Everything I Know About Business
I Learned from Monopoly
by Phil Orbanes
Reprint r0203c
March 2002
HBR Case Study r0203a
The Coach Who Got Poached
Idalene F. Kesner
First Person r0203b
The Trouble I ve Seen
David N. James
Different Voice r0203c
Everything I Know About Business
I Learned from Monopoly
Phil Orbanes
The 2002 HBR List: Breakthrough Ideas r0203d
for Today s Business Agenda
The Virtue Matrix: Calculating the Return r0203e
on Corporate Responsibility
Roger L. Martin
The Hidden Challenge of Cross-Border Negotiations r0203f
James K. Sebenius
Making Sense of Corporate Venture Capital r0203g
Henry W. Chesbrough
The HBR Interview r0203h
Edgar H. Schein: The Anxiety of Learning
Diane L. Coutu
Frontiers r0203j
Predicting the Unpredictable
Eric Bonabeau
Tool Kit r0203k
Do You Have a Well-Designed Organization?
Michael Goold and Andrew Campbell
Different Voice
Everything I Know
About Business
I Learned from
MONOPOLY
by Phi l Orbanes
One of the world s foremost
board-game designers reflects on what makes
people want to compete  and win.
design games for a living. Not vince people with little time that play-
video games, but the traditional kinds ing our games is the best way to spend
of games played on boards or with it. On some level, these goals are the ob-
Icards the kinds of games where what jectives of managers in business, too.
happens off the board is just as impor- How much of what game designers
tant to the experience as the physical do is applicable to management? In this
game itself. article, I attempt to translate various
It s a great job and often a challenging facets of our craft, but you ll probably
one. We game designers strive to engage find your own valuable connections as
people in strategic pursuits and compel well. At the least, you ll pick up some
them to want to win at them. We at- tips that will improve your chances of
tempt to provide clear structures and winning Monopoly. In addition to being
objective ways to keep score. We try to a game designer, I ve also been an exec-
create settings where people challenge utive for more than 20 years, first at
each other in nonthreatening ways and Parker Brothers, where I led the R&D
come away feeling the better for it. team, and more recently at Winning
More than anything, we want to con- Moves Games, the company I founded
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Copyright © 2002 by Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation. All rights reserved.
DIFFERENT VOICE " Business Lessons from Monopoly
in partnership with three other game can also find a game bewildering if they ances make a game difficult to grasp
designers. To the extent that I ve been aren t given a sound structure and clear and may make players feel stupid in-
successful in business, it may well be guidance. Then their imaginations will stead of empowered and enlightened.
because I ve approached my work in a be stifled, and the experience they re Here s a great example of a success and
gamelike fashion. seeking will never have the chance to a subsequent failure by one design team.
unfold. The same is true, of course, in In the early 1980s, a new game called
Principles of Great
business. People engage most and their Trivial Pursuit took the market by storm.
Game Design
talents flourish best when job responsi- It was very simple to play; anybody could
The first thing to understand about bilities, business objectives, and evalua- roll the dice, advance the spaces, and ac-
games, and why people like them, is that tion criteria are clearly understood. cept the challenge of answering a trivia
they are structured entertainment ex- In a game setting, structure and guid- question. But the appeal of its subject
periences. This means that a game de- ance come mainly from rules; a game matter touched a responsive chord in
signer must do two things: provide an will fail miserably if it doesn t have clear millions of baby boomers. Trivial Pursuit
orderly environment and make sure rules that avoid controversy. This clarity, achieved more sales in one year than any
that the environment generates fun. after all, is the essence of how games board game before or since. Naturally,
Over the course of my career, I ve seen improve on the real world, which is very the four inventors  who had not been
many successes and failures in both of inconsistent and unpredictable  and professional game designers before that
those realms. These experiences have therefore frustrating. In life, the rules al- point  were suddenly major figures in
led me to a set of principles of great ways change: Banks suddenly increase the world of games. Demand mounted
game design, which I share below. The the deposit levels required for free for them to design another hit, and they
first few of them deal with structure, checking; schools alter the course re- took that assignment very seriously. Per-
the rest with providing entertainment. quirements for graduation. By offering haps too seriously. Their sophomore
Mind you, just knowing the rules of a known and unvarying sets of options effort was a game called Ubi, which
game doesn t guarantee a win. Each of and outcomes, games can provide real focused on world geography. The new
these principles requires judgment and comfort  especially when the rules are game contained intricate rules and fea-
finesse. But the payoff that comes from also kept simple. Which brings me to tured novel kinds of pieces. There was
successfully applying them is what principle 2. even a clever, unifying concept featuring
keeps us all trying. Once a game be- triangles and groups of three. Do you
Principle 2
comes well established  like Monopoly remember Ubi? If not, you re not alone.
or that great game of detective work, It was,as we say in the business,nailed to
Don t frustrate the casual player.
