Broadening Horizons

I recently came across an article reviewing the current bid that google has made to acquire groupon.

http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/12/groupon_is_google_making_a_6_b.html

The article makes a very good argument about the contrasting effects that groupon has had on the companies using its services.  I, for one, have several accounts of friends working at businesses or owning businesses that have incurred huge loses on account of their groupon “shananigan”.

The article, however,  doesn’t address the fact that google’s bid for groupon seems quite disproportionate to its real value. With close to ~200 million dollars in equity, and a fair amount of debt, Groupon’s added value seems to come from the name it has created for itself and its steady customer base (myself included). Their brand, however, has come under fire in recent days. More and more costumers realize that there are catches for the coupons of businesses that designed their groupon strategy well. The bargains for the consumer, however, come from businesses that have not strategized the use of their discounts.a As more of these companies realize the losses associated with the discount, there will be less “bargains” for the consumer.

In my opinion, Groupon has had a boom in the last two years and has experience tremendous amount of growth (hence google’s  overly enthusiastic 6 billion dollar bid to acquire them). However, as the implementation of the idea behind groupon is refined, its costumer base will stabilize as less people will take advantage of their services and less businesses will post their coupons online. Furthermore, as competitors like livingsocial, gilt city and buywithme enter the race, groupon’s market share might be affected. The service is easily replicable at a local level, which would hurt groupon’s expansion into new areas (and the biggest cause for it’s rapid growth rate).

If I were groupon, I’d take the bid before google comes back to its senses and make a more conservative offer.

My beautiful and skilled friend Mrs. Del Moral has suggested I do a couple of modifications to my original logo, which I think make it look a lot better. I however, have become too biased and would like a bit of fresh criticism from you. Here I am posting the three candidates for the job, please comment on which one you prefer and why!

Thank you all!!!

So…I have finally finished the design of my logo. It took a while, but I am very happy with the final result. Pending a quick review by a mentor and a couple of artistic friend’s perspectives, and it’s off to the next step of my personal branding.The logo is actually based on a picture taken at work recently. It is  a dissociated  neuron in cell culture sprouting neurites trying to connect to its final target.

Mario's Logo

I chose a neuron not simply because I have worked at a preclinical laboratory that focuses on spinal cord injury for the last three years; the meaning behind it a lot more complex than that. Neurons are remarkably resilient if threatened by external stimuli. They will attempt to reconnect back to its target time and time again and find alternative routes to go about it. Under normal circumstances, they constantly fine-tune their physiology to better perform their function. Their “plasticity” that allows them to adapt to changing environments is a characteristic that I strive to achieve.

Just as neurons are constantly “inspired to change” by the stimuli they receive, I take after neurons to meet the challenges my career will set forth.

I just came out of our first (hopefully of several) feedback session with the dean of the faculty. I am sincerely amazed of how friendly and approachable the faculty, admin and the dean were to feedback and constructive criticism. Other faculties at UBC would do well to follow their lead in listening what students have to say. For too long have universities maintained a top-down strategy to address change and implement new technologies. This bottom up approach is refreshing and will surely help leverage the student’s input on best teaching practices.