Saturday, December 20, 2008

Video game management

This is a very subjective impression that I have, and is likely not true - namely that American management (perhaps only those of long established corporations) craves a video game reality to manage. Anything that requires real effort with tangible things - any kind of manufacturing, software production, content production - is to be outsourced, and better yet off-shored. The ideal business model is to be the in-between the suppliers and consumers, making money off transaction fees. The more the business can be reduced to electrons representing money in the company's computers, the better. The return on investment is temptingly high in such a model. That business in such a model is "creating value" is taken for granted; after all, all the money shuffling on Wall Street is supposedly productive. Messy reality doesn't intrude; one can manage this without knowing anything about anything.

Maybe someone can talk me down.