I've had this theory for quite a while that one of society's bigger problems is that corporations don't think past the next quarterly report. It's not enough to have a product that works well and that people like. Every 3 - 12 months it has to have more and new features. It doesn't have to be better, it just have to be different.
So if a company is listed publicly, it will always be beholden to quarterly reports and earnings.
But there are cases where going private helps. If EA went private, for example, it could be more flexible and develop products that feel closer to the brand we remember before it became so sports‑specific.
EA FC and Madden will always be juggernauts, and EA will always do well on mobile, but with less quarterly pressure there could be enough organizational breathing room to create more Mass Effects and Dead Space: giving those games time to breathe post‑launch.
Being public or private both have advantages and disadvantages, and some companies genuinely benefit from moving between the two. It really depends on who’s running the show and what kind of company they want to build.
Oh yeah, I get that. Fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders and all that. And obviously you need some kind of metric to see how you’re doing and the quarterly report works just fine. I just find it somewhat shortsighted that you’re trying to just do everything in 3 month increments. I don’t know, I’m not a business guy. Everything I know I learned from my corporate spirt animal, Jack Donaghy. Maybe that’s my problem.
It’s the same with politics. There’s no long range thinking anymore because nobody thinks past the next election.
Great article! I like the aspect that the Xbox had to earn its place under the TV. In my opinion, Xbox forgot exactly that: that with the physical console, they had an artifact that fans identified with the brand. An artifact that was created and mystified by the narrative of the console war, which people chose out of conviction. When you suddenly only exist as a digital service, it is precisely this identity-forming element that is lost.
I've had this theory for quite a while that one of society's bigger problems is that corporations don't think past the next quarterly report. It's not enough to have a product that works well and that people like. Every 3 - 12 months it has to have more and new features. It doesn't have to be better, it just have to be different.
So if a company is listed publicly, it will always be beholden to quarterly reports and earnings.
But there are cases where going private helps. If EA went private, for example, it could be more flexible and develop products that feel closer to the brand we remember before it became so sports‑specific.
EA FC and Madden will always be juggernauts, and EA will always do well on mobile, but with less quarterly pressure there could be enough organizational breathing room to create more Mass Effects and Dead Space: giving those games time to breathe post‑launch.
Being public or private both have advantages and disadvantages, and some companies genuinely benefit from moving between the two. It really depends on who’s running the show and what kind of company they want to build.
Oh yeah, I get that. Fiduciary responsibility to the shareholders and all that. And obviously you need some kind of metric to see how you’re doing and the quarterly report works just fine. I just find it somewhat shortsighted that you’re trying to just do everything in 3 month increments. I don’t know, I’m not a business guy. Everything I know I learned from my corporate spirt animal, Jack Donaghy. Maybe that’s my problem.
It’s the same with politics. There’s no long range thinking anymore because nobody thinks past the next election.
Great article! I like the aspect that the Xbox had to earn its place under the TV. In my opinion, Xbox forgot exactly that: that with the physical console, they had an artifact that fans identified with the brand. An artifact that was created and mystified by the narrative of the console war, which people chose out of conviction. When you suddenly only exist as a digital service, it is precisely this identity-forming element that is lost.