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How to succeed in the mobile game space by Lloyd Melnick

Tag: process

Jacoby Brissett shows in one night what I’ve been trying to explain for years

Last night, the New England Patriots beat the Houston Texans 27-0 with Jacoby Brissett at quarterback. What is surprising to some is that Brissett is an unknown third-team rookier quarterback only playing because the star starting quarterback, Tom Brady, is suspended for four games and his back-up Jimmy Garoppolo was injured last week. What the victory so poignantly shows is that companies and teams succeed by building a good system and not letting inevitable hardships derail them.

brissett

Over two years ago, I wrote about the Next Man Up philosophy, how rather than dwelling on adversity just keep moving (not surprisingly, it was also about the Patriots). The core is that successful companies and teams focus on their goal and do not let short-term issues serve as a reason to fail.

No excuses

At its core, this philosophy is about staying focused on what you need to do to succeed, not why you might fail. It would have been easy for Patriots Coach Bill Belichick during the week to say they would “try their best” but without their top quarterbacks it will be difficult. Instead, Belichick’s message was his job is to beat the Texans, it has always been to beat the Texans and that is what he will prepare the team to do.

Companies and individuals often look for reasons why a project will not succeed or already has failed. I remember at E3 after 9/11, hearing from multiple game development companies that they ran into problems or their games did not succeed because of 9/11. The truth was they would not have succeeded regardless and most of these companies failed to ever succeed.

There will always be reasons that can rationalize why you are not successful: someone left the team, competitors are not pricing fairly, regulations have changed, blah blah blah. The reality is things never go as they are planned, there will always be unforeseen obstacles and hurdles. Good companies, good coaches and good leaders, however, do not care about the excuses and focus on the goal and how they will succeed given the circumstances. They do not make excuses when they fail, they learn from them (and avoid them).

Not rah-rah

What is also interesting in the Patriots success last night (and pretty much the last ten years) is that it was not at all driven by a great motivational speech. As well as not making excuses, Belichick did not extoll his team to play at 110% or do it for Brady. Instead, it was business as usual. We have a job to do, the variables have changed as they always do, but we will go out and do it. That is exactly what the Patriots did last night.

The press, and many people, love the charismatic, macho, inspirational leader. Rex Ryan (former New York Jet and current Buffalo Bill American Football coach) had a rabid following because he was so enthusiastic and his players loved him. Elon Musk has more fans than any businessman I have ever seen. Yet it is the Bill Belichek’s, Jeff Bezos’ and Bill Gates’ that deliver results year in and year out, and neither of them could be deemed charismatic. In fact, they are often successful because the team and the company are at the forefront, rather than their individual star.

It’s above the individual

Related to the coach not being the center of attention, the Patriots show that success is about not elevating any individual above the team or company. While the Patriots have had many great players, they have fostered a team first mentality. Even Tom Brady, New England’s injured starting quarterback who some consider the greatest quarterback of all time, celebrated on Facebook the Patriots win last night even though it theoretically could have impacted his greatness by showing the Patriots win with or without him.

This strategy also makes it easier to deal with an employee who leaves or a player that gets injured. Again, to use the Patriots example, they have now won all three games that Tom Brady has missed due to his suspension. By contrast, when the Indianapolis Colts (a traditional Super Bowl contender at that time) in 2011 lost quarterback Peyton Manning to an injury for the season, they ended up winning only two out of 16 games. In the business world, there is also almost always turnover. If you tie your success to one individual, you are much less flexible in your ability to deal with future situations.

It’s about the process

What it comes down to is building a good process to achieve your ultimate goal, whether that is hitting revenue targets or winning football matches. If you have a system that can weather external shocks you will achieve this goal rather than spending your team in a bar rationalizing why you failed and your competitors succeeded.

Key Takeaways

  1. New England’s 27-0 victory over Houston Thursday night with a third string rookie quarterback exemplifies the concept of how a good system will help any team or company succeed regardless of the circumstances.
  2. Good companies and teams succeed by not making excuses (either before or after the fact) but simply focusing on succeeding knowing that circumstances will sometimes be against them.
  3. They also succeed by ensuring they build a system not centered on an individual but one that allows for success regardless of changes to the team.

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Author Lloyd MelnickPosted on September 23, 2016Categories General Social Games Business, General Tech Business, Lloyd's favorite postsTags leadership, Next Man Up, process1 Comment on Jacoby Brissett shows in one night what I’ve been trying to explain for years

Success = Vision + Process + Output

Possibly the best book I have read in the past year (not just in 2015) is The Success Matrix by Gerry Langeler. Langeler is a highly successful venture capitalist and entrepreneur who credits this concept to his success. The Success Matrix puts forth a very straightforward concept: Success needs a combination of vision, process and output. Langeler primarily uses this idea to suggest how to build and lead a successful team. Rather than trying to find people who excel at all three variables, since very few exist, great companies combine people so that the company can excel at all three elements.

Success Matrix

The three elements of success

  • Vision. Vision represents a broadly understood sense of direction that encompasses competitive leadership in your industry over time.
    You should ask whether you or your employee has the vision of where you need to go and what you need to do over time. This vision should be sensible, focused and well grounded with a sense of direction. As Langeler writes, “this is different than any specific task, product plans or targets. It means precisely what it says. If you are headed in a direction, you know roughly where you are going, even if you don’t know exactly where you’ll end up.”
  • Process. Process is the structures, methods and procedures to produce repeatedly timely, high-quality products or services, independent of changes in people. You can determine if you have strong process whether profitable products and services are
    being produced with predictable regularity.
  • Output. Langeler defines as output as profitable products and services are being produced with predictable regularity. “Profitable products and services” is the key driver for output. It identifies if costs are in line value is recognized in the marketplace. Any Output short of profitable is wasted effort. “Predictable” regularity speaks to whether the Output is both sustained and sustainable. Short bursts of excellence are not enough.

Evaluate your team

Very few people are strong at all three components (vision, process and output) of the success matrix. If you look at vision, process and output as binaries (people are either good at them or not), there are nine possible combinations to classify everyone (e.g., good at vision and output, not process; good at process and output, not vision). Langeler actually puts labels on each of the nine possible combinations but that is the one element of his work I do not like; I feel that the labels are loaded and create unnecessary value judgments. Continue reading “Success = Vision + Process + Output”

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Author Lloyd MelnickPosted on January 29, 2015March 19, 2015Categories General Social Games Business, General Tech Business, Lloyd's favorite postsTags gerry langeler, leadership, output, process, recruiting, Success matrix, team building, visionLeave a comment on Success = Vision + Process + Output

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Lloyd Melnick

This is Lloyd Melnick’s personal blog.  All views and opinions expressed on this website are mine alone and do not represent those of people, institutions or organizations that I may or may not be associated with in professional or personal capacity.

I am a serial builder of businesses (senior leadership on three exits worth over $700 million), successful in big (Disney, Stars Group/PokerStars, Zynga) and small companies (Merscom, Spooky Cool Labs) with over 20 years experience in the gaming and casino space.  Currently, I am on the Board of Directors of Murka and GM of VGW’s Chumba Casino

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