Executive Management

& videogaming consulting services

Business

effectivness

Staff

centric

Creative

mindset

Operational

efficiency

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… to improve your

COMPANY PURPOSE

A (good) company is set up for a clear purpose. It might sound obvious, but that actually is often forgotten.

This purpose cannot be just financial goals: it should also be based on a vision. Ideally, this inner vision is passion-driven: that passion really helps to ‘fuel’ the company with positive energy and confidence.

The company purpose is why people are applying, and why later they are spending time & energy working within that company. It is therefore important to regularly mention again what is the initial vision of the company, what is the passion behind, to make sure that the positive energy and the focus on what’s important is never lost.

check if your company’s core purpose is well identified
if it still makes business sense (if not, urgent adjustemnts are needed!)
if it is well aligned with your overall company culture and core values
find out if it is (still) well understood? And by everyone!

ENGAGING STRATEGY

A clear purpose needs a convincing strategy to become achievable. This means a clear and challenging —but achievable— business plan.

Together with a smart business plan, an effective financial management is crucial. This includes proper budgeting (often through ‘cost centers’ properly set-up within the budget tools and management layers), proper cash-flow monitoring and short/long term cash vision.

An engaging strategy will not only bring success; it will also be satisfying to execute for your crew and —always useful— is also helpful to convince investors, banks, partners… when you’ll need them!

A proper balance between financial prudence and investments courage is key to success on the long run.

investigate and make sure that your current business plan is realistic
Expand your metrics, monitoring and cross-checking tools
look in your past figures, look in your industry’s figures, look into other industry figures, and challenge your forecasted figures
Never forget to save money when possible, but conversely never forget to spend money when needed
R&D is a must-spend
consider alternatives, enhancements, adjustments in your financial processes together with your financial team (visualization tools can help a lot when properly set-up)

TAILORED DEALS

A good deal is one that allows both parties to move forward with their respective ‘company purpose’ and with their strategy. I don’t believe in unbalanced deals: they are short-sighted and they backfire.

A win-win deal is not only about the line at the bottom. It takes into account the rates used, the margin generated, the quality expected, the delivery of the assets, the relationship created, and the daily ‘workability’ of the agreement terms… Your team will have to execute, so make sure that what is sign is what can be achieved. With passion and ambition of course, but keeping a dose of pragmatism in the mix.

assess and renegotiate deals that wouldn’t be win-win ones.
find new clients or new partners that will blend well with your company purpose
negotiate all deal terms with the thinking about daily repercussions as well as financial expectations.
pay attention to all the contract terms and their legal repercussions: from the first draft to the signed contract, too often the deal details are neglected: beware the ‘contract template’ effect.
Yes, I’m sure you have great lawyers, but your lawyers don’t really know your company and your business as well as you: they cannot adjust and tweak the deal the way you can!

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… to be more

Employees’ happiness is key. Even more so in creative structures. Not only because we’re in 2024 after a post-covid / 100% home-office time… or because it is trendy these days.

But because your staff is the most valuable part of the company. You —we all— know it by now. But we actually never really act enough to make it real.

Like you —very logically— your employees give their best when they are in a happy mood.

SHARE THE VISION

First things first : clearly communicate the company’s vision, its long term goals, and short term objectives is key.

This helps employees understand what you want, and how & why their daily work will make a difference.

Make them part of the plan. If they’re part of the plan, they will not fight the plan: they’ll fight for it!

assess if you and your staff are communicating enough & help to adjust
find out wether or not your staff is happy, satisfied by the company polices and directions
make sure that vision explained is the same than the stakeholder’s one

COMPANY CULTURE

It might seems obvious, but spending serious time and effort in fostering positive, inclusive and collaborative culture is key.

Positive work culture like teamwork, creativity, empowerment and continuous learning should indeed be actively encouraged. A great and well-structured HR team, working with all management lines can do miracle in that field.

On top of HR & managers, proper tools need to be available: tailored appraisal process, timely team-building events, proper management training, health programs, help on mental health and work-life balance… All those needs should be setup and / or regularly reassessed to make sure they serve the staff and the company purpose well enough.

