Games and the associated technology we currently refer to as video games offer us more than just diversion and recreation. They offer us field tested models to use for organizing companies and performing complex and creative tasks. Video games offer compelling models for how people can work together, conduct business and earn a living in high change and unpredictable environment.
The very notion that games could have anything in common with work will cause some people to reject such ideas out of hand, but for everyone else, let’s look at an example of applying video game techniques to organize a real business operation. We’ll use game techniques to organize and operate a global supply chain.
Massively Multiplayer Online Games
There is a category of video games known as massively multiplayer online role-playing games or MMOs for short. On any popular MMO thousands of simultaneous players from around the world work together in real-time to plan and carry out challenging and complicated missions. Question: How is this any different from the demands of actual business these days? These games are, in effect, field testing technology and techniques that real companies could also use. Consider the screenshot below.
This screenshot shows what players see as they coordinate their actions with other players in a popular Star Wars themed MMO game called EVE Online. Note how the screen shows a moving 3D display overlaid with windows that present information from real-time data feeds provided by the game. This is called a heads-up display or HUD. In addition to these visual displays, players also communicate with each other moment to moment using text messages and Internet-based voice connections that can be directed to individual players or the entire.
What would happen if we applied the same techniques that enable thousands of people to collaborate moment to moment in MMO games to business? Could it also enable thousands of people in different companies to work together moment to moment to operate global supply chains? The screenshot below is an example of how that could work.
Supply chains in the real-time global economy are massively multiplayer online games in every sense of the word. They are composed of many separate companies located all over the world ranging from manufacturers to transportation companies and retailers. Each company has their own individual interests and goals, and yet all must communicate and cooperate with each other if they are to succeed. And because situations keep changing all the time, companies need to keep in constant contact with each other. They need to see what is happening as it happens if they are going to respond effectively to unexpected events and adjust operations accordingly to keep supply chains working well.
Massively Mulitplayer Online Businesses
Traditional business operating models come from the last century when it was possible to predict costs, revenues and profits for two to four year periods, now you can’t predict those things with any reasonable certainty beyond about 90 days. You still have to make your estimates and organize operations accordingly, but if your estimates about product demand or prices or costs are wrong, you can’t just blindly follow some rigid plan. You have to keep revising plans and procedures as things change. Could MMO games be a model for how people can organize and operate in high change and unpredictable environments?
MMO games show that when people have common goals, and when they can all see the same data moment to moment as events unfold, they learn how to collaborate and get better and better at making things happen. Perhaps this is a model for organizing work in the real world where people need to collaborate and focus their actions and continuously learn and improve in fast-paced and unpredictable environments. Below is an example of real-time data displays showing supply chain operations and problems that arise.
The use of real-time maps and heads-up displays and data readouts shows people what is happening as it happens. Based on what they see, people communicate and collaborate to solve problems and make smart decisions. They learn to play the “game” of supply chain management and get better and better at it.
The economy of this century is a lot less predictable than that of the last century. And it moves a lot faster too. Companies need to pay attention and think fast. There is a huge game-shaped opportunity to reinvent and reinvigorate business operations for those companies that can rise to the challenge.
