Sensing the threat, the IT Ukraine Association tested the sector’s readiness at the start of February with a survey question that would be unthinkable coming from a trade body in most countries: “Does your company have an emergency response plan for such cases as large-scale combat operations, lack of internet access, power outage etc?”
Tech consultancy Star, which employs about 600 of its 1,000 global workforce in Ukraine and counts blue chip firms such as Lufthansa, Toyota and WPP as clients, says it is running at 60% of pre-war levels.“We hadn’t expected operations to stay at anything like that level,” says Star founder Juha Christensen, the former senior Microsoft executive who also founded software company Symbian and is current chair of Bang & Olufsen. “It has been one of the real surprises.
In addition to employees, Star has relocated about 2,000 family members into western Ukraine, Poland and some into Germany. About a dozen staff have chosen to join the military effort. Nazar Sheremeta, solutions architect for CloudMade, a joint venture between Star and French conglomerate Valeo, has decided to stay in Kyiv, effectively waging what has become akin to a form of internationally-backed corporate resistance across the country, with workers refusing to allow their businesses to capitulate in the face of the invasion.
“I am trying to distract myself with working matters as much as possible,” he explains in another message. “Otherwise you are simply looking into the news 24/7, and your nerves end out spiralling out of control. Obviously, I am also monitoring mental health to not burn out people too much right now.”
Alexandra Ganzha works for Ukrainian-based IT company Obrio, which has found itself based in Poland after most staff were abroad on a corporate holiday when the war started. He says most workers now operate on three shifts: working on client projects, helping friends and relatives, and volunteering.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.