It’s interesting that CCP’s CEO released a dev blog yesterday with an apology and a lengthy statement on how CCP lost the way and how they are going to focus on fixing their core game (flying in space) etc etc. If you’re reading this blog, I bet you’ve read the dev blog, and have read at least a dozen people’s blog posts on how this is a good thing, or how this is just word play.
My approach is slightly different, due to personal circumstances. On Monday I resigned from my job, a large retailer here in South Africa with a near 35 000 work force. During the last two years the company has not done well. For the second time in a year, the company has released a ‘earnings warning”, article here. During the last earnings warning, the CEO did almost exactly the same as the CEO of CCP; that is, released a open letter to the customer explaining where the company has failed, and where the company is doing good, and what the company plans to do to get more in touch with it’s customers.
While I have no doubt that both CEO’s feel passionate about their businesses, the similarity of the approach to a crises in the organisation reeks of “we learned to do this in MBA school”. I’m not saying either is good or bad. That is open for personal interpretation.
I’m not planning on re-subscribing to Eve any time soon, so Hillmar’s blog makes no difference to me any more, but I did find the similarity of approach interesting enough to blog about.
October 6th, 2011 at 3:23 pm
You’re right, we have no way of knowing what Hilmar’s apology really means. I found it entertaining however, it is very well written and he manages to touch on all major player concerns.
IF they stay true to their word this could be good, I think they know that they cannot afford to alienate their player base any further. Then again, succeeding in alienating it this far in the first place means that they have lost their touch. As a still active player, I hope that they find their touch again.
I think it is a symptom of company growth: you start with a productive core of few people, and through growth you end up diluting that productivity. Insert some “management” layers to keep everything running and suddenly no one knows what the others are doing anymore. The ones left with the “big picture” are then often not the right people.
Keeping a company true to itself despite growth is one of the biggest challenges there are.
October 7th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
I don’t know the exact circumstances of your previous job and stuff , but I wish you all the best with finding new employment.
Would be sad if PnP disappears in the near future . They’re kinda a staple of SAF and SAF lifestyle.