Bobby Kotick speaks

http://www.economist.com/people/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14209881

Bobby Kotick, CEO of Activision Blizzard, talks about the video game business and also makes an amazingly potent comment about research:

“When he used to play more games, he says, he would find himself trying to tweak his firm’s products to accord more closely to his own tastes. Such decisions are best left to product managers, he insists, who combine their own judgment with feedback from focus groups. The trick is knowing which bits of feedback to ignore. “That’s the delicate balance,” he says.”

I wish this trick could be taught to our brand guys. I guess it comes with experience and with really living the brand experience, which could be the case in the video game industry, but in mundane industries like soap and tea, how many brand guys can make the judgement between their own gut feel and focus groups.