Did I learn to Play Nice?

After almost 2 years of multiple governments trying to block the acquisition, last October Microsoft closed a $69B acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

That’s a lot of money, what made them special?

I’m a sucker for a good business story, so when Play Nice by Jason Schreier came out last month chronicling the storied history of one of the most influential video game studios ever, of course, I pre-ordered it…

In case you’ve never heard of Blizzard, they’re the video game development studio behind franchises: World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch - three of which have generated multiple billions of dollars.

Takeaway #1: Donut Theory

For a long time, I’ve believed the premise that ‘if you create for one person, it’ll be applicable for many, but if you create for many, it’ll be applicable for no one’. For a company like Blizzard, the Donut Theory codified the principle that they had to care about the core users, which would create a ripple effect (sales) out to other people.

As we think about creating offers (and content) how can we get painfully specific about who will be impacted, and tailor what we’re making to them so that the value can be inferred to a wider audience?

Around the time that I read Never Enough by Andrew Wilkinson (still top two reads of the year for me), I listened to a podcast with him (I think) where he made the comment that before he started writing the book he wrote down a list of 17 people that he would be writing the book for. Through his whole drafting, revising, & editing process he came back to the question, is this valuable to those specific people? I definitely wasn’t on that list, but I still recommend that book to anyone who asks for a book rec, since it was specific enough that I could be “in the donut” of his audience.

Takeaway #2: Conventional Wisdom isn’t always right

Just because something has always been done one way doesn’t mean it’s the only way or even the best way.

I’ve never forgotten the day I realized that the people I thought were the smartest people I could think of were the ones who were willing to ask the simplest questions to make sure that they weren’t making assumptions that would lead them in the wrong direction.

If we look at the start-up world, some of the biggest unicorns ($1b+ venture-backed startups) were based on founders questioning “conventional wisdom” that would say it wouldn’t work.

• Airbnb: paying to stay in a stranger’s home

• Netflix: killing a (very) profitable dvd mail order business, because the “internet is the future”

• Twitch: people will pay to watch other people play video games online

• Amazon: an online bookstore

How often do you step back and question the conventional wisdom that your “industry” is telling you about what your offers should look like, how you should be marketing, or what your sales process should look like?

Takeaway #3: What culture is steering the ship?

From day one of Blizzard, they were gamers who made games they loved. What did this look like:

• Part of the hiring process involved asking people about their favorite games and quizzing them on obscure details that only die-hard gamers would know.

• The company would have game days where every person in the company would just play-test the game, and everyone was expected to share their thoughts.

• They didn’t ship bad games, they would push back launch dates by years rather than put out a bad game.

• Developers were the heartbeat of the company, and everyone else at the company (finance, marketing, HR, etc) was there to support great games.

Then at the end of 2007, Blizzard merged with Activision (Call of Duty, Tony Hawk Pro Skater, Rock Band) with Activision’s CEO being the CEO Of the new company.

This was a massive culture difference, Activision was run like a product company by “good” finance principles:

• They hired industry experts from CPG (consumer packaged goods) industries who were great at monetizing a brand with product line extensions & slight variations

• As a public game company, they cared deeply about the annual finances that were reported to Wall Street (aka yearly releases of Call of Duty)

• Every team was managed top-down by MBAs with little passion for gaming, just running a “good” business

It’s important to note that Blizzard’s boy club, low-wage culture had some major problems, but they were loyal to the creative and made critically loved games.

Technically, neither of these cultures is bad, but when you look at what made gamers love Blizzard & game developers want to work for them, it was their culture. Over time Blizzard’s culture was watered down and eventually mostly eliminated from the top down as more and more of the old guard got pushed out or finally gave up fighting.

What makes your business special? My bet is that the culture you have with your clients & audience plays a large role. When was the last time you thought about guarding your culture before it’s too late and you can’t get it back?

As I think of stereotypically gendered industries, I’m basically swinging to the other extreme with the next book in my TBR Selling Sexy: Victoria’s Secret and the Unraveling of an American 😂.

What’s on your TBR right now? Hit reply, I’d love to know!

Lyndon

Are you (or someone you know) feeling stuck, burnt out, or lost with their offers? We’ve got coaching offers here specifically for you. Even if you’re not looking to invest at this moment hit us up in DMs, we love nerding out over offers!