The encyclopedia · Strategy & Leadership · Strategic decision · 2014
Arkadium kept its team by asking staff and relocating to Russia
When US sanctions made its Crimean studio illegal, Arkadium asked the 100-plus staff what they wanted, then relocated the willing half to a new Russian office.
Arkadium (Jessica Rovello, CEO)
the move
Arkadium, a New York-based interactive gaming company co-founded by Jessica Rovello and her husband Kenny Rosenblatt, had its largest game studio, more than 100 mobile-game developers, based in Simferopol, Crimea. In spring 2014, Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine, and the studio's staff suddenly found themselves living under Russian occupation and, eventually, Russian law, with armed personnel verifying residents' identities.
At the end of 2014, the US government imposed sanctions making it a crime for American companies to conduct business in Crimea at all, instantly turning Arkadium's own studio into an illegal operation for the company to keep running or paying. The standard response to a workforce suddenly rendered unemployable by external legal or political forces is to shut the affected office down and let the employees go, treating the disruption as an unavoidable loss to be absorbed and moved past.
why it works
- Consulting employees surfaced a relocation option that a unilateral shutdown would never have revealed.
- Self-selection meant only those committed to staying moved, preserving a motivated team.
- Relocating to Russian mainland kept the company legally able to pay and employ them.
- The split forced a strategic refocus that ultimately strengthened the company.
what transfers
When a shock makes your current setup illegal, ask the affected people what they want—they may reveal a viable path you'd never see alone.
what came after
The Krasnodar office became Arkadium's permanent overseas branch, operating there ever since the relocation. Because only about half of the original Simferopol staff made the move, Rovello made the further strategic decision to exit the company's mobile-gaming business and refocus Arkadium on its core web-based casual gaming network, which powers game sections for major digital publishers. The company continued operating with offices in New York and Krasnodar, was later recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the best places to work in the US, and was profiled by Forbes as a small company that s
references
- This Female CEO Moved An Office And Its Employees Out Of Crimea At The Height Of Crisis
- How Arkadium survived when the Russians took over Crimea
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