Ubisoft Montreal : setting up and managing a global creation cluster

• Laurent SIMON
  Management professor, HEC Montreal
  

Summary

In ten years, the Montreal Ubisoft studio has become one of the most important centres of creation and development of video game in the world. As far as Laurent Simon is concerned, this success can be explained both by the fact that management was able to take into account the particular culture of techno-creators by imposing rigorous processes of creation and production management such as the 'stage-gate', and by the exceptional environment offered by the city of Montreal which is in perpetual cultural effervescence. However, this success does not come without a number of questions which include the future of video games (whose enthusiasts are gradually getting older), the management of employees (which has sometimes been a source of conflict in the past), and the issues and potential behind the geographical location of a cluster.

Summary translated from French by Rachel MARLIN.

• The entire article was written by Élisabeth BOURGUINAT.

To obtain this article, you can :

• download it for free in French (PDF help) or contact ecopar@paris.ensmp.fr (Reference RT170908).

The entire article appears in French in the Journal de l'École de Paris du management N° 76.