Blizzard Entertainment is the global leader in mass participation online games, with over 10 million customers worldwide paying monthly fees to play World of Warcraft™ and other games. This high-spirited company was growing fast, but the management team came from a "gamer culture," which sometimes considered management systems to be "corporate BS." Although approaching one billion dollars in sales, the company had never formally defined their mission, vision, and values.
We conducted Blizzard's first ever strategic planning workshop in a multi-day offsite location with their top 30 leaders. After sharing strategic thinking models, they defined their critical issues, and then formed teams to tackle them. Putting their vision, mission, and values into words involved spirited debate about how to preserve the innovative uniqueness of the company as they grew.
We also began identifying key metrics to track (beyond financials) in each department, and set up a new process for scanning environmental trends. This involved a cross-section of employees who met monthly to share trends they spotted which can affect the company.
Following the workshop, the task forces conducted ongoing environmental scanning and analysis. They refined their values with broader employee involvement and recently rolled them out in dramatic style. Blizzard continues to build new elements into their management system that support future growth.