Zynga's New CEO Don Mattrick Says It Won't Be Quick Or Easy To Get The Company Back On Track

Don Mattrick, the new Zynga CEO announced at the beginning of the month, offered his initial on-the-job observations today during the conference call discussing the company's second-quarter earnings.

Mattrick (on the right of the photo with Zynga founder and former CEO Mark Pincus) started out by offering some positive commentary, saying that the company "caught lightning in a bottle" and "achieved in only a few years what most companies took a decade or more to do." However, he acknowledged, "We're missing out on platform growth that Apple, Google, and Facebook are seeing. In short, we can do better."

So how is he going to try to turn things around? He said he's going to be working with the company's leadership to "challenge previous assumptions" and to focus on "business fundamentals - which, candidly, we've struggled with over the past year." Mattrick predicted that there will be two to four more quarters of volatility as the company tries to find a new direction.

"Getting a business back on track isn't easy and isn't quick," he said.

Pincus, now Zynga's chief product officer, was also on the call, and among other things, he said he was impressed that Mattrick set up his desk in the middle of the Farmville studios. Both Pincus and Mattrick described their relationship as one between "partners".

Mattrick said he's also going to discuss his priorities on this call - I'll update this post when he does.

Update: Later in the call, Mattrick said his priorities for his first 90 days on the job include "getting under the hood" to evaluate the business, identifying the real market opportunities, improving product quality, looking at how people are deployed across the company, and reassessing the product pipeline. He also suggested Zynga is a young company that has "the ability to break some bad habits" but that while he'll be in listen-and-learn mode initially, "When it becomes clear what change is necessary, I'll move quickly and decisively to do what's in the best long-term interests of our players, our employees, and our shareholders."

He concluded, "There are some good winds at our back, and my job is to get our sails up and Zynga pointed in the right direction."