-> It can also be interesting to setup official ‘core values’; if possible together with your staff. Never forget that it is a two-sided thing and can backfire if wrongfully / excessively used.

Promote respect toward people, and also toward the company. Remind to everyone that the common good comes before individual interests. One of the main mission of the leaders is to make sure that the company is viable and secure people’s job.

Already busy in providing a better work environment? If not, you are already behind schedule! And if you are, you probably should try harder anyway 🙂
Improve the cohesion of the team(s) around the company project(s) and around the company values
Ensure that there is a mutual respect between staff & company

EMPOWERMENT & AUTONOMY

Theoriticaly you have hired people better than you —if not, there’s a problem but that’s another topic.

You should therefore trust your teams and give them the means they need to perform in their field. Give them power. And freedom.

But here again, do it at the right time: not too early if they need training & coaching, and not too much either: they are not here to let you get rid of your responsibilities. You must remain involved through well-identified non-heavy processes.

Always remember: they are not here to do your job, just their’s (and that’s often a lot already).

Empowerment is not letting people unmanaged; true empowerment is well-thought out, organized (job description, appraisals…) and regularly monitored.

When properly done, it works wonders.

clarify & smoothen the company structure and processes –> your staff will save a lot of time and effort to understand who is responsible of what.
make sure the right responsibilities are properly identified and spread throughout the organisation, and land on the competent persons
set-up a proper training management course for all the managers within the company. Weird enough, management is considered as a natural talent that everybody get, while it is far from being the case;

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… to expand your company’s

SECRET INGREDIENTS

Creativity needs several ingredients to flourish: talented people, stress-free environment, optimistic mind-set, positive company culture, time, tools…

On top of being stimulated by the right ‘ingredients’, creativity produces the best results when properly driven.

Depending company’s objectives and means available —often synonymous of time in this case— the managers have to find the tailored creative processes that will ease objectives’ completion.

It can be Game Jam, long-term (friendly) competition, regular brainstorming sessions (cross-disciplines or not…), internal small ‘lab’ setup as an official creative R&D entity… or more likely a specific mix of those solutions…

create enough space for innovation, taking into account company’s objectives and means
check if innovation & creativity concepts are well-understood by your crew —at all levels—, to avoid misunderstanding. Adjust if necessary.
help to incorporate step-by-step the various ingredients needed to unleash creativity on the long run

BLOOMING EVERYWHERE

Creativity can shine everywhere: in lines of code, in art assets, in production processes, in management and leadership approaches, in business strategy…

We saw this during and after Covid times: creativity is needed in all disciplines in order to have an agile and resilient company.

Being able to adapt the company production to the end-users tastes and also to the industry hazards is fundamental for a company now days.

is creativity facilitated everywhere in your company?
or just in the traditional disciplines?
are innovation & creativity part of the objectives of your teams?
do you need help to explain & structure the creative needs of your company?

SELECT… and IMPLEMENT

A creative company can produce new ideas and innovations, but that’s… 25% of the creative effort.

The other 75% are the capacity to sort the great ideas from the good ones, to select the one really bringing something to the mix, to explain them well enough to convince everyone to move forward with them…

And then afterwards to concretely act & implement those innovations in a steady way through various company adjustements. Till results.

Like the old saying regarding success, creativity often is 5% of brand new ideas and 95% efforts to make them happen: being creative with nothing coming out of it is actually not being creative.

Real creativity makes things happen!

Is your company ready to select and promote the new ideas in a consistant and proper way?
Do you think your crew —and yourself— understands creativity and innovation in the right way?
Do you have several concrete / visible examples of your company innovations in head? Did it help to make a difference?

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INSPIRING LEADERSHIP & GREAT MANAGERS

Structured, optimistic & energetic management layers are key. Once you have set the right direction, they are the ones who make it happens. They take over your vision, and they give right pace & energy toward objectives deliveries.

You therefore need reliable, talented and energetic managers. Don’t fear the pushy ones, but rather the too quiet ones: it is easier to channel energy rather than create it!

On top of being talented, your managers and especially your Executives need 3 major qualities:

Optimistim
Consistancy
Reliablity

Consistancy is particularly important in my opinion. A lot of people can perform well for 4 to 6 months. But being a constant reliable and optimistic individual that inspires other thought the years, that’s really another league.