Clue it s very difficult for another game the shelf. Aiming for a masterpiece, the
with a similar theme to succeed. And if The problem with the rule to keep inventors lost sight of the simplicity and
a game endures for a generation, it can things simple is that designers can t re- elegance that were the foundation of
probably live forever. sist breaking it by trying to design some- Trivial Pursuit s success, and consumers
thing impressive and innovative. To use rejected their efforts.
Principle 1
an analogy from publishing, they aim I too have learned this principle from
for literature in a market accustomed personal experience. Years ago, I in-
Make the rules simple and
to pulp fiction; they want to create vented a business game called Cartel,
unambiguous.
masterpieces. That impulse, if left un- in which players competed to acquire
Providing the orderly environment re- checked, leads to failure. There are sim- many companies and build up huge
quired by a game might sound like a ply too few avid game players in this conglomerates. To this day, it shows up
straightforward task, but in fact it has country. Their numbers continue to on the  desert island lists of dedicated
to be done with real creativity. By defi- shrink because of the wealth of enter- game players, which gives me real pride.
nition, a game is interactive; it s not tainment options available today com- (You might find it offered on eBay, likely
something you experience passively like pared with 20 years ago. If a game is to at several times its original price.) Cartel
scenes in a movie or words on the pages last more than a few months after its failed with casual game players because
of a book. Thanks to that interactivity, launch, it must appeal to a critical mass it required a comfort level and fascina-
a game can be far more engaging. Peo- of casual game players, people who will tion with financial strategy not found
ple love to use their imaginations and rapidly comprehend and enjoy play- outside Wall Street or the economics
concoct their own fantasies. But people ing it. Complicated rules and subtle nu- departments of leading universities.
(Ironically, Monopoly was initially crit-
Phil Orbanes is the president of Winning Moves Games in Danvers, Massachusetts. icized for similar failings  later I ll ex-
For many years prior, he served as the senior vice president of R&D at Parker Brothers plain why that criticism was misplaced.)
in Beverly, Massachusetts. He was also the director of the games division of Ideal Toy Am I claiming that, as H. L. Mencken
Corporation in Hollis, New York. is quoted as saying,  the masses are
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harvard business review
Business Lessons from Monopoly " DIFFERENT VOICE
too, to give everyone a turn, early and enced manager, too, knows the difficul-
often, and even better if the  turns in- ties that can arise in hand-offs between
volve rotating assignments. Many com- teams working sequentially. Think, for
panies find it useful for their rank and instance, of a group of product develop-
file to experience the pressures and re- ers putting its latest innovation into the
Is there an analogy for
wards of the jobs of their colleagues. hands of the marketing department.
The rhythm of a good game, more- The developers work on the product is
business to the beginning,
over, comes from a clear beginning, in its breathless endgame while the
middle, and end. In a well-structured work of the marketers is in the more
middle, and end rhythm
game, players can feel the shift occur- tentative, less intense, beginning phase.
in games? I think so.
ring from one of these segments to the No wonder it s hard for the two sides to
next. When a game begins, the mood is relate to each other and feel like they re
A good manager might
tentative as players start to position on the same team.
themselves in a hierarchy. Monopoly s
engineer these types of
Principle 4
beginning phase, for example, focuses
on contending with the luck of the
shifts over the course of a
Focus on what s happening off the
throw and on buying indiscriminately.
board.
critical project  and be
In this phase, accumulating property is
a must in order to be a player in future So far, the principles I ve outlined have
prepared for different
negotiations. As the opening phase focused on providing structure. But
evolves, players grow aware of who s in structure isn t everything. A game with
moods and levels of
the lead, who s in the pack, and who s a perfect set of rules and a sense of
behind. As the game shifts to its middle building throughout its phases won t be
motivation from people.
segment, play becomes more intense. played again if it doesn t also entertain.
