Don Mattrick Details His Plans to Turn Zynga Around

[Steven Bogos]

Don Mattrick Details His Plans to Turn Zynga Around

The former Microsoft bigwig says Zynga needs to "break some bad habits" and "get back to basics."

Its only been a few weeks since Microsoft's former President of Interactive Entertainment Business Don Mattrick struggling Zynga [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125553-Xbox-President-Don-Mattrick-Leaving-For-Zynga-UPDATED], but he already has some ideas on how to turn the company around. During an investor call today, Mattrick said Zynga needs to "break some bad habits" and "get back to basics."

Mattrick outlined a 90-day plan for the company, where he plans to get "under the hood to evaluate" Zynga's business, conduct "top-to-bottom business reviews and [work] with our leaders to calibrate against the market opportunity and to go after it with a real sense of urgency" and spend time "heads down" with developers to improve product quality.

He says that the developer behind Farmville needs to take a more "long term" view on its products, especially as it is now focusing on moving from social media to mobile platforms and tablets. "It's clear that the market opportunity around us is growing at an incredible clip," said Mattrick, adding "It's also clear that today we are missing out on the platform growth that Apple, Google and Facebook are seeing."

The company is probably looking at six months to a year of volatility as it resets its strategy, warns Mattrick, but he plans to "listen and learn" to see what changes are required at Zynga.

"While we've got a lot of work to do, I see a lot of opportunity in having the collection of people we've assembled."

Source: Polygon [http://www.polygon.com/2013/7/25/4557930/how-don-mattrick-plans-to-turn-zynga-around]

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[TwoSidesOneCoin]

Top-to-bottom business reviews, "heads down", volatility....yeah people are getting the boot, that's what I'm taking from this.

 

[LordMonty]

This man is a questionable spin doctor at best... I may be cruel but could he as the saying goes 'organise a piss up in a brewery'? Good luck Zynga.

 

[Evil Smurf]

I honestly hope that he can turn Zynga into an honest company, If only for the employees.

 

[-Ezio-]

for "turn around" read "run into the ground"

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Considering this is the guy who led the Xbox One to be over complicated beyond reason (even the name is needlessly confusing)I am not keeping my hopes up he will change anything.

 

[Lance Icarus]

In the most corporate way possible, he's basically saying he's going to downsize like a mother trucker and help cut the tremendous amount of bloat at Zynga. Not a bad plan, really. Zynga looks like a textbook example of what happens when you expand way too fast and cutting a bunch of that fat off will definitely help the company. I just worry that Mattrick will replace that bloat with his own heaping helping of the stuff in order to capitalize on the growth of mobile platforms.

I hope he understands that one well designed social game that makes paying for items a fun experience will be worth way more than a hundred near broken games that beats you over the head with store items.

 

[Lance Icarus]

Edit: Sorry, double post.

 

[faefrost]

"So staff what did the total top down review tell us?"

"Well sir, #1 The customers really hate us... Like a lot. They kept laughing at us. It was like we were back in high school. #2 The customers and gamers really really hate you sir. I mean really hate. I still have nightmares over the things they threatened to do to you sir. It was like being back in High School Gym class."

 

[evilneko]

Wait, Zynga has developers?

I thought they had copy/pasters.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

This man is a questionable spin doctor at best... I may be cruel but could he as the saying goes 'organise a piss up in a brewery'? Good luck Zynga.

Unless you end up in packaging and distribution it can be pretty hard to get one of those started.

A better comeback (although rather less PC) would be 'organise an orgy in a whorehouse.'

And lets be honest, after the Xboner disaster I doubt he could deliver one of those either.

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

That is some buzzwords right there. He should change his name to Don Beehive.

Ba-dum, tss.

 

[lacktheknack]

"Back to the basics"?

Uh... how exactly DOES one get more basic than a Zynga game and business model?

 

[Something Amyss]

Does his plan involve insulting and ignoring the user base?

for "turn around" read "run into the ground"

Well, if he spins fast enough, he can drill into the ground like wile E Coyote.

 

[Dr.Awkward]

I'm pretty sure Step 1 would be "Have a creative team" changed to "have a creative team"...

 

[RJ 17]

This man is a questionable spin doctor at best...

By "spin" do you mean openly insulting your consumer base and in some cases flat-out telling them to NOT buy your product?

Seriously, I consider myself a reasonable person...well, reasonably reasonable. But every time I see a picture of this guy (especially the one that's serving as the link-pic from the main page into this article) I just get the overwhelming urge to punch my computer screen...

 

[Dryk]

Mattrick outlined a 90-day plan for the company, where he plans to get "under the hood to evaluate" Zynga's business, conduct "top-to-bottom business reviews and [work] with our leaders to calibrate against the market opportunity and to go after it with a real sense of urgency" and spend time "heads down" with developers to improve product quality.

What an overly complicated way to say "I'm going to sort through the paperwork, talk to the people, then see if I can figure out where it's gone wrong"

 

[viranimus]

Simple, Romney it. Mine the pensions, hide the assets then burn the building down and collect the insurance.

Honestly it is Zynga. Nothing of value would be lost anyway.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

He wants to reorganize a company that employs code monkeys to copy/paste worthless shit? Good luck with that.