SYNOPSIS

BrainGame is a volunteer driven organization which develops games. On the onset is founder
Hans Faust couldn’t afford to hire paid developers hence he enlisted volunteers to help, design,
build, test and debug the new kind of online games he wanted to bring onboard.
Now Klaus Hoch, BrainGame’s director of community is very appreciative of the volunteer
model and wants to continue with this model ahead whereas Klara Ebehart the head of
engineering is a but skeptical of this idea and is pitching for a paid developer model for the four
year old organization and her opinion is backed by the fact that her team was spending more
than half the time on the volunteer’s new proposal and none of them has turned into a viable
product since their first year, even though she agreed that one successful idea did came from a
volunteer but it has also required a lot of refinement- both internal and external to get it where
it stands at present. Klara was also of the thought that the money being spent behind the
volunteers in the name of happy cost was almost equivalent to the salaries to be paid to the
paid developers, and in addition the cost BrainGame also had to bear the volunteer’s protest
and revolts, also they could not be held accountable for not meeting any deadline.
BrainGame’s revenue from ad sales has jumped from the past years and hence the company
has some cash in hand and this was pushing Klara to hire paid developers who could be held
accountable to the organization.
But Klaus was of a different mindset, he believed that this was not the time to move away from
the volunteer and show them their back. In the meantime Lean was to pitch the new group of
investors for financing in a couple of weeks but she was still confused that whether they should
stick to the volunteers or bring in more hired guns.
Andrew Maslin, BrainGame’s head of marketing had a different point of view. He felt like these
volunteers are acting as a brand ambassador of the organization and once we kick them to the
curb, the company would only be left with brand haters. He was in favour of Klaus to continue
with the volunteer’s model.
Now when Guy Renou the CFO of BrainGame sat down with Lena to prepare the pitch for the
investors they are now together contemplating the thought of which model to continue with
and what can be the repercussion of both continuing with the volunteer model or with the paid
developers model. Although Lena wanted to continue with the existing volunteer model
because it was for them that the organization has such a positive apprehension among the
people. She too believed that the identity of the organization was associated with the
volunteers.
So, Andrew and Lena are still left unanswered and is back to the question,
“Should BrainGame continue with its volunteer model or bring in paid developers?”
INTRODUCTION

The company BrainGame was founded by Hans Faust. During that time, he had not sufficient money to
hire developers so he hired volunteers for his work. BrainGame is a videogame developer company. The
company used volunteer labor to design, code and market their games. When BrainGame was lauched,
it aimed to become a global company. Now after four years, the company can be easily spotted in each
and every location of the map. The company has sufficiently expanded its global outreach. Company
CEO, Lena Klug was proud of the company’s global reach.

The company mission is to create positive, nonviolent, commercially viable products that reward
empathy, and caring rather than aggression and revenge. Many of the volunteers were ready to work
free of cost for the company because they believed in the organization’s mission. Statistical figure
shows that BrainGame’s revenue from ad sales increased in the past years all thanks to volunteers. The
company also hired small group of real developers to work with them. New investors are showing their
keen interest to invest in the company based on its current growth rate. But Lena was in dilemma
whether she can rely on the volunteers for their part of work or she should hire professional developers
for the quality output? So she discussed this issue with company’s top executives. According to Klaus
Hoch, BrainGame’s director of community, some of the best product ideas came from volunteers. .
Klaus’s one of job is to keep volunteers engaged and happy. Also in his monthly update report Klaus
stated the impressive figure of no of issues surfaced, bugs fixed and new game version created. As per
Andrew Maslin, BrainGame’s head of marketing , it would not be a wise decision for the company if they
turn their back on volunteers community which ultimately results in brand failure because there are
thousands of volunteers interested in working in the company. And media will be a great threat if the
company stop considering volunteers. According to Klara Eberhart, the head of the engineering group,
the volunteer’s ideas take a lot of effort to refine externally as well as internally. According to Klara, as a
grown up company, they should hire professional developers. Rutger Ekberg, the head of the product
development, also supported Klara by saying that volunteers could not get one single good viable
product idea from volunteers.

Lastly Lena consulted CFO Guy Renou, who said it is good to have volunteers who works for free and by
that company has been saving a lot of money which could be wasted if they hire real developers. Also he
informed Lena that the company is now financially in a position to hire 10 to 15 developers. Now
listening to all the top executives Lena came to know that Klaus and Andrew supported for community
driven method whereas Klara and Rutger supported hiring new developers.
Decision Dilemma of the protagonist:
Brain game is a four years old volunteer staffed company & Lena Klug is the CEO, in the beginning the
company enlisted volunteers to help design, build, test & debug the new kind of online game & many
were willing to do so since they believed in the mission : to create positive, nonviolent, commercially
viable product that reward empathy & caring.

But as investors come knocking on their door, all the higher authorities of the company are torn over the
dilemma whether they should continue with the volunteers or hire new professional developers. As the
company grows so does the need for manageable process – emerging more new ideas and growing
expectations create a messy situation which unless controlled properly could be a drag down on the
hind leg of the company. Hence, there’s a need for sustainable business model.