Players are jockeying for a clear advan- Players are not going to come back un-
tage and trying to overcome any bad less they experience pleasurable emo-
luck suffered in the opening phase. At tions (which, in the context of a game at
this point, experienced Monopoly play- least, might even mean stress and fear).
ers become highly focused on acquiring The second challenge for game de-
at least one significant color group and signers is to maximize the entertain-
rapidly developing it. The endgame of ment value. During a game, in addition
asses ? Absolutely not. But digesting Monopoly usually occurs with the first to the actual play, people are affected by
complicated game rules isn t how peo- bankruptcy. Now the game becomes a and participating in what s happening
ple today want to apply their over- race for survival by the trailing players off the board. That s a function not so
stressed intellects and spend their time. while the leader hopes the odds will much of the game s components but
I suspect it s not much different in most continue in his or her favor. Inevitably, of how the players interact because of
businesses: Not every employee wants one winner emerges and takes all the them. A well-designed game makes
to think like an executive. It s important money. Monopoly s race to the finan- people feel better afterward  and for
that a business s environment be struc- cial finish is akin to other games where many players, that s due to the larger
tured so that people at all levels can feel a token reaches an end space (Par- social experience, of which the game is
like a part of a team and contribute to cheesi) or a specified point total is ac- only the core activity. I believe this is
the company s success. cumulated (canasta). In the best games, why card and board games endure
the end comes with a bang, not a whim- despite the onslaught of computer
Principle 3
per. If a game paces itself effectively, games. Computer games, as technically
people will instinctively know which astonishing and adrenaline stimulating
Establish a rhythm.
phase they are in. If the pace doesn t as they can be, are essentially solitary
Just as important as effective rules is an build, it s not much of a game. It s more experiences. Even multiplayer computer
intuitive sense of rhythm in a game. One like a lesson. games only support interaction about
aspect of rhythm comes from the num- Is there an analogy for business to the the games themselves. When three or
ber of players involved. Most successful beginning, middle, and end rhythm in four people sit around a table and play
games are designed for three to six games? I think so. A good manager a traditional game, interaction is hap-
players, but the ideal number is usually might engineer these types of shifts over pening on many levels that cannot, at
four because everyone s turn arrives the course of a critical project  and be least yet, be replicated electronically.
often enough to maintain interest. It s prepared for different moods and levels Of course, I don t mean to suggest
probably a good guideline for business, of motivation from people. An experi- that every traditional game enriches
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march 2002
DIFFERENT VOICE " Business Lessons from Monopoly
people s experience off the board. In novative play but that it make the play Monopoly, see the sidebar  Confes-
fact, two of the world s most revered accessible and entertaining to the max- sions of a Monopolist. )
games are in marked decline today, imum number of people. Even for mature players, a compo-
which I would say is largely due to their What s the management analogy to nent of luck adds a valuable emotional
antisocial nature. I m referring to bridge focusing off the board? For one thing, payoff to a game by allowing for come-
and chess. a good manager thinks not only about from-behind opportunities. Most of us
Both of these games require real ap- whether an employee is challenged love thinking, The odds may be stacked
plications of brainpower to win, and the appropriately by an assignment but against me, but just one great stroke
norms that have grown up around them also about whether the person relates and I m right back in it. A good man-
discourage players from making com- well to other team members and finds ager holds out the same hope for a
ments or betraying emotion during the fulfillment in work. More broadly, of struggling employee. Of course, an em-
course of play. Chitchat is distracting, course, a manager must consider peo- ployee should not be expected to rely
and emotions cloud decision making. ple s work-life balance. An executive on luck for a turnaround but instead
But I suspect the real reason for this with a broad perspective will, for exam- should be given clear, attainable goals
quiet stoicism is that, because these ple, refrain from assigning the best proj- for improvement. In some instances,
games establish intellectual superiority, ect manager in the Houston office to though, a recognition of the role luck
losers can feel humiliated, and emotions a client in Winnipeg at the same time plays is healthy. It can keep a trailing
can turn ugly. Some of my least favorite that the manager is planning her Texas team from becoming demoralized and
memories of game playing are of eve- wedding. keep a winning team from resting on
nings at bridge tables. I ve been embar- its laurels.
