CEO & co-founder of Supercell. Board member of LEGO, Zwift and TPS. Co-founder of We Foundation and Illusian.
✍️🚨BLOG ALERT🚨✍️ This year I am writing how Supercell is changing to do better and more for our players, and how that requires us to try getting comfortable feeling uncomfortable 😃 As usual, it's a long one so sit back and grab a cup of coffee ☕! https://supr.cl/comfort
Andrew Powney
5mo
The early part of this blog made me think of Disney and how they used to produce one massive animation hit after another. All different and each took years to make.
Göte Nyman
5mo
Great to read a long blog 🤓 when the topic deserves it. Excellent thoughts to anyone. Some general views: in firms and organizations we have learned to perceive risks and point to them but the nature of opportunity perception has remained a mystery even though it is the beginning of everything. Opportunity pursuit (individuals, teams, units, firms) has many forms and dynamics but it's architecture is a creative challenge, an organic creature almost a d must be re-invented. With transparency I think of the observational architecture of the firm, how it sees the world (players, competitors) but especially itself. Transparency is of no help if the observational architecture is seriously biased. Sorry about my fascination with the architecture term.
Evald Qesteri
5mo
Ilkka Paananen As a CoC and CR player from many years, I feel that Supercell killed CR. The whole CR community feels that way and it doesn’t help much when Supercell refuses to even acknowledge it. I’m not an expert in mobile gaming, but know as much that when you put monetization before player experience, it doesn’t spell right. All players understand that it is a business and there’s money to be made, but that should not be the driving factor. Not only you betrayed CR players, but more importantly you betrayed your own principles, as written in the blog. It’s never too late to change and rebuild. 🙏
Salone Sehgal
5mo
Ilkka Paananen thank you for the honesty, vulnerability and conscious and aware leadership. Supercell has been the inspiration for so many and you raise the bar even higher now. So rarely are companies so introspective and thoughtful, especially once they have achieved the kind of success that all of you have. We have been so proud to have Supercell part of our journey for the last 4 years. I do believe the best is indeed yet to come. Bravo.
Niina L.
4mo
Inspiring to hear that people want to improve themselves and their organisations, we all live in constant change in a changing world of networks 💪 it can be very scary to say (not to mention write) about our mistakes, vulnerabilities and opinions. I've been for a long while intrigued by the cell function at Supercell and I'm looking forward to seeing where the start up approach will take Supercell, thank you for sharing your thoughts and reflections Ilkka Paananen! I have a feeling that we need more optimists and brave people trying things out in Finland, keep it up. Good luck growing the organisation and its teams, important that you are keeping an eye on the people's thoughts and supporting them on the way with the leadership team.
Phillip Black
5mo
Thank you for your honesty. The entire industry benefits from it. But my god, please send this on t-shirts, mugs, and stress balls to other corporate execs.
Mark Stanley M.
5mo
Nurturing authenticity & transparency. Embracing boldness & curiosity. Seeding beautiful constraints. Propelling a fail-fast, fail-forward culture, where the right dose of discomfort drives continuous growth. Cheers Ilkka Paananen and the Supercellian team for constantly looking in the mirror and fueling the beautiful art of gamecraft for generations to enjoy. ♥️🎯⚡️
Risto Päärni
5mo
Being a lifetime startup this approach will work for many innovators and teams. My products are too ’startups’ https://lifetime.fi/osta
Emily Yim
5mo
What a genuine, heartwarming and ambitious yearly statement. I'm truly moved by your vulnerability, authenticity and vision. I will embarrassingly admit I teared up a bit at the financial section. How odd that feels, but the way you approach financials are so true to my heart. Bravo to not losing the vision of focusing on players and your tenacity behind it. Wishing you and Supercell an amazing year of 2024.
Great post, Ilkka! The infrastructure services (Distraction-Free Environment) remind me of Amazon's API Mandate. A mandate that all teams at Amazon must expose their data and functionality through service interfaces (APIs), which could be used by any other team. This approach essentially treated every internal service as if it were a potential standalone product, capable of being used by external developers as well. The API mandate allows any part of Amazon to use the best service available—whether internal or external. Teams within Amazon sell their services to each other at market prices. This model forces internal teams to be competitive with third-party services because they have to offer compelling value to be chosen over external options. On the other side, it gives product teams freedom to choose the best services that work for them (internal or not) and gives a strong sense of ownerships and indenpendence. I think the Amazon model is directionally similar to what you're describing: Internal startups with ambition, independence, accountability and ability to move fast and own their destiny. Very inspiring to see Supercell evolve with such ambitious, brutal honesty and pace.