Paid programmers will surely do what you tell them to (at least theoretically), and volunteers will do
what they want - but the benefits of working with volunteers far outweigh the costs. These people bring
much more than free labour—they provide avid gamers’ insights, and they distribute and promote the
products. But at the same time, dealing with the volunteers could be far more time & resources
consuming. One role of the volunteers is to submit ideas, good and bad—but it’s the company’s job to
make and explain resource-allocation decisions. It is mentioned in the case that often volunteers didn’t
meet the deadlines & screening and refining the amateur ideas to finally implement those often became
a huge headache for the company authorities. There’s also trouble with meeting the expectations of the
volunteers, as mentioned in the case in the past few years the company has faced some brunt because
some of the volunteers had different expectations from the company & when those weren’t met they
started protesting.

In the company, the executives are also torn between their opinions, Klara Eberhart , head of
engineering, & Rutger Ekberg, head of Product Development think –the company should be an
execution-forced, while Klaus Hoch, director of community and Andrew Maslin, head of marketing
wants the company to remain cause-driven that has a slew of evangelists working on and promoting its
product. CEO, Lena Klug personally thinks closer to Andrew & Klaus whereas the CFO, Guy Renou wants
the story which should be the most suitable for their company to pitch to the investors.

There is also the question, whether the investors would take a volunteer based company seriously, as
they always want to know whether the company has reliable resources and processes. Anyone can build
a software company. BrainGame has something better: a community. This is an attractive pitch to
moneymen, and the valuation Lena would get by emphasizing community over gaming would reflect
that. The company has unlimited scaling capabilities at no additional cost—it could be running 10 games
or a hundred.

If Lena decides to transform BrainGame into a traditional software company, she will be sacrificing a
huge advantage—one that she will never be able to get back.
PROBLEM STATEMENT:
 Brain Game creates video games with the mission of providing an avenue for volunteers to
contribute into the cause. The future looks bright, as the company has become global in its four
years of operations.
 The problem is that, as Brain Game expands its size, demands for manageable processes also
emerge--more ideas come and new products are developed; making it viable for investors.
Hence, the need for a sustainable business model.
 Voyage Finder, sourced from Henri’s (a star volunteer) idea was implemented but it took a lot of
refinement. Bot Force and Living Colony - biggest hits, came from in-house brainstorming and
development.
 Brain Game’s revenue from ad sales has shown a marked increase in the past year so hiring new
developers is not out of the picture.

The underlying problem is to meet both individual and organizational purposes by resolving trust and
group conflict, motivating its volunteers while keeping in mind the mission statement and Culture of
the company.

Trust and Group Conflict: The top management in Brain Game are divided in their outlook towards the
volunteers.

Some top management believe volunteers help by marketing the company for free along with product
development that saves costs tremendously. However, they need to convince people who distrust
volunteers so that Brain Game can work toward the same target. Volunteers are not productive and
hard to manage, with “more than a thousand crappy ideas proposed”, according to Rutger Ekberg, the
head of product development. Along with the CEO Lena, he has no positive expectation over volunteers,
as they cannot be held accountable for their free work .He is apprehensive that if no full-time
experienced developers are used, then what if the game fails and the likely potential of losing investors.

There are task conflicts because of the disagreement among top management about the content and
outcomes of volunteer’s performance. Task conflict may hurt more proximal group outcomes, such as
trust from volunteers and volunteer’s satisfaction. This latter effect is especially likely when volunteers
interpret the company’s diverging viewpoints as a negative assessment of their own abilities and
competencies. If volunteers are not trusted, then the company will not run effectively, and influence
company’s operation like productivity, communication, and raise problem of demotivating volunteers,
and reduce their commitment to the company.

Motivation : Another challenge is motivation - Brain Game needs to motivate volunteers so they can be
more efficient. Volunteers who work for Brain Game are unpaid, they work because they want to
“create positive, nonviolent, commercially viable product that reward empathy and caring rather than
aggression and revenge”.

Self-determination theory explains the motivation for people’s growth and human development .It
shows achievement, recognition and work itself and responsibility are the top four motivation factors,
which are all intrinsic motivation. These motivation factors are correlated with Brain Game’s volunteers
because they want to be able to make a difference and be recognized for their work.
This is not the case as some people in top management of Brain Game are distrustful of volunteers and
skeptical of screening through thousands of ideas generated by the volunteers, which is time
consuming. Such attitude of the top management could lead to a lack of commitment or even
resignation from work if the volunteers feel that they are not recognized for what they contribute. If
Brain Game wants to keep volunteers, they need to motivate and help volunteers achieve what they
want so that they can commit to the job.

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is another challenge for Brain Game. The company works on a volunteer based
model, which is now on shaky grounds as the question if volunteers should be replaced by full-time
developers looms large.

