So let's talk about a few problems that are pretty good indicators that management isn't doing a good job.
Customer complaints! There's nothing worse than having the people you make your money off complain about things. Whether it be the product you're selling, bad customer service, or just that you're too far away from them, they have a lot of power over you. If they're complaining, you know something is wrong. It could be a multitude of things, but if it's one specific thing, such as poor customer service, you know management isn't doing their homework when hiring people. The management could also not be teaching their employees on handling customers. So there could be many things on management's part.
Now if a company has too much debt, this could be a strategic problem. But this all depends if the company is effectively utilizing their debt. If they aren't and the company has a weak product, obviously their debt is a problem then. Their strategy doesn't efficiently utilize the money they have borrowed or their product just isn't successful. This definitely points to a lack of proper strategy on part of management.
Now there's a whole slew of indicators that show management might not have a proper strategy in place. One of the companies out there that exhibit some of these problems is Take-Two Interactive. Currently, this company does not offer much product variety compared to their competitors like Electronic Arts or Activision. Take-Two publishes only one particular known brand name of a game while their competitors have numerous brand names that their company publishes. The company is also much slower at getting their product out compared to their competitors who produce a hit game numerous times throughout the year. Take-Two takes anywhere from 2-3yrs to produce a hit game.
These problems have come and created a company that recently posted a loss of $185 million in their previous fiscal year. The problems have expanded into an overall outlook that the single game they produce and publish is the only thing that could possibly get the company into the black. However, it is slowly being seen that the product might not even recoup all the losses incurred from other failed games or investments.
Take-Two cannot create quality games at the speed of EA or Activision and many companies are less like to go through Take-Two to publish their games because of their poor track record other than their single game, Grand Theft Auto. All these problems created another problem in a poor company image.
Take-Two has a lot of work in their future to repair these problems.
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4 comments:
What are the odds of that! Two Video Game related Posts! But it's okay, I am not offended by your stab at Take-Two, I agree, it isn't looking good for our software bums working there at Take-Two Interactive.
I've said it once, twice and I'll say it threece, i mean thrice, if I have to, I agree that customer complaints imply a company is having problems! There wouldn't be a need for complaints if something wasn't wrong with their product or service. Nothing would be wrong with their product or service if there wasn't a problem in management to begin with!
Debt is also a very good determinant of a company's screw-up or potential screw-up-ability =P (dictionary.com that!). If they are in debt, that's one thing, if they are in serious debt, then that means someone hasn't been watering the garden properly! Someone took a poopy on the daisies!
Forgetting poopy and daisies, we'll look at Take-Two. You are right in that they don't offer too much of a variation in the software that they distribute. They publish limited amount of brand names of software, but not just one. It is true that they made a hit with Grand Theft Auto, under the Rockstar Label of games, but they also have ties with 2K (including 2K Sports and 2K Play). It also makes sense when you say they are very slow to publish games and get them out to the battlefront against other competitors. Although it is true that Take-Two needs a lot more help, I'm thinking their two breadwinners right now might be Bully and Manhunt 2, however looked down upon they may be.
It's a nice!
--- Karup
Wow, it is really a nice post.
You have a very deep analysis. Now I know how poor my own post is now.
I really agree that Customer complaints can really tell us that problems are there. Also, if comanies can work on the customers complaints, they can really get improved and stay on top.
I don't really know about Take-Two. But it is so interesting to read your analysis. I have any other question, do you think the company know their problems? If they do, why don't they do something about that? Because it is business. Companies really care about profits. Since they lose so much money, they should do something as you said, but why didn't they?
I also discussed the video game industry and how customer complaints are effecting producers like Rockstar. Manhunt 2 as well as Grand Theft Auto are very violent games, which many people protest even though it still sells out.
What strikes me is how does Take-Two continue to thrive in the gaming industry if its performance is so low compared to its competitors? There must be some edge that Take-Two has...
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