GRIN: INDONESIAN EXPANSION
It is January 19, 2007, Ulf and Bo Andersson is pacing agitatedly about his hotel suite, located in the business district of South Jakarta. He is both excited and a little bit apprehensive about the decision he has soon to make. Bo is currently on a trip to Jakarta in search of a location for a sister office to expand GRIN, the company founded by Bo and his brother, Ulf Andersson. GRIN is a game development company based in Stockholm, Sweden which focuses on making games for the PC (Personal Computer) platform. The company’s latest hit,‘ Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter’ (GRAW), published by Ubisoft Entertainment, has won reviews and awards worldwide. Bo, in his quest for a suitable office/studio location outside Sweden, is hoping that the new sister office will strategically support the main office in Stockholm in producing the next generation of games.
Looking out from his hotel suite, immersed in thought, Bo gazes at the huge sports complex across the street. The decision to expand won support from his brother and some people at GRIN, but choosing the location will be critical since it will mean a sizeable investment for the company. Prior to the trip to Indonesia, Bo considered the Baltic States in Eastern Europe, China, and India as potentially favorable locations. A merger with another game development company in the United States or Sweden is also an option for the expansion. Whatever the decision, the expansion is needed to acquire the necessary creative talent in building the next generation of AAA games (triple A: multiple platform games; games developed for multiple platforms, e.g.: PC, Sony PlayStation, Microsoft Xbox).
Within the past few days, in search of market opportunities and talent, Bo has met with game developers, universities, and even found potential office space in the central business district of Jakarta, all with the help of a Swedish acquaintance with years of experience doing business in Indonesia. The office space is located in a tower adjoining a shopping mall.
Bo turns his head and looks at the DVD disk sitting innocently on the coffee table. The disk was sold to him the day before in a software store at the shopping mall in a flimsy plastic sheet with a poorly printed paper-insert depicting the contents of the package. Bo bought the disk for 50 thousand Indonesian Rupiahs, or approximately 5 US Dollars. The paper-insert was printed from a scanned packaging of GRIN’s latest hit, Ghost Recon, and Bo purchased this pirated copy of the game his company developed at a fraction of the cost the publisher of the game sells it for elsewhere (Exhibit 1 shows packaging of pirated software). The store not only carries PC games, but also productivity applications, operating systems, software development tools, and other office/business software; basically any category of software a person would ever need. In that particular shopping mall, there are at least 3 other stores selling pirated software, and other small stands/kiosks selling pirated DVD movies and CDs (Exhibit 2 shows the typical software store). Jakarta seems to be a good location for finding talent; but Bo wonders whether the city is the right location to expand his company and develop the capacity to compete in the future.