4 things Don Mattrick needs to do to turn around Zynga

PIncus, out. Mattrick, in.

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Jon Xavier: Web Producer- Silicon Valley Business Journal; Email | Twitter | Google+

It's official! Mark Pincus is out! Microsoft's Don Mattrick is in! Zynga's CEO is gone, long live Zynga's CEO!
Well, not really. Pincus is sticking around as chairman, and lest you forget who really calls the shots, he's still got majority voting rights thanks to Zynga's profoundly unequal shares structure. But for many people, Mark Pincus was Zynga and Zynga was Mark Pincus, so a shakeup at the top of the executive ladder still signals a major direction shift for the troubled casual games company.
Mattrick comes into Zynga at an interesting time, amid major layoffs and a slumping stock price, and its clear that he's being brought on to prove to investors that things are going to change. And while Mattrick's stock with the gaming community might not be what it once was after he oversaw the launch of the Xbox One, Microsoft's controversial new gaming console, he's certainly got the pedigree one would want in a reformer — under his watch, Microsoft's gaming division has gone from a money-losing liability to one of the bright spots on its balance sheet.
So what does Mattrick need to focus on?
Optics
First and foremost, if investors are going to believe that Zynga is turning around, it has to look like it's turning around. That means an end to business as usual. That means no more major rounds of layoffs that make the news (although small amounts, staggered so as to not draw too much attention to them, might work if Zynga still needs to fire people to get its fiscal affairs in order). That means it should not try to buy the makers of the next flavor-of-the-month hot casual game, no matter how much it wants to. In other words, the new Zynga can't look too much like the old Zynga.

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Jon Xavier is Web Producer at the Business Journal. His phone number is 408.299.1826.

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