There are a lot of discussions regarding the modern business leaders, what character traits are needed, how to manage people and run a company in general. But the next generation of business leaders is already here and they are preparing to lead companies.

Can you guess who they are? The people who play online multiplayer games.

There are many people who excel at video games and can lead successfully groups of people in online battles. Their main characteristics are:

1. High Analytical Skills

When you play online games you have to gather resources, evaluate the environment, prepare for your next move and also study your opponent. Awareness is the key to victory.

2. Great Decision Makers

There are complex situations in online games where you have to analyze a lot of information within a few seconds and take the right decision.

3. Great at Managing People

Leading a group of fellow gamers online is harder than real life. You have to deal with people from different countries, cultures and time zones. There is also lack of physical eye contact and it takes a lot of effort to make people follow your strategy.

From an article written by Harvard Business Review:

For one, individuals you’d never expect to identify—and who’d never expect to be identified—as “high potentials” for real-world management training end up taking on significant leadership roles in games. Nevertheless, our findings reinforced our basic premise that leadership in online games offers a sneak preview of tomorrow’s business world. In broad terms, that environment can be expected to feature the fluid workforces, the self-organized and collaborative work activities, and the decentralized, nonhierarchical leadership that typify games.

Brandon Beck and Marc Merrill from Riot Games are two famous leaders who play online games. Riot Games is an American video game developer, publisher, and eSports tournament organizer established in 2006.

On July 12, 2013, Business Insider named Riot Games #4 on its list of the top 25 technology companies to work for in 2013.

It will be interesting to see if more companies in the future recruit successful gamers and appoint them to leadership roles.



