I had the pleasure of attending The Game Developers’ Conference (GDC) in early March. It was such a pleasure to see the excitement and energy over the promise of what is to come in 2012 and beyond. The topics of the sessions were varied, with a huge focus on growth management, HTML5, mobile games and of course, best practices. 

My favorite session was one on best practices. Although the actual title of the seminar was “Designing a Technology Strategy for a Large Publisher” given by Julien Merceron, Worldwide Technology Director of Square Enix … do not judge a seminar by its title!

Mr. Merceron was a dynamic speaker and I took away his core thoughts to share with my staff and to share with you, as I believe his “best practices” can cross over to any industry or any business.

• Pick your Battles: All companies and departments will have competing interests at times. Know the level of your resources and pick the battles you can win. Time is never on your side.
• Find Partners: Find partners to work with on big initiatives to maximize your abilities and grow. You will learn from your partners, and you will learn from the experience.
• Outsource: Look at outsourcing solutions to enhance your offerings and research outsourcing companies before making any decisions to ensure the best fit for you and your goals.
• Tools: Invest in whatever tools are necessary to make your teams as efficient as possible. Tools may be expensive, but the efficiency will make your organization stronger. Make sure these tools are team friendly and make sure to keep away from single points of failure: the tendency of having one person with too much knowledge in one area, and no redundancy of that knowledge within the team. More than one person should always know how to do any one critical process.
• Knowledge Management: Choose now how to address your on line presence and strategy moving forward to ensure it is not managing you. This presence is critical and game changing.
• Essential Strengths: Know your essential strengths. Ask yourself, what are you great at? Focus your energy on these essential elements to grow!

Mr. Merceron also had vital thoughts on how organizations and teams should regularly meet to have “best practices sharing,” among other strategic discussions. He reiterated that that changes do not happen in a day and, if you empower your teams, you will reap the benefits and rewards. Over all, it was a powerful message that I hope I did not diminish by paraphrasing his insightful thoughts.

Let’s all move forward, know our strengths, pick our battle and grow.

PsiNapse Technology wishes you a great 2012!

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