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Ilkka Paananen谈Supercell扁平管理和权力下放创新机制

发布时间:2017-05-02 09:54:17 Tags:,,

本文原作者:PocketGamer.biz综合整理,译者ciel chen

Supercell的CEO Ilkka Paananen分享了他为Supercell设想的未来蓝图,以及之所以在和Digital Chocolate400名员工共事多年后发展起公司内部创业文化的原因。

Paananen在RovioCon 2017年Helsinki大会上发表讲话,探讨了他在游戏行业里的第一个10年里——从担任Sumea的CEO到最终成为Digital Chocolate的总裁再到以Digital Chocolate的总裁身份收购Sumea公司的经历历程。

 Supercell's company structure(from pocketgamer.biz)

Supercell’s company structure(from pocketgamer.biz)

Paananen本身善于分析、而且拥有在投资银行和管理咨询业界的有很多大学同窗好友,当他几乎是意外地进入到游戏行业之后,Paananen带领着Sumea成长为一个拥有40名成员的团队,之后由Digital Chocolate公司收购。

在那6年里,Paananen建立起了一个自上而下的组织形式,组织中有一小部分人专门负责想点子,他形容这样的组织就像在一张整洁的纸上布满了流程、流程里每个人都在他的掌控之中。

管理大于创新

当他加入Digital Chocolate以后,公司随着环境复杂程度的加深将规模扩大到了400人。

尽管一开始试图使用软管理层和程序来保持事情的可控度,而在不久后他发现这跟公司的进程有关,包括用来开发新游戏的审批(greenlight)流程。

这要求高级员工或者团队来创造出一个大型文档来详细解释一款游戏的商业计划和案例,这里的内容包括市场机会、竞争和利基分析等。

这个文档的目的不是为了做出更好的游戏,而是让整个公司(从市场总管到销售和财务)能够认同该项目。这让开发团队需要进行长时间的电话会议来让说服人们相信该游戏的潜力。

他发现无论怎样实际上只有游戏开发者自己才了解他们的游戏,并且大部分新游戏都很“差劲”,不过它们如果能经过一些加工是可以有翻天覆地变化的,只是这个过程是需要时间的。

随着人员的升职、新团队组建、更多管理层的添加,这个过程的问题会越发严重。

更好的方法?

过了一段时间,Pannanen说他意识到之前他也许一直都想错方向了——游戏是一个创造性产业,跟科技产业不一样。

他补充道,无论你把团队、展示和流程组织得多好,都不意味着会带来好的游戏创意。

因此,他决定试看看一个开发者主导的团队会是样,他将公司的金字塔模式整个倒过来了,将组建团队的管理权交给开发者并支持他们,而不是管着他们——这也就是他在Supercell的成功之处。

这种模式更类似在一家公司里独立运营的一个创新团队。当有人提出这种概念就像“细胞(cells)”一样,于是他的新工作室名字便应运而生——Supercell。该工作室已经以该种模式研发出了例如《部落战争》、《Hay Day》、《Boom Beach》和《皇室战争》这样的热门大作了。

Paananen坚定地认为小团队资源的稀缺反而能促进革新和专注。如果一个团队只有两个程序员,那它们就必须专注与他们现有资源能让他们做到什么程度。至少在手游产业是不需要一只规模达100人的团队的。

然而,硬币的两面一面是独立,另一面则是责任。Supercell现在有了这些高标准的游戏巨作,因此如果有些东西无法解决,这可能会威胁到游戏存亡或者意味着对团队要做出一些变更。

这不适用于所有人

Paananen还表明,某些挑战是仅对于Supercell而言的,他提醒supercell的运营模式并非对所有游戏公司都适用,也并非就一定是其他游戏公司可遵循的最佳模板。

他说这种模式对于那些非常有前瞻性的人们、或者对那些想自己创建公司的企业家们,还有对于那些不需要让顶头上司指示自己该做些什么的人来说最行之有效。

尽管在流程和管理上有较大欠缺的小团队也能做出创新大项目,但这往往是会造成一些压力。

考虑到Supercell需要保持较小的团队规模,它必须拒绝很多游戏项目提议,因为他还有高质量游戏巨作需要维稳运行。他承认,确实有人在supercell工作多年却依旧无法发行他们的游戏。

