[Exploring Finland's Innovation Ecosystem]③ "Celebrating Failure": Supercell's Flexible Small-Team Approach

Mobile game company with annual revenue of about 4 trillion won
Empowering teams with complete autonomy is the core value
Celebrating failure means celebrating new learning
Seeking ways to carry today's success into the future

Finland's innovation is built on a long-term perspective that spans generations. From the rise of Nokia in the 1990s, to the startup boom since the 2010s, and now the emergence of quantum and space technologies. Over the past 30 years, the ecosystem shaped by government, business, and academia has revolved around a single core question: How can today's success be passed on to the next generation?

In 2010, six developers gathered in Helsinki, Finland, sharing the dream of creating games that would be loved consistently and remembered for a lifetime. Fifteen years later, the mobile gaming company they founded, Supercell, has grown into a powerhouse with annual revenue of approximately 2.65 billion euros (about 4 trillion won). Supercell employs around 900 people from more than 45 different nationalities. The company operates offices in five regions worldwide, including Seoul.

Lobby view of Supercell headquarters located in Helsinki, Finland. Photo by Lee Hyunju

Supercell is now moving beyond mere survival to seriously consider corporate longevity and sustainability. On the 21st (local time) at Supercell headquarters in Helsinki, Finland, Viivi Ali-Loytty, Head of Brand and Communications at Supercell, said, "For us, the best experience is to be able to grow and age together, and to share that with new generations." She continued, "Mobile games are usually seen as something that comes and goes—downloaded, deleted, and replaced by something new. But Supercell is different."

Supercell's mission statement is "to create games that as many people as possible will play for a long time and remember forever." This means they do not settle for one-hit wonders or develop games only for a specific generation.

Frida Johansson, Chief People Officer (CPO) of Supercell, presented the company's unique team-based HR policy at Supercell headquarters in Helsinki, Finland, on the 21st (local time). Photo by Lee Hyun-joo

Supercell is renowned for its unique team-based organizational culture, which has been key to its rapid growth. The culture of developing games flexibly and freely within small teams has fostered countless small teams unafraid of failure, shaping Supercell into a robust and efficient organization.

Frida Johansson, Chief People Officer (CPO) of Supercell, explained, "Our philosophy is to empower teams and step back, letting them do what they do best. This is the exact opposite of the traditional corporate structure model." She added, "We give teams authority, and people outside the team do not interfere with how things are made. Independence, responsibility, and complete autonomy are our core values."

Supercell members sometimes succeed and sometimes fail, but they find great value in sharing the process and the lessons learned from failures with other teams. CPO Johansson said, "We set high goals when it comes to ambition and risk-taking. This is to encourage taking risks and trying new things. Celebrating failure means celebrating learning."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.