CASE STUDY

OPENING THE VALVE: FROM

SOFTWARE TO HARDWARE

BY GROUP 1 -Mitin Tarafdar-21PGDM042

-Ansal Raj Singh-21PGDM016
-Sardar Saif Iqbal-21PGDM070
-Vishal Agarwal-21PGDM097
-Aman Rai-21PGDM010
-Shreya Sarkar-21PGDM078
 CASE STUDY

Overview

• Valve is one of the world's top video game software companies with a flat organizational structure.
• This is a 400-person organization, which includes 100% self-allocated time, no managers (and therefore no managerial oversight), a
structure so fluid that all desks have wheels to allow free movement between "cabals" (teams) on a regular basis (which happens so
frequently that Valve created a homegrown tracking app to allow peers to find each other)
• They also have an unique hiring process that supports recruitment of T-shaped individuals with an intension of retaining them forever.
• In 2013 Valve was forced to think about extending into hardware due to customer demand and market forces.
• Now Valve questions whether their organizational model will need to change as it expands from software into hardware and what are
the advantages and disadvantages for the same.
How is Valve's approach to Organizing different
from a traditional organizations?
VALVE'S TRADITIONAL
APPROACH APPROACH

• Flat organizational structure

• 100% fluid
• Complete freedom of choosing teams
• 100% self allocation of time
• No particular hierarchy
• No proper job description
• Unique T shaped hiring process
• Multidisciplinary cables(teams)
 • No hierarchy
• Delay in decision making
• Dependent on Windows
WEAKNESSES • lack of hardware
• No direct control over the project
• Time consuming process

• Flexibility
• Innovation
• Adapting to change
STRENGTHS • OCB(Organizational Citizenship Behavior)
• “T-Shaped” structure
• Customer satisfaction
Should Valve produce hardware & Can the present
system of organizing support the hardware business?

Political Economical Social Technological

• Hardware industry needs
higher initial investment in
comparison to software so
proper financial planning and
R&D would be included.
• As of now, Valve’s success is •
majorly dependent on the
openness of system but with
hardware business their flat
organizational structure will
be challenged.
Customers want more • They are facing
exciting experience and that’s restriction towards
only possible with sensor windows based
based gadgets to provide while running their
more realistic experience and software on
that is only possible with windows. So It
hardware. would be great to
have their own
hardware sector to
eliminate this
restriction.
 An organizational structure for Valve's hardware business:
• Flat organizational structure
with functional grouping
including 6 different
Finance departments.
• T shaped hiring process is
continued.
R&D Engineering • Less number of bosses so less
control.
CEO • Flexible approach as Projects
can move through the
Quality
departments according to it’s
Customer check need.
service
• Cabals are continued as earlier.
• The major difference is the
Marketing R&D team as hardware
& sales
industry requires large amount
of investment and here
movement of the project
would follow an order.
 CASE STUDY

Opening The Valve From Software To Hardware :An Opportunity

• Opening The Valve From Software To Hardware A Opportunity is an advantage
and the driving force for an organization.
• It is the convenient time or situation that is present in the environment and
will help the organization in achieving its goals.
• It is a factor that contribute positively towards the growth of the organization.
It is a condition existing in the external environment that allow the
organization to take an advantage of the organizational strengths, and help in
overcoming the weaknesses and to neutralize the threats present in the
environment.
CASE STUDY

An example of any other organization which been through a major

structural change because of change in its nature of business:
Microsoft is a good example of flat organizational system.
• Microsoft has optimized its processes and unified its teams.
• After being named CEO in February 2014, Satya Nadella undertook a
major restructuring of the tech giant to eliminate its destructive internal
competition.
• Microsoft products and platforms would no longer exist as separate
groups. Instead, all employees would start focusing on a limited set of
common goals — and bringing them all together.
• Their new common functions include: Reinventing productivity and
business processes, Building an intelligent cloud platform, Creating more
personal computing.
 CASE STUDY

THANK YOU!