Groupon’s Mason Causes A Stir

Andrew Mason, recently shown the door by Groupon after successive quarters of disappointing results, may have inadvertently changed corporate communications practice with his unprecedented signoff. Groupon had struggled since their initial public offering a year and a half ago.

Announcing his firing on Twitter with unexpected humor became a huge news story. Why? Because CEOs aren’t supposed to be humorous when they’re fired, and because Twitter had never been used like that before. The dour “spending more time with his family” or “she is looking forward to focusing on other challenges” lines that are sacrosanct in corporate communications should elicit an eye-roll. Usually it does. Mason’s departure from those horrible phrases was refreshing, and endearing.

It should not come as so much of a surprise. These younger tech prodigies like Mason or Zuckerberg aren’t wired like your normal CEO. They are quirky, creative, and bask in their informality. You don’t have to clean up nicely to play around with a computer and develop software. Further, it should not be forgotten that, despite being fired, Groupon made Mason a wealthy man. He still owns over 7% of the firm, and earned tens of millions as CEO. I’m sure there was a part of Mason that was relieved to finally be out of the spotlight, and have time and money to spend with his family.

I think similar communications can be expected in the future, but mostly from non-traditional CEOs like Mason. Finance people are generally more creative with money than words, and not as funny. In the future, I expect to see CEOs who are given the boot to lash out on Twitter. Honestly, I’m almost surprised it has not happened yet. CEOs generally have an alpha male personality, and never before have so many been given the intimate pulpit of Twitter to rant from. Traditional media generally get a more composed response from executives, but perhaps the informality of Twitter will get one fired CEO in trouble soon enough.