Principle 5
rassed to witness a loving husband or
Principle 6
significant other berating his otherwise
Give  em chances to come from
adored partner after each imperfect bid
behind. Provide outlets for latent talents.
made and card played. Such a scene
does not beg for an encore. One of the trickiest aspects of game Great games, and great workplaces,
Today s players don t want emotional design is achieving just the right bal- also offer outlets for skills that people
or social restraint from their games. ance of skill and luck. If a game uses would like to express but don t use dur-
Quite the opposite. Over the past few only skill, you have chess. And if it in- ing their normal routines. And again,
decades, what happens off the board has volves only luck, you have a child s for game designers at least, a shift has
gained new emphasis. And so we ve seen game  something like Uncle Wiggly occurred over time in how this principle
a new class of games arise, known in the or Chutes and Ladders. As this implies, is applied.
industry as social games. Trivial Pursuit different proportions of chance work Chess and bridge had their heyday in
was the groundbreaker in this category for different levels of player maturity the United States in the 1930s and 1940s,
and arrived on the scene at the perfect and intellectual involvement. when wide-ranging opportunities to ex-
time. The TV-happy boomers, enamored It s very tough to make a game that ercise intellectual powers or gain intel-
of the kind of trivia knowledge this can satisfy both those who prefer casual lectual stimulation on the job simply
game tested, reached adulthood and games of luck and those who prefer to didn t exist. Then, the typical laborer s
were looking for new ways to socialize. use their heads. In 1999, my company job required doing essentially the same
With busy lives and often both halves developed Monopoly: The Card Game thing all day long. Not surprisingly, in
of a couple working outside the home, with the aim of providing the emotional their off-hours, people sought ways to
they had little time for active involve- high points of the original game but in sharpen and show off their analytical
ment in the bridge clubs or social orga- much less time. Given Monopoly s wide abilities. Now, however, people have
nizations their parents had favored. In- appeal, we knew we had to design a so much complexity in their work and
stead, they became the first generation game that kids could find fun to play personal lives that they don t often
that graduated from childhood and still but that adults could also approach with seek it in games. Instead, what appear
had a purpose to play  childish games. sophisticated reasoning and decision to be missing are alternate forms of
A striking feature of many successful making. I think we succeeded, despite self-expression and ways to connect so-
social games is that they are based on having such a tough act to follow. A cially  chances to let down one s hair,
ones that a lot of people have known for friend of mine once commented,  The laugh, and have a good time. And peo-
a long time. For example, Pictionary is reason Monopoly endures is that it s ple probably need outlets in business
just a 1984 commercial adaptation of a 75% skill and 75% luck. What he meant as much as in games.
game known as picture charades, which was, if you lose, you can blame it on The theme of a game can also pro-
had been played at parties for probably luck, and if you win, you can claim to vide escapist pleasure by tying into cur-
20 years. Clearly, the important thing be a great negotiator and cunning rent interests or worlds people enjoy
for a social game is not that it offer in- strategist. (For more on how to win at dreaming about. Certainly, that was the
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harvard business review
Business Lessons from Monopoly " DIFFERENT VOICE
great appeal of Monopoly when it ex-
ploded onto the scene in the midst of
the Great Depression. The game was
Confessions of a Monopolist
initially thought to be too complicated
for most players because of its reliance
on financial calculations. It succeeded,
though, because it arrived at a time
Managers may benefit from learning some of the rules of games and game
when most people could only dream
design. Undeniably, though, game players benefit from learning the disci-
of handling large amounts of money,
plines of management. In particular, the spoils in Monopoly routinely go to
let alone acquiring property. Because
it forced players to calculate like land-
the players who&
lords, the game offered them much-
" take a close look at return on investment. Casual players don t know this,
needed vicarious pleasure.
but the 28 properties around the Monopoly board are not equally valuable
Sometimes, game designers make the
in terms of ROI. Boardwalk and Park Place, which many people regard as
mistake of thinking they can improve on
the most precious, actually are not. It turns out that the oranges and reds
 games found in real life. But there s an
industry axiom about stock market and
have the highest ROI and are the best properties to own. In part, it s because
horse-racing games, in particular: They
there are three of each rather than two, so the odds of landing on these color
never sell. The people who are attracted
groups are better. But these reasonably priced properties have something
to those worlds generally have access to
even stronger going for them: They re perfectly positioned beyond the corner
the real things. By contrast, the industry
where jail is located. The odds of any player s going to jail are reasonably
has produced many successful games
with football themes. That s a world (at high over the course of the game  and when that player comes out of jail, the
least at the professional level) where
chances of landing on an orange or a red are good. By contrast, the green
most of us can only pretend to play.
properties, which lie just after the  Go to Jail space, are far less likely to be
landed on during the game. And they re expensive to boot.
