UBISOFT AND ORBI: a creative and adaptive network organisation

Rayman is the main character in the action video games series developed by Ubisoft, the third largest independent video game publisher in Europe. Rayman has no arms or legs, but it has feet and hands which enable it to move freely and be agile and lively. The Ubisoft organisation is like Rayman : it has a network of adaptive and creative studios (there are currently twenty-four studios located throughout the world representing five thousand developers) each with a certain degree of autonomy. In a technological environment where the market is constantly changing, this sort of reactivity and creativity are vital. In order to maintain them, Ubisoft has created its own framework of operating principles which appears to be working. It encourages small, autonomous teams which have been given a degree of responsibility, and which work on projects and in a network ; it fosters confidence in the creative potential of each employee; and, on a broader scale, its founders believe in an organisation which serves to promote creation.