In order to succeed in setting up the right management teams, instinct, common sense and trust in what’s working in other places are important tools for you. Smartness is in the mix. And being aware that particularly with people, several tentatives are often needed to get the right team in place.

At the end of the day, the main mission of the leaders is to make sure that the company is viable and heads the right direction.

Are all your management layers performing?
Can you feel common-sense being used at all levels?
Is optimism and energy pouring out on a daily basis from your Execs?
Does everyone get the right amount of coaching and of information they need?
Is there enough team-building effort made with your existing crew?

HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL MANAGEMENT

Executives, mid-management lines, team leaders… they should all be logically connected and well synced.

Horizontal management is trendy, but on the long run it is now known that it can severely backfire if not mixed with vertical decisions and authority (see more about that in HBR articles and MIT books, notably by Lindy Greer or Robert I. Sutton).

Finding the balance here is absolutely vital. It requires experience and hindsight, and is usually an Executive duty

are those notions properly understood in your company?
do you have regular Exec. meeting to exchange experience
have all your managers had enough training & coaching sessions?

COMMON SENSE PROCESSES

Making common sense common practice is especially needed regarding processes. How many times a process has been setup to help to put things in order, but failed miserably at end, becoming only time consuming and meaningless?

Processes and procedures have to be smart, logic and easy to follow. They also need to be understood.

I personnaly favor very straightforward and common sens based management & processes. It might sometimes feel a little bit less elaborate than what it should be, but in this case keeping things simple is defnitively better than creating complexity. A good example is the Eisenhower Matrix: easy to explain, easy to understand, it is useful for everyone in the company. Including for the Executives.

Simple ‘common-sense proof’ processes & methodologies should be set-up wherever it is needed to share a work methodology. But only where it is the case: quantity is here again the enemy of quality (and usage).

Have you a clear set of processes properly documented and runing?
Is there any complaints about those? If so, what is their nature?
Do you think there’s too much processes in your company? Or not enough?
Ask newcomers to give you a feedback on this matter after 1 month in the company: the good processes should be understandable by newbies, not just by the old crew who set them up.

ENGAGEMENT, RESPECT & OPTIMISM!

Spark engagement by giving a clear and believable vision, by making sense with your arguments, and by providing the toolset needed to achieve it.

Gain respect by genuinely listening to all voices, weighting all opinions, and then by making the right decision for the group when time has come.

Fuel everyone with optimism and be consistant with the energy and direction you’re giving.

An important thing to remind to your crew: respect is a 2 side thing. Make sure to enhance the company’s respect toward your staff members, but don’t be shy to promote respect toward the company as well. The common good of the whole staff comes before individual interests. Balance is key.

Do you think your crew truely understand the company challenges, and the various decisions you are making?
Observe staff reaction in Salck channels, during big meetings, at company events… Do they enjoy being in the company?
Do you or your manager receive significant amount of proposal to improve the process, the products, the work environement?
Work with HR to have a plan to improve work conditions on the long run. It can be spread over the years: your crew will understand.
Create moments and channels where people can express all their ideas and mood, and mak sure to provide feedback and perspective.

from simple advices on specific topics to full company support

My name is Dominique Morel, and since almost 20 years I am specialized in teaming-up with C-level leaders to help them in their daily challenges.

I offer a wide range of executive business and management services, all meant to help your company and its products to reach their potential. Whether you are looking for a short specific help, or for a more global permanent support, I’ll have you covered.

My network and expertise in the gaming as well as in the ‘serious software’ industry will either bring you immediate results for specific topics, and / or will drastically optimize your existing processes and structure, allowing you to meet deadlines and quality.

Get in touch

Passion

Hot facts

> each company is unique

• understand the project, the people, the motivation, the constraints, the ressources… Key elements for a success

> understand the big picture

• properly grasp company’s vision and the main real goal of a company is key to succeed.

> great staff make great projects

• find the talents that fit your goals. Nothing is possible without great people. And make them happy.

> focus

• as simple as it may sound, this is often where companies fail. Saying ‘no’ to the unnecessary, AND outperform on the core will make your company shine