3 Reasons Groupon turning down $6B was a bad move

Recently the Groupon team turned down a $6b acquisition offer from Google. Waaaay bad move. The Groupon team should have taken the $$$ and jetted to Tahiti for some R&R. A quick background: Groupon is a couponing or target direct marketing  / advertising program and so far they have done a good job. So such a good job, that there are a lot of copycats popping up all over the place….some new companies...

The digital marketing awards are really nice…..though it’s the results that drive business!

Over the last year the (add)ventures Interactive / Technology team has won a variety interactive web awards. Most recently, we won two different Interactive Media Awards (IMA), one for an eCommerce site and the other for a sports event site.  While winning these awards is incredibly rewarding for the information architects, project managers, designers, copywriters and engineers that contributed to these projects,...

Amazon Kindle – it’s not the device, it’s Design Thinking that drives it’s success.

When I go online to buy something, 80% of the time I start and end at www.amazon.com. Recently I got a Kindle so that number will probably go even higher…..and Amazon does a superb job of making sure that it does. What makes the Amazon experience so remarkable, is that the component parts of their service come together to create a superior whole.  Amazon exemplifies idea of  “positioning within an...

New Gig, New Horizons

After working for the last 10+ years as a marketing and product management exec in the software industry, I am delighted to be returning to my services roots. Right out of college I worked for Accenture (then Andersen Consulting) as a consultant, and I loved the fast pace, variety, client interaction and working with leading edge technology. I was at Accenture when client-server was still new and “C” was...

Doing It Right – McKinsey Integrates Social Media

McKinsey is recognized as a premier Strategy firm and a business thought-leader. From what you will see next, their thought leadership evidently extends to their marketing and social media activities as well.  I have subscribed to McKinsey Quarterly for quite a while and have always been impressed with their insights. The most recent edition exemplifies some great social media best practices.  This post highlights...