Managers as Game Players
" know the art of the deal. A player rarely acquires all the properties of a
Many of the best Monopoly players
come from business backgrounds; I ob- color group by actually landing on them. So a trade is frequently required
served this truth time and again over
to own a complete color group. This fact alone proves the merit of buying
years of officiating at U.S. and world
every unowned property you land upon. Then you ll have property to trade to
championships for Parker Brothers. For
get what you want. Cash alone is insufficient to get a good deal. The first mo-
example, the 1983 world championship
nopoly is a big event in the game. It skews the expected cash flow in favor of
was held in Palm Beach, Florida. The
its owner. If the monopoly lies on the second or third side of the board, it may
grand prize was a substantial amount
of money, but it carried a stipulation: It
be enough to bankrupt opponents who haven t faced reality and traded
could only be spent in one afternoon
among themselves to establish competing monopolies.
on Worth Avenue, a tony district of
" make no enemies. Having material to trade is essential, but so is your
shops in Palm Beach. Greg Jacobs, a real
conduct if you are to come out ahead in a trade. There s an adage in game
estate developer from Australia, won
playing: Be the kind of player to whom others won t mind losing. No one
that year. Winnings in hand, he went
first to one of the avenue s fashionable wants to lose, but if you re going to, it might as well be to someone who s
boutiques and bought a souvenir scarf
gracious, considerate, diplomatic, and knowledgeable. Nobody likes to lose
for his wife. Then, knowing that Parker
to a browbeater, a player quick with insults, or a know-it-all.
Brothers was owned by General Mills
A casual player of Monopoly might think that it s a game of chance and that
at the time, Jacobs walked down the
the winner is determined by rolls of the dice. Watching the best players in the
street to a brokerage and invested all
world in tournament play has shown me it s not. The winners are actually
the rest of his winnings in General Mills
stock. I ve always admired that coup. It
masters of strategy and negotiation. They know how to minimize the impact of
was simultaneously a tough-minded
bad luck and to put themselves in the way of an undue share of lucky breaks.
decision to preserve his gain and a gra-
Adapted from The Monopoly Companion: The Player s Guide, by Philip Orbanes
cious nod to his generous host. Now,
(Adams Media Corporation, 1999).
that s a great player.
But if business training makes for a
better game player, game playing also
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march 2002
DIFFERENT VOICE " Business Lessons from Monopoly
trains one for better business judg- been adapted for small companies as them has conditioned me to play the
ment. Maybe this is why companies are well as large corporations like Hewlett- game of business by the kinds of rules
increasingly bringing game playing Packard and AT&T. Employees playing I ve outlined here.
into the workplace. At the very least, the game become department leaders In many ways, workplaces are like
an afternoon of playing games builds who must quickly learn the fundamen- games. Both can be structured to avoid
relationships among workers and in- tals of finance within their own type of controversy and even to sweep us up in
creases the social capital within an or- business. Among other benefits, they exciting rhythms of activity. Both can
ganization. I remember just such an af- experience the impact of profits versus engage us in challenging tasks while
ternoon at Parker Brothers, when the cash flow and the importance of differ- supporting rich experiences off the
HR department sponsored a business- ent departments working together to board. And ultimately, a great game or
simulation game for our factory work- achieve success. a great workplace can produce the same
ers. Afterward, camaraderie, mutual Finally, game playing in the work- sentiments: If we re challenged by and
understanding, and cooperation im- place might teach managers to appreci- challenging others in nonthreatening
proved markedly. ate that the success of a game depends ways, if we re using pent-up skills that
But workplace games can go further on how well it is designed  and that we d love to express, and if we re expe-
to combat small-mindedness and to many design challenges have their riencing an emotional trip that ends on
help people recognize that they are part equivalents in the art of management. a high note  well, our time was well
of a larger whole. Some excellent games I mentioned earlier that my manage- spent. And we ll look forward to coming
are explicitly modeled after the very rial success is probably due to my game- back for another round.
businesses using them. Andromeda like approach to my work. Does this
Training is one company that designs mean that I think management is triv- Reprint r0203c
and markets this type of simulation. Its ial or that it should be left to chance? To place an order, call 1-800-988-0886.
managerial game Income/Outcome has Not at all. Playing games and designing
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harvard business review