先前Paananen还说他们封存了一款叫做《Smash Land》的游戏,他认为这款游戏本应该是游戏热门榜的前25名——然而这样的成绩依旧无法达到公司预期。

Paananen在RovioCon大会上说:无论如何,公司确实在尝试通过人员调换来解决这些问题,这一点在之后的新员工面试中也会向面试者提出。

Pannnanen总结说公司结构变化是不会停下的,在未来几年甚至几十年,如果开发者能坚持下来,那该流程也将可能不断进化。

本文由游戏邦编译,转载请注明来源,或咨询微信zhengjintiao

Supercell CEO Ilkka Paananen has shared his vision for Supercell and why its internal startup culture was developed after years working with as many as 400 staff at Digital Chocolate.

Speaking at RovioCon 2017 in Helsinki, Paananen discussed his first 10 years in the games industry as CEO of Sumea and then eventually President of Digital Chocolate following the latter’s acquisition of the former.

After falling into the games industry almost by accident, given his analytical background and university friends pursuing careers in investment banking and management consultancy, Paananen grew Sumea to a team of around 40 staff before selling to Digital Chocolate.

During his six years there, Paananen built a top-down organisation with a small group of people making the ideas, which he described as neat on paper, with lots of processes, everyone in a box and ‘under control’.

Management over creativity

By the time he left, the company had grown to around 400 people, with the complexity of the environment increasing.

Despite trying to introduce layers of soft management and procedures to keep things under control, after a while he noticed issues related to the firm’s processes, including the greenlight process for developing new games.

This required senior staff and/or teams to create big documents explaining the business plan and case for a game, including the market opportunity, competition, niche, etc.

The purpose of the document was not to make a better game, but to get the whole company buying into the project, from the head of marketing, to sales and finance. This would then lead to monthly reviews with lengthy phone calls to convince people of the game’s potential.

He found however that the reality is only game creators know about the game, and most new titles “suck”, but after some work may progress into something great, but that process needs time.

This issue with processes was exacerbated by growth as people got promoted, got new teams and more management layers were added.

A better way?

After some time, Paananen said he realised he may have been thinking about things the wrong way. Games are part of a creative industry, not science, he said.

He added that no matter how well organised your team, presentation or process, this doesn’t produce great games.

Therefore, he decided to see what a developer-led team would look like, turning the company pyramid upside down to give management the role of building teams and supporting them, rather than running them – something he’s tried to achieve with Supercell.

This is more akin to running independent startups within the company. After someone suggested these were like ‘cells’, his new studio’s name of Supercell was born. It’s since gone on to develop hit games such as Clash of Clans, Hay Day, Boom Beach and Clash Royale.
How Ilkka Paananen envisions Supercell’s company structure
Paananen believes that the scarcity of resources in small teams can increase innovation and focus. If only two programmers are on a team, they’ll need to focus on what they can do with what they have. You don’t need 100-man teams on mobile like you do for console, he said.

On other flip side of the coin to independence however is responsibility. Supercell has a very high bar for games to be greenlit, and if something isn’t working out, it will kill the game or make changes to the team.

Not for everyone

Paananen noted that there are some challenges presented by Supercell’s philosophy, and cautioned the model may not work for all companies, nor is it necessarily the best model for others to follow.

He said it works best for people that are super proactive and likely could be entrepreneurs themselves and form their own companies, people who don’t need a boss to tell them what to do.

While small teams and a lack of much process and management can lead to great innovation, it can also cause stress.

Given Supercell’s philosophy of staying small, it needs to say no to a lot of game proposals, given the high bar to get the greenlight. He admitted that people could work for many years at Supercell and their game won’t come out.

Previously, Paananen has said it canned a game called Smash Land, which he felt could have been a top 25 grossing game – but still didn’t meet internal expectations.

Paananen said during RovioCon however that the company does try to address this issue by rotating employees and being upfront about it from the start during the interview process.

Paananen concluded by saying that the company’s structure is an ever-evolving thing, and should the developer last for many more years or even decades, the process will likely evolve too.(source:pocketgamer.biz )


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