COH / COV - Business Success May Depend on Gaming SKills : City of Heroes - News

Study: Business Success May Depend on Gaming Skills

The leaders of tomorrow may be the hardcore gamers of today, especially players of MMORPGs. IBM has teamed with Seriosity on a new study, which found that many of the skills developed from playing online are similar to those needed for corporate leadership roles.

So you've leveled up your elf warrior, organized multiple clans, and become a true hero in a virtual world. Now it's time to take those skills to the real world. According to a new study by IBM and Palo Alto, CA-based Seriosity, gaming skills and online role playing skills in particular are actually becoming more and more important to the next generation of corporate leaders.

The study suggests that there are "significant parallels" between the skill sets of MMO players and those of effective leaders in the distributed, global workforce. For example, IBM and Seriosity state that "today's gamers are learning collaboration, self-organization, risk taking, openness, influence, and how to earn incentives linked to performance and be flexible in the way they communicate."

"What we've found is that success as a business leader may depend on skills as a gamer," commented Jim Spohrer, Director of Services Research, IBM Research Center in Almaden, CA. "Smart organizations are recognizing valued employees who play online games and apply their skills and experiences as virtual leaders to their 'real world' jobs."

The study cites several key features of the online gaming world that businesses might look to as they cultivate corporate leaders:

* Incentive structures that motivate workers immediately and longer term
* Virtual economies that create a marketplace for information and collaboration
* Transparency of performance and capabilities
* Recognition for achievements
* Visibility into networks of communication across an organization

Seriosity has taken these lessons to heart and created a program called Attent. The software is inspired by multiplayer games and "creates a virtual economy for enterprise collaboration and a solution to information overload."

"This research has validated Seriosity's solutions for creating a platform to transform the business world. The research proves that online games have valuable lessons for success in business," said Ken Ross, CEO of Seriosity. "Seriosity's solutions provide the physical link to bridge the virtual and business worlds."

"If you want to see what business leadership may look like in three to five years, look at what's happening in online games," concluded Byron Reeves, Ph.D., the Paul C. Edwards Professor of Communication at Stanford University and Co-founder of Seriosity.

For those interested, the entire 34-page report is available in pdf format by clicking this link.

http://www.seriosity.com/downloads/Lead ... nd_IBM.pdf