Question 1-TopCoder
If I were a senior manager at TopCoder at this point I would focus on maintaining a family like atmosphere. It is said in the article that a man named Wu Yanbo comments on the way all the programmers always worked together and that the “competition at TopCoder was never disrespectful or nasty and that people liked to help each other, even when they competed in the same arena. So, I would simply focus on sustaining this type of environment, and even expanding on it. For example, if there were to be conventions or even small get togethers that got the programmers to get to know each other, it would be extremely beneficial for some. A lot of the time computer programmers are introverted and like to keep to themselves. It is important to make these type of people feel at home and also provide them with any sort of motivation. The idea of contests creates motivation, and the use of conventions or get togethers would create the camaraderie that could help produce some of the best computer programs in the world. It says in the article that .5% of TopCoder’s population is among the best in the world at computer programming. With that being said, if someone were to excel at something that one of those elite programmers could not do that well, it could very easily be the result of some of the best coding ever. That is what makes TopCoder so amazing. the idea of competition evokes determination, but the idea of being a friendly environment allows very intelligent people to converse over stuff they really enjoy doing.
Another big component of TopCoder is marketing. Expanding the community does nothing but great things for TopCoder, and for that reason, they must focus on expanding at the rate they have been, or close to it. The expansion of members in the TopCoder community will only do positive things. As stated above, more people creates more opportunity for very intelligent people to get help on stuff that might not come that easy to them.
I believe that the capabilities of running a company like TopCoder are much different to those of traditional companies. This is because of how difficult it is to develop a significant avenue of competition, along with keeping a sense of togetherness. For example, a large majority of people get very angry when losing a sport of any kind. If you were to compare TopCoder to a sporting example it would be like having a tournament with very competitive 20 year olds and having the prize be a large quantity of money, and telling the teams that they must be friendly, and help other teams as much as they could. This would make no sense to a team because they want to win and get the money for themselves. Obviously they could all work together and get better for the future, but there are often more fights in sports, than encouraging words. This is because competition sparks controversy and anger. The fact that TopCoder wants to focus on competition but also a friendly environment is, in a sense, an oxymoron. But, if that can be accomplished, it can benefit everyone.
Overall, top level management at TopCoder needs to focus on all of these things. They need to make sure that it stays competitive but also remains friendly. TopCoder must also maintain their yearly averages on new members. By doing all of these things, TopCoder could be extremely successful.
John M. Brown
I totally agree with your opinions about the necessary capabilities to succeed when running a firm as a senior manager at TopCoder. The working environment is the first idea I came up with. The manager should try to maintain the open culture that is associated with startups, in which everyone is a hands-on contributor and feels comfortable sharing ideas and opinions. Google has a weekly all-hands (“TGIF”) meetings, it is not to mention over email or in the cafe; Google coders ask questions directly to Larry and Sergey or other execs about any number of company issues. Their offices and cafes are designed to encourage interactions between Googlers within and across teams, and to spark conversation about work as well as play. Successful companies should not only focus on the interpersonal environment, but also the outside environment. If I want people to think creatively and push the boundaries of what’s possible, their workspace shouldn’t be a drab maze of gray cubicles. The offices should be innovative, fun or just give coders the right to make a wacky/fancy design of their own working space. Data from big companies like Google or Apple has shown that these spaces have a positive impact on productivity, collaboration and inspiration. In order to make the company’s environment friendly and while maintaining competitive, the capability of organizing periodic team-based programming competition events is necessary. For example, the staffs can pick their team and programming language, the company picks a real-life engineering problem to solve and then let them face the challenge. The prize can be set to let the staff ultimately continue contribute to the firm.
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