Before you read this post, I should clarify what I mean by success.
A large corporation that is able to make headlines (eventually at least), like Goonswarm and Brave Newbies are large corporations that have defined or are about to define EVE news headlines.
If all you want is to have a little fun and kick back with a few like minded people, then this guide is not for you.
So you wanna have a successful corporation?
Well then here are a couple of points you NEED to adhere to.
1. The player comes first, the corporation comes second, any alliance you are in comes third and any coalition you are in comes fourth, you take care of things in that order and in that order alone.
Take good care of your members and give them the best opportunities you can.
2. You NEED a diverse group of people, miners, manufacturers, PvPers, mission runners, possibly incursion runners and of course Orca/Rorqual boosters.
3. Miners and other industry focused pilots will tell you they don’t like PvP, they are lying to themselves, they just don’t know that yet.
Figure out how you can positively influence them to get involved in pew pew.
4. 150 is the magic number, once you get that many members, you will see that you attract a lot more people to your corporation by default, the amount of effort you will have to put into recruitment will go down to almost none.
5. Teach your most trusted members how to do recruiting.
6. Have your own recruitment channel.
7. Keep a close eye on your recruitment channel, there are players out there that only join it in order to try and ride on your successful recruitment strategies, you should kick these people out of your channel ASAP.
Also remove any and all players that have already joined your corporation, unless they are recruiters, you want that channel clean so you can easily notice when somebody comes in.
8. Industry pilots are THE most important players in EVE, don’t let any PvPer tell you otherwise.
9. If you can get your industrialists excited about PvP and you have a large group of them, you will be more deadly then you think and you will also become more appealing to potential PvP focused recruits.
10. Numbers are more important then talent, 10 miners on a revenge run, will kill the most talented PvP player in the game a billion times over.
11. You DO NOT create the content for your members.
That last point takes a little explaining, but I hope it will make sense in the end.
You need to setup your corporation in such a way, that the members in your corporation do NOT need you or any other person you have in management, to provide them with content.
What is content?
-Orca/Rorqual boosting.
-PvP roams.
-Mission running fleets.
-Incursion running fleets.
-bla bla bla, you probably get the point by now.
If you do that stuff for your members, in stead of trying to figure out a way for your members to do that themselves, then your corp will depend on you to much and you will burn yourself out (among other things).
Here’s another point to keep in mind.
The more members you have, the more locked to a station you will be.
You will probably spend more time answering mails, having private conversations, doing recruitment talks, having diplomatic talks and all the other small things that come with the management of a corporation (just like in real life).
This will inevitably mean that you actually CAN’T even create content for your members and now you simply HAVE TO figure out a way for your members to create the content for themselves.
And then about point 1, which is by far the most important point.
Your members (just like you) want to have a fun time playing this game, without your members, you are nothing (as a corp).
Therefore their interests come first, you have to make sure they are happy FIRST.
This means that you sometimes have to make a decision that is in the best interest of your corporation and its members, but not in the best interest of your alliance, just so you can offer your members the best opportunities possible.
If this is the case, try to resolve these issues diplomatically first and if that fails, you have to leave your alliance.
Of course the very same counts for your coalition.
And then there’s one last point.
Large corporations will get wardecced a LOT, especially if they are industry focused,
In most cases, these wardecs demoralize industry corporation members, activity will go down, your killboard will look sad and you will either die as a corporation or get even more wardecs as a result.
The ONLY thing you can do to stop that from happening, is to excite your members.
You welcome the war openly towards your members, tell them it’s gonna be fun, take out fleets and actively hunt those war targets down, make some pirates noises over comms (Teamspeak, Mumble, Ventrillo etc etc)), whatever you feel you have to do to excite your members.
In the first few months, you DO NOT care about how your killboard looks, if you can get your members excited for pew pew, that killboard will fix itself over time and the more you can excite your members, the faster it will go green.
You should focus on getting your members in cheap frigates and destroyers, if you have the right number of members actively flying these and going after your war targets, you WILL make that expensive kill.
A single 200 million ISK kill, means that they will have to kill 100 of your cheap frigates and destroyers, you kill more then that? you WILL make your war targets cry, cause your war targets….. they DO care about their killboard.
Like I said in the beginning, these are rules to stick to when you want to become successful, if you are just a couple of friends forming a corporation and trying to have fun, then please ignore most of it.
Fly cheap and fly hard,
Mark
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