Business Agility: Sustainable Prosperity in a Relentlessly Competitive World

Chapter 6. Thriving in a Competitive, Fast-Paced World

"Open your eyes, Pilot. A new world is here."

So goes the intro to EVE Online,^[64] one of a new generation of what are known as massively multiplayer online games (also called MMOGs). In these online games, players from all over the globe log into virtual worlds via the Internet; they learn different roles and skill sets, and come together in self-selecting teams to carry out daring missions in pursuit of common goals. Question: How is this any different from the challenges that await us in the global real-time economy we now inhabit?

If you're part of the generation just starting out in business, answers to this question probably seem pretty obvious. If you're part of a generation that's already been around for a while, answers might not seem so obvious (at first). If you are now in your 20s, you may have a set of skills and behaviors that will become increasingly valuable in business, and you probably developed them through many hours of online gaming. Popular MMOGs such as EVE Online, EverQuest, and World of Warcraft bring together hundreds of thousands of simultaneous online players from countries around the globe to interact in complex, three-dimensional worlds based on themes from science fiction and Dungeons and Dragons fantasy.

MMOGs are not to be confused with single-person shooter games where individual players blast aliens and tough guys, steal cars, and get into street fights. Those games develop fast eye-hand coordination ...