Deputy City CEO – Area Manager (2011-2012)
When I joined Groupon in 2011, it was a roaring and fast growing start up in which each market was competing with the others acting as a company within the company, with its “City CEO” having full decision power.
I started my career in Groupon as Deputy City CEO (Area Manager) of the market of Milan, the biggest market in Italy and one of the top 5 in Europe. I was managing the sales team of Milan and making decision along the end to end business process: from briefing the sales team to deciding the product strategy, from deciding the merchandising of the offers to validating the editorial contents.
I was coming from 4 years of Management Consulting and, from the very first day in Groupon, I had the opportunity to implement in a company what I learnt in the consulting experience. I so learnt to think-fast-and-act-faster with 0 tolerance on errors, in an environment in which the variable “time” was the most crucial for the success of the company.
Chief of Staff to the Founder (2012-2015)
After less than one year in Groupon, I was called to duty by the CEO and Co-Founder of the Southern European entity – 5 countries and about 800 employees – to work as his deputy. The main focus had been to reorganise the company and build processes for the long term sustainability of the business.
I had a crucial role in the management of the Southern European entity, working in partnership with the top management. Besides producing strategic analysis to help leadership in making decisions, I lead projects on behalf of the CEO: in 2013 I led the turnaround of the commercial strategy that resulted in an increase of customers’ and partners’ satisfaction. Working in liaison with the headquarter, I led the transformation project of the company after the acquisition of City Deal by Groupon and subsequent IPO, in a fast changing environment. One of my last project had been the outsourcing of sales activities, a project that will lead to a major organisation change.
In 2013 I also joined the EMEA Sales Operation team, as Head of Sales Operation for the Southern European region, which main purpose had been the unification of processes across all EMEA countries, with a strong focus in uniforming and improving the performance in Sales, and so in the top line of the P&L.