Inside the App Economy

Late last week Business Week published an interesting article on the Economy of Apps that caught my attention.

The piece does a great job at reminding us how useful some of these tools have become both for entrepreneurs and the average people, while enlightening us on how the App industry is reshaping the tech world also from a profitability standpoint - already roughly a 1 billion market and featuring App companies that make more money than Google.

Now, what truly caught my attention was to realized how some of these companies are embracing a sort of Google/Amazon alike model, rooted on the powerful culture of makers: hire people that love to create things, treat them well and the rest is gravity. Smart people want to create things, they want to leave a mark but they need to find a place where to be free to bring those ideas to life. The App market is full of these guys and the best part is that they are not hard to find... They are usually the ones that can't shut up about how cool the internet is.

In the App world, I believe one great example of this type of company is Zynga. With almost 500 employees, they not only are replicating some of those famously pampering like - yet efficiency driven - comforts Google-ish companies offered employees: having a masseuse on staff, chefs who serve up two meals a day (to keep employees from wasting time going out for food), weekly keg parties; but also recreating a productive atmosphere with monthly poker tournaments that offer the winner the chance to drive a Lamborghini for a day.

In addition, the way the company is run also give us a lesson on the importance of operations in relation with productivity. At Zynga, there is a reward based model in which several people work as groups and are assigned with specific goals each month. They have the freedom to achieve these in any way they can. Then, those who succeed are rewarded with cash and stock bonuses and are granted extra resources such as new hires and others.

They call it "ghetto Google" but for me it sounds more like fair game. Cultivate the right culture and the results will shown.

Via Business Week