Shaping StrategyIn a World of Constant Disruption

Group 6John Hallberg 70398Pierre Jarméus 20967Carl Sundberg 40083Simone Masog 40098

The game industry is plagued by:Inefficient distribution

Piracy and cheatingCommunication problems between players

Lack of a common platform

A famous entertainment company called Valve comes along with the solution. The solution is called STEAM and is a platform for connecting people & games, make it

easier for players as well as defeating piracy issues on a broad scope.

Solution and our example:

Current attempts:Are based on each other and fail to solve the problem and often make it more

difficult for various stakeholders.

Before we go on we will briefly introduce our example company and the problems

that existed when they started their shaping strategy

Now the article:

Source: John Hagel III, John Seely Brown & Lang Davison, “Shaping Strategy in a World of Constant Disruption”, HBR 2008

The changing business

environment• Change is now exponential and equilibrium is never reached in the market.

• Business no longer goes through the typical cycle of adaptation to disruptive technologies.

• The result is that adaptation is no longer a sufficient strategy to stay relevant today.

• Change is also compounded by the changing infrastructure (for example computing, storage and bandwidth).

Intro (1)Intro (1)

Example:The STEAM infrastructure would not have worked 10 years ago

due to its requirement that people are always online.

Rethink your strategy

• Traditionally you use risk-award calculus where the focus is on the risk side instead of action.

• Enterprises today have to look further into the future and focus on the award side.

• The rationale is that it helps motivate participants, so that aggressive action can be taken.

Intro (2)Intro (2)

Example:STEAM was a big risk due to the

fact that it required changed consumer behavior as well as support from competitors. In

fact, the concept was presented to for example Amazon and

turned down. But Valve decided they needed the system and went along anyway. (source:

Wikipedia)

How to formulate a shaping How to formulate a shaping strategy (1)strategy (1)

Source: John Hagel III, John Seely Brown & Lang Davison, “Shaping Strategy in a World of Constant Disruption”, HBR 2008

Examples

How to formulate a shaping How to formulate a shaping strategy (2)strategy (2)

Example:The heart of STEAM is the STEAM PC program which

combines all the functions of the STEAM platform. This can be

seen as a part of “The Platform”.

Example:Valve’s good reputation and fan base can be seen as beneficial

when changing consumer behavior. The constant evolution

of the Steam platform can be seen as signal commitment. This can be seen as a part of “Acts

and Assets”.

Example:When Valve started STEAM they wanted for example: automatic

updates, improved anti-cheating, access to games from

anywhere, in-game communication. Each of these goals were badly solved in the

industry. During the development they also added

the ability to sell games via the platform. This can be seen as

“The View”.

(Source: Wikipedia and own experiences) Example:

You can buy the games on STEAM via PayPal or Click & Buy which makes these companies

participants.

Three kinds of participants (1)Three kinds of participants (1)

Example:Some game developers

(Disciples) are locking their games to STEAM. For example Modern Warfare 2 is locked to

STEAM.

Relic created a special version of one of their games in the early

development stages of the STEAM platform to show how

STEAM could be integrated into the game (Influencer).

Source: John Hagel III, John Seely Brown & Lang Davison, “Shaping Strategy in a World of Constant Disruption”, HBR 2008