Following Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard, our EMEA Go-to-Market organisation — a team of roughly 250 — was asked to reduce headcount by 60 roles as part of wider efficiency goals across the gaming business. I was at the centre of the people side of this transformation: co-designing the future organisation with our MD, planning and executing the reduction with dignity, and helping the remaining team rediscover its footing.
Before the acquisition, this was a genuinely happy, high-performing organisation — which made the news land even harder. The reduction came as a shock to most (complete confidentiality meant there were no rumours to soften the blow), morale dropped sharply, and uncertainty began driving attrition in a team that had never had an attrition problem.
The task was twofold: execute a legally complex, multi-country reduction with speed and precision — and then bring a grieving team back to believing in its future.
"Several colleagues thanked me, emotionally, on their way out — because they felt treated like humans, not headcount."
The moment that defines how I approach every restructuringNew org built around priorities with the MD — not even cuts
Legally rigorous, individually sensitive, fully confidential
Every conversation held with dignity and empathy
Reassurance, open doors, and the slow return of spirit
We designed the new organisation around clear priorities rather than simply cutting evenly, which meant the smaller team could still fully support the franchise slate — aided by newly found efficiencies and closer collaboration with Xbox. For those who stayed, I invested heavily in one-to-one reassurance, and slowly the spirit returned: engagement held within four points of pre-acquisition levels, attrition stabilised at 7%, and the project was executed with remarkable accuracy and speed.
What this period taught me: in business-critical moments, a People team that trusts each other completely is not a nice-to-have — it's the thing that makes speed, precision and humanity possible at the same time.