Brain Game has a very flexible organizational structure with over thousands of volunteers as developers
around the world. Generally, it is observed that change fosters the creation of new resources and
encourages people to be innovative. However, Brain Game’s current culture doesn’t work efficiently.
Volunteers produce many ideas but most ideas are not viable to use and time consuming. Moreover,
Brain Game initial ideas of using volunteers are because of cost saving. Since Brain Game is making
profits since the past year, the company needs to rethink its organizational culture, if it intends to
continue with volunteers or move on to full time developers. The company needs to also consider the
risk of losing volunteers and the possibility of turning thousands of brand evangelists to brand haters
since volunteers provide free marketing and advertising.

Alternate Solutions.

Only volunteer model

This model can be used but it is best till the idea generation phase as in the software industry
idea generation plays very vital role. But execution is as important as the idea generation and for
this company cannot rely fully on volunteer efforts.
Pros-
 BrainGame’s volunteer community is part of its DNA and one of its greatest assets. The
company will grow not in spite of the volunteers but because of them.
 Need not pay the volunteer so there is cost savings.
 Committed volunteer are the source of growth of the organization.
 The belief will be there as usual that company stand along with the volunteer in every
case.
 They are true believers of the company and hence can be useful for funding, community
building and advocacy work.
 They provide avid gamers’ insights, and they distribute and promote the products.
 Volunteers can play an ongoing role in the areas of new game ideas, feedback on
prototypes, alpha or beta testing, and bug fixes.
Cons-
 Managing them costs precious time and money.
 Strikes by volunteers are risky.
 Problem in justifying the sustainability of the company to the investor.
 If there is onboarding of new volunteer, it can make the other volunteers feel pessimistic
and demotivated in working as company can’t specify the criteria of recruitment in this
case.
 The company have to compromise with growth that they are desiring to achieve.
 The lack of discipline and commitment in volunteers.
 Volunteers aren’t bound by any company clauses hence work and projects might get
affected.
 Non-recognition to their work could lead to more ineffective production and creativity.

Only in-House Developers Model.

This model can be used but the company will lack in the idea generation as the volunteer
constitute of vast diverse people the idea generated from them can’t be match in any point of
time.
Also, it will spread the message that Brain game turned their back towards their volunteer who
played a major role in its success.

Pro
 The best software development happens in-house; it isn’t outsourced.
 Workforce which is innovative that can drive the company’s growth.
 Can work on competing with rivals with the dedication and work of in-house developers.
 BrainGame needs to have a reliable team whose members work together on a daily basis
and can communicate easily.
 More attention can be paid towards efficient and faster game development.
 Faster growth in terms of deliverables and up scaling of the gaming environment.
Cons
 This model will be costlier in comparison to the volunteer model as hiring in house will
have to be on payroll,
 Can lead to demotivation of the volunteers who participate in the company’s work.
  The company will have to search for other method for the community building that was
easily possible in the volunteer model.
 Idea generation and brainstorming will be time consuming as compared to volunteer
model as in the latter, idea generation was significant and huge.
 Negative message spread to the peoples that company turned its back after the success.
 Can lead to volunteers vouching out of BrainGame’s vision and workforce.
 Loss on community growth and feedback reception.
 Would impact the company’s vision and people’s idea about the company.

Mix Model (Both Volunteer and In-house Developer)

BrainGame can opt for recruiting in-house developer along with keeping engagement with the
volunteer’s constant as always. This method will help the company to achieve its goals and
handle the volunteer as well. Some benefit can be made for the Volunteer for their participation
as well as, benefits like letter of recommendation, best volunteer award, and monetary benefits
for the best idea.

Pro
 Not hurting the sentiments of the volunteer and community.
 Both idea generation can be of top quality as well as its execution.
 Working along with its volunteers who lead to the success of the company, also
emphasizing on its growth.
 Not fully reliable on the Volunteers who are sometimes very difficult to handle.
 Can have a sustainable model which drives towards growth and also leads to attract new
investors.
Cons
 Extracting the useful things from volunteer’s work will need separate time devoted to it.

Conclusion
The BrainGame company should follow the mixed model as this not only helps in idea
generation for the new projects but also in the execution of the idea, which can be done easily
with the help of the in-house Developers. The output and the innovation factor will not get
compromised. It can help the company in achieving a working model which is sustainable and
this can attract investors. Company can keep the volunteers motivated by giving certain benefits
to them like monetary benefit for best idea, awards for best volunteer, letter of recommendation /
appreciation etc. This will help the company in not getting totally reliant on the volunteer’s
efforts. Also, the benefits provided to the volunteer will contribute in getting them focused for
generating ideas, working on projects, etc.

Contribution of Members:
1. Synopsis: Rahul Shaw (20PGPM034)
2. Introduction: Nityananda Kalia (20PGPM028)
3. Decision Dilemma: Sayantani Boral (20PGPM047)
4. Problem Statement: Radhika Bhattacharyya (20PGPM032)
5. Alternative Solution & Conclusion: Shubhanker (20PGPM068) and Anup
Kumar Sharma (20PGPM009)