Electronic Arts

The people at EA are some of the brightest and most skilled in the industry. It is gratifying to work on a team that is focused on one task: to build and ship a game. For the most part, there are no egos, just a push to do what needs to be done. This is in the Sims Division. Other divisions at EA, for the most part, are inefficient and dysfunctional.

There is definitely a flag-waving hierarchy here. If you don't toot your own horn, you will never get anywhere. I have seen the discrepancy in how people are promoted. There are managers that supervise one person. There are engineers who are unqualified, yet they squeeze through the cracks because of the difficulty in training and evaluating them. The culture is broken and needs to be fixed.

Focus on the people. Identify young talent and grow and nurture their skills. Evaluate people for effectiveness in their current jobs. Focusing on the youth will push the more experienced workers to step up their game or be surpassed by younger, more hungry co-workers.