Imperium case study

Introduction
Imperium Ltd. is a multinational corporation located in Guildford, UK.
Founded on April 16, 1986 by Dennis Hamilton a computer science graduate, Imperium started
out producing sci-fi themed board games accompanied by videos that, at the time, gave players
a far more interactive experience than was available on the market.
At the beginning of the 90s, Imperium developed into a video game company, becoming one of
the most influential in Europe. Imperium's first venture into the video-gaming industry was
securing rights to distribute the Pretorian Guard video game console in 1991. The company
began to produce its own hardware in 1993, with colour TV video-game consoles.
The most recent home console, the Trident, uses motion sensing controllers and has on-board
online functionality used for services such as Imperium Wi-Fi Connection and Internet Channel.
Tridents success introduced an expansion of audience to broader and non-traditional
demographics, a business model with which Imperium has had success.
Imperium has managed to come through the economic downturn very strongly; this has been
partly been down to the rude health of the gaming industry but also because of Imperiums
decision to outsource some of its operations overseas.
Its back office operations transferred to Bangalore, India in 2006 and this was followed by its
manufacturing operations being relocated to Costa Rica in the same year. R&D is still based just
outside Guildford. In 2009, Imperium opened a sales office in Turin employing 25 staff. This
was deemed a good hub geographically and created better market penetration into southern
Europe. Dennis also had a vested interest in this set-up as his wife Graziella, is Italian and from
Piedmont, the region of which Turin is the capital. He takes the opportunity to combine visits to
the office with visits to family and friends.
Outsourcing operations to India and Costa Rica was a very unpopular move with the workforce
but Imperium still retains 350 staff in the UK.
The transition from being a domestically-located company to a multinational has not been easy.
Challenges have revolved around deadlines not being met, a breakdown of communication
between teams and fundamental disagreements on the direction of projects. Dennis Hamilton can
see that there needs to be a profound change in how the hubs work together.
Having a reputation for being a charismatic yet dogmatic, inspiring yet controlling individual,
Dennis starts to realise that if something doesnt happen to address this lack of collaboration, this
highly competitive market will see Imperium losing its market share.

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