensitive". Critics have also attacked her campaign by claiming that for many schools it is not financially feasible for them to purchase expensive, organic foods with their tight budgets.
            I feel that Michelle Obama has been successful in this struggle against child obesity not only because of her position power, but also, because of her personal power. Mrs. Obama's followers identify a liking towards her as a well-educated mother raising two children of her own. Therefore, she has established referent power. Additionally, as the First Lady, Mrs. Obama possesses legitimate power because of her formal job authority in the White House. Throughout this campaign she has created a sense of urgency for the American people. Mrs. Obama has been working with star athletes and other experts to build a guiding coalition for her campaign. She hopes this will empathize to their younger fans the importance of physical activity by seeing their biggest heroes helping to promote the campaign.

Posted By: Christine Burklin