Message of the Day - Success Caused Failure

Good Morning,

 

I read an article in the latest issue of Wired Magazine about the failure of 3D Realms after their amazing success with Duke Nukem in 1995. The failure was on the release of the sequel, started in 1997, and never released. The project folded earlier this year.

 

How does a company which hits the market with such a success go and fail? They had pulled in all kinds of money, enough to set their own timeframe, their own budget, and their own rules to get the project completed and after 12 years, it just ended.

 

Success is listed as the reason for the failure.

 

Weird...huh...

 

Not really. The failure was a web formed by many facets which stymied the leaders and the company.

 

1. Search for perfection. The company searched for the perfect product. They retooled the product when new and better programming became available, causing a total re-write of the nearly completed project. When something new and exciting came out, the design staff wanted to get something similar into the game. A new manager hired at the last few years started pulling in the reigns and getting control of the project, but it was 10 years too late.

 

2. No Deadline set. 3D Realms never set a deadline and kept working into a void of time and money. Parkinson's Law states that when more time is available, it will be filled in and used up. The more time you give yourself, the more things will find a way into taking up that time. Without a deadline set, or control put in place, this will continue indefinitely.

 

3. No Constraints in place. Money was no object. 3D Realms had a lot of capital and they just blew through it without anything to really show for it, other than 12 years of payroll and some demos. Setting mini-budget-goals along the way would have helped. Being that this company could finance the entire project themselves, they did not have anyone breathing down their neck, until it was too late.

 

Success for 3D Realms was their undoing.

 

A good book to help us avoid a similar fate is Jim Collin's "How The Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In (http://www.amazon.com/How-Mighty-Fall-Companies-Never/dp/0977326411).

 

Enjoy!

 

Sanford Berenberg
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