B
Benjamin28
I was having a conversation...turned argument...the other day with a colleague. The question put forth was whether a business organization can succeed if top management is inept. My initial reaction is no, never going to happen. My friends stance was that it is highly possible depending on the caliber of talent in the operational staff. I was willing to concede that it is possible, if you have great talent in your staff but inept managment, for a business to survive, but I can't see any business really being successful if top management is chasing its own tail.
Well, anyway, I was looking for an example of mismanagement, just something to underscore my perspective on how poor top management can really cause a company to fall into a downward spiral and I found the story of Sigil Games, which I find to be quite fascinating. It's older news but if you have not read it before, it makes for an interesting read. I just find it amazing that you can gather so many talented folks together and end up with such a mess.
The short version...Sigil began developing an online game with the financial backing of Microsoft and some of the finest talent in the genre of online gaming. Due to gross mismanagement the company spent the first 4 years or so developing portions of a game but no real functional product. At this time Microsoft dumped the project as a lost cause, and SOE scooped it up and set a release deadline. The staff then broke their butts for a year, working long shifts every day, to develop a semi-functional product at release (what most gamers describe as a steaming pile of error ridden poo). Shortly after release, the entire staff was brought out to the parking lot and fired, by a production manager, the ceo wasn't even present. Allegedly he was never in the office the final year the business was operating.
One funny thing, during the intitial years of development of this game there was only 1 quality assurance tester. How in gods name would you expect one person to check that much code, and I wonder what his daily job was like.
Anyway, the story of this company just amazed me and I figured I'd put it up here to see what you all think of it. Below are links to two interviews, one with a staff member of sigil, and another with the CEO, two different perspectives on a very strange business debacle, and as I said, an interesting read.
http://www.f13.net/?itemid=562
http://www.f13.net/index.php?itemid=561
Well, anyway, I was looking for an example of mismanagement, just something to underscore my perspective on how poor top management can really cause a company to fall into a downward spiral and I found the story of Sigil Games, which I find to be quite fascinating. It's older news but if you have not read it before, it makes for an interesting read. I just find it amazing that you can gather so many talented folks together and end up with such a mess.
The short version...Sigil began developing an online game with the financial backing of Microsoft and some of the finest talent in the genre of online gaming. Due to gross mismanagement the company spent the first 4 years or so developing portions of a game but no real functional product. At this time Microsoft dumped the project as a lost cause, and SOE scooped it up and set a release deadline. The staff then broke their butts for a year, working long shifts every day, to develop a semi-functional product at release (what most gamers describe as a steaming pile of error ridden poo). Shortly after release, the entire staff was brought out to the parking lot and fired, by a production manager, the ceo wasn't even present. Allegedly he was never in the office the final year the business was operating.
One funny thing, during the intitial years of development of this game there was only 1 quality assurance tester. How in gods name would you expect one person to check that much code, and I wonder what his daily job was like.
Anyway, the story of this company just amazed me and I figured I'd put it up here to see what you all think of it. Below are links to two interviews, one with a staff member of sigil, and another with the CEO, two different perspectives on a very strange business debacle, and as I said, an interesting read.
http://www.f13.net/?itemid=562
http://www.f13.net/index.php?itemid=561