Zynga Internet Gaming Company - Research Paper Example

Company Management Management of a company is a continuous process that requires continuous documenting, prioritizing, analysing and communication to relevant stakeholders. The main purpose of company management is to ensure an organization documents, verify and meets the expectations of its customers and internal or external stakeholders (Ryan & Wheelen, 2006). A strong company management is the backbone of any successful company and the need for proper company management is important. In this case zynga is a social gaming company that needs to double its revenue; this can only be done through lay out strategies that can be spread over a period of time by the management. This paper will highlight some of these strategies and the possible outcome in its recommendation (Griffin) Introduction Zynga is a social gaming provider headquartered in San Francisco, California. The company develops social games that operate on mobile phone platform such as Apple iOS and android. In 2009 the company reached 10 million daily active users within six weeks (Abbey, 2009).The management of zynga need to put in place certain measure in order to double its customers and revenue. This case study will highlight the achievement of the company, and future planning to help the company compete favourably with others and stay afloat (Abbey, 2009). The company has a record of hitting 10million active daily users in the first six months, this is a great achievement but to maintain this number and even double them the management of the company need to put in place certain measures. This paper highlights some of the considerations that need to be put in place in order to achieve more. Company strength Synergies The company strength will rely mainly on formation of synergies with other companies where the synergy is the urge to form partnership relationship with other companies of similar goal and interest. There is positive and negative consequence of synergies and group cohesion needs to be considered. As a group become more cohesive, communication between members increases. In addition satisfaction increases as the group provides friendship and support against outside threat (Hitt & Jamie, 2007). There are negative aspects of group cohesion that affect the decision made by individual parties hence affecting group effectiveness. Issues may arise such as risk shift phenomenon, where there is a tendency of a group to make risky decision that an individual party would have handled. There may also be polarization, individual in a group can have moderate stance on an issue, and having discussed in a group end up taking extreme measures on their own. In this case, zynga will consider forming synergies with other internet gaming companies that share their objectives and this will be done in the quarter of the third year after the company has gained its stability financially and marketwise. Freemium and Premium Services Zynga company will also offer Freemium and premium services. Freemium services will be offered to the customer without charge, but the functionality will be limited. The more advanced and additional feature will be provided at premium charge. Freemium model has been employed by numerous gaming companies to help in luring customers to buy software and computer games. In the apple store following the release of iOS 3 Freemium mobile app such as Temple Run and Dragonvale are available for download on iOS powered device like the ipad and iphone without charge ,but users typically have the option to pay for additional features like powerups, virtual money ,restricted level, special characters, boosts etc via in-app purchase. Customer Development The process of capturing new customers and retaining new ones is called customer development. This is a very important aspect in business; it may also include development of new product to cater for everyone needs. It has to be noted that customer relationship management depends current customers and allow attracting new customers. Relationship with customers and management will result to long term success in the market (Renata 2009). Agile development is usually dictated by customer development or consumer demand. The more customers you have dictate production or supply, in our case an increase in customers’ numbers will determine launching of new software’s or games according to the customers’ needs. This will be reflected in the revenue. Minimum Viable Product Minimum viable product is used in quantitative market testing of product. It can be derived from existing products that undergo slight modification and deployed back in the market. It is different from starting production of a new product from the start. In our case study, the company should employ frequent minimum viable product on existing games to keep the customers and also eradicate monotony. The new products will always leave the customers guessing, what better feature it has that lacks in the original product. This will tempt them to buy the products and increase the company sales. Company weakness and threat Group Think Groupthink refers to harmony and conformity of group members in making decision and each group member try to minimize conflict or reach consensus decision without critical evaluation. Groupthink has several disadvantages since members cannot make individual decision this affects their creativity. Every member wants to be loyal to the group and their uniqueness and independence is compromised. According to Janis (1991) groupthink stands for an excessive form of concurrence seeking among members of high prestige tightly knit policy making groups. It is excessive to the extent that the group members have come to value the group higher than anything else. In our case study, involving the company in groupthink will have minimal benefit since creativity of the group members will be suppressed and also the members will lack innovativeness. Groupthink can also be beneficial if both parties have similar goals but this also depend largely on group members. Zynga gaming company Opportunities Sales Initiative Program The company will maximize in sales initiative program, by setting targets and standard to be met by the sales department. This can be achieved through holding of promotions, using available opportunities on advertisement and offering Freemium services. The sales department should seek ways to form good customers’ relation in order to achieve sales. In this case, sales initiative program should be launched annually and targets to be met during the year set. This can be increased every year depending on the performance of the products in the market. Customer Reward Program The customer reward system tends to increase confidence of the customer on the product he purchases. Customer can be rewarded by offering free samples when a customer purchases two or more products. The third product is a free sample. This is also a promotional offer that can be used to introduce new products in the market. Zynga company will offer customer reward program to create customer relations and confidence. Progress Check In progress check, the company will vet its employees and their performance checked on a regular basis. This can be done annually through signing contracts. The best performing employees can also be rewarded to boast their morale. The company will also hold regular meetings to check on the performance of the company in the market and the possible adjustments to be made to increase sales. This can be represented in form of graphs and documented for easy assessment of company growth. Changes are best reflected on line chart because it’s the best visual method throughout time .it measures performance, if it’s better, getting worse or not changing at all. The following is a representation of the company growth during the year 2012. The graph shows the trends in growth in each month in terms of rise in sales and also decline. Fig1 showing trends in sales of Zynga Company for a whole year. There is a steady increase in the fourth to seventh month and also in the nineth to twelveth Conclusion In conclusion, zynga gaming company should start by prioritizing requirements. Although many requirements should be considered, those that are urgent to the company should be given first priority. Analysis should be done to make sure the impact of the consequences are observed and understood. Before forming any synergies, conflicting issues should be solved and any difference on opinion discussed. Analysis of feasibility should also be carried out if the steps to be taken are workable. Formation of groupthink would not bring much benefit to the company, because for the company to grow, it needs innovativeness and this is best achieved at individual level. When group decisions are involved different parties may have conflicting ideas which may end up locking the best ideas out. Recommendations In my opinion I would recommend zynga to have a well thought out written map for internet gaming including solid strategies with specific goals, task and deadline, and also to encourage members to think outside the box and be innovative because to compete in the technological world you got to be ahead of your competitors. This can be achieved through formation of synergies with other internet gaming companies of similar interest and goals, and writing laid down procedures or plan of work by setting standards. This will aid in each party performing to its best. The company can also develop a strong customer development, by creating good relationship with its customers and finding ways of retaining them. Offering of Freemium services occasionally on their new software and games (trial version) but imposing a charge on the more advanced options will cause the customers to buy the products. Setting a customer reward program can also lead to increase of sales. This can be achieved through holding of promotions where if a customer purchases one or two products, the third product will be offered for free. The customer will gain confidence in the product and this will be reflected in the sales. To be sure of the growth of the company, it is important to carry out regular measure in progress. This can be done annually and graphs drawn to give a picture of the performance of the company in the market. Plotting of line graphs show syste matic growth of a company making it easier to identify problems that may cause a decline in growth. 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