泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌
[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]
Key to the success of Netmarble
Netmarble Together with Press (NTP) took place not long ago. The gist of what Bang Jun-Hyuk, the chairman of Netmarble, said in the event is as follows.
Firstly, a solid organizational power of Netmarble is the critical success factor and human resource is the most important part of the gaming company. Secondly, Bang hopes that the company's strategy on his speech would be a great help to other domestic mobile-game developers and publishers in the era of unlimited global competition with foreign mobile games. Thirdly, he is ready to accelerate the company's entry into the global mobile-game market and using the brand awareness, the popularity of globally major intellectual properties (IPs), and Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) would be covered under the core strategy. Fourthly, he will implement a key strategy based upon accurate data with numerical statistics which he only believes in. Fifthly, he would grow its subsidiaries stably in turn and their efforts would pay off. Lastly, he has the big four management philosophy: strategic management; innovation and thinking ahead, people-centered management; fostering talented individuals, data-driven management; recognizing the importance of numerical data, participative management; empowering employees of the company.
Bang is the man whom I've never met and I've never damaged by the large publisher. But, as one person working in the video-game-related field, I'd like to dispute his claims made in the speech.
To begin with, let's talk about organizing ability and people-centered management. Probably lots of employees of Netmarble in the Guro Industrial Complex do not leave the office working very hard while I'm writing this column in the middle of the night. I don't want to disparage them. But I've heard rumors several times that high levels of staff turnover of the company is due to a heavy workload. It's not based on the accurate data, however, I cannot find any currently working-level staff as far as I know among employees who had worked in the firm two years ago. The basis of organizational power is teamwork. I doubt whether frequent changes of a member is helpful for fine teamwork.
Besides, he contradicted himself saying that he only believes in numerical data, meanwhile, he admitted that it's hard to predict the exact numerical results of a video game included in show business. And, at least, man - one of the most important parts of his management philosophy - is a creature of impulse who cannot be measured only by a numerical value. I am not fully convinced by the opinion of the leading businessman who develops and distributes content. If a movie can be precisely expected to be a good show before it comes out only by numerical data, the success of the film necessarily depends on a director and staffs who have enough experience for making box-office hits. But we have seen many instances of that combination of factors was disastrous.
Finally, he said that Netmarble holding critical data would be helpful for the local gaming industry. But it seemed like 'follow me' top-down leadership style. I doubt whether the exclusive publishing service of the big publisher would help boost the domestic video-game industry.
I was uncomfortable because he showed confidence-looking defensive attitude in his speech mentioning past successes and optimistic future of the company although Netmarble also has many problems. No one is denying that Netmarble is No.1 mobile-game company in South Korea. Still, if you look closely enough, it relies mostly on sales of the small number of games developed by its subsidiaries for revenue. Many Netmarble-published games have disappeared from the market due to the low probability of success based on its data-driven management and not a few of the subsidiaries have lost quite a bit of money. It's not possible to succeed in every game it releases. It's hard to show dedicated teamwork due to a high turnover of the staff. Some imported games which paid a heavy price to have showed poor outcomes. Of course, Netmarble has brought great achievements. But, it is quite unpleasant to ask small developers to follow its style as it guides because it's obvious that they cannot independently survive in the maturing industry. A video game is a part of the show business and creativity is very important in making it. Numerical data-driven management far from the creativity means that it prefers to uses a method which has already been tried and tested. To create something new always starts at challenging authority. I'm worried about Korea's largest video-game maker who seems a frightening champion because it is afraid of accepting the challenge.
※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.
(http://www.khgames.co.kr)
Translation by Kim Ki-hui
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