A Video Game Company Levels Up With a New Operating Model

In the ever-evolving and rapidly growing world of computer gaming, no company can afford to rest on its laurels. GameCo* had created a hugely popular game, but it realized that, despite booming sales, long-term success mandated expansion into a multi-product entertainment company. The challenge: Its organizational structure and operating model weren’t designed to scale, which presented a major impediment to achieving its full ambition.

We worked closely with GameCo to define its vision at both the enterprise and product levels, and to create an operating model that would unleash the creative powers of its teams. We helped GameCo redefine the roles of more than half its workforce, with clearer accountability and a strong focus on maintaining employees’ trust. As a result, the company delivered a number of major cross-enterprise experiences to its players, and achieved a step change in the volume of individual products it launched.

A Winning Approach

As GameCo defined its strategy, our Org Navigator tool helped it assess its current organizational design, prioritize the necessary changes, and chart the best course to achieve the simplification, collaboration, and product focus at the heart of its vision. The company reorganized around five operating groups, three devoted to products and the others to publishing and enterprise. This enabled the company to develop products that would delight players, provide a consistent player arc across those products, scale globally while maintaining proximity to players and fans, and simplify delivery.

We also helped the company clarify accountabilities and responsibilities between those operating groups and across regions, with an emphasis on approaching players and partners as a multi-product company, versus as a purveyor of a specific product or entertainment offering. GameCo established a Results Delivery Office to execute the changes, address onboarding and training needs, track progress, and manage other elements of the new model deployment.

The results were impressive. In addition to the redefinition of roles, the effort drove significant financial improvement across the company, including a 50%+ increase in B2B commercial revenue in the first year. The new model also enabled GameCo to deliver major cross-enterprise experiences and, as noted above, supported a notable boost in new-product launches.