t operates as an umbrella collaboration between different agencies and individual consultants who team up to deliver major digital projects for large companies.
Privateers connects big businesses with the right talent pool of freelancers and leaner digital agencies, simultaneously helping those clients
thrive and lean into the pace and pressure of digital transformation and innovation – swiftly, efficiently and effectively.
Here to tell us more about the thinking behind Privateers and how the company operates are Ronni Holmvig Strøm, CEO and Co-Founder and Rasmus Thomsen, Brand Strategist and Business Designer.
“The inception of Privateers was organic,” begins Ronni. “The original thinking behind the company was birthed from a series of ideas and frustrations in combination.
“The first frustration we saw was a continuous challenge in the way that big companies were trying to acquire talent for digital projects or transformations, which seemed to be becoming more and more difficult. Large corporations with complex digital strategies were finding it hard to identify the right individuals to engage with,
know how to pick them and then successfully have them collaborate both with their internal teams and together as freelancers. For many companies, the process was a bit of a gamble.
“The only real alternative large corporations had was to engage with big consultancies that obviously had a lot of competency and experience at their disposal, but also came at a steep cost. But even in this expensive scenario results weren’t guaranteed and the process came with risks.
“The second challenge we observed was that during digital
projects or transformations, companies often began with an overwhelming amount of input in terms of strategy and direction. But sometimes the teams in charge of undertaking the endeavours would then be left alone in terms of executing a set strategy, getting to the benefits in the business case or reaching the end of the journey. This would be doubly challenging if it was a journey into the unknown for corporations. Innovation and transformation do not necessarily gravitate around the core capabilities that you have as a business – it’s often a venture into new territory. You are relying
on some inspiration to get there along with know-how about how to get things done.
“Privateers is, more than anything, an attempt to make a resilient and fast connection between bigger companies and the right talent pool, where engagement is efficient and swift. But don’t mistake us for another freelance broker. We are not. On the contrary, we don’t mind working together with brokers, but Privateers represents a collaboration between highly skilled digital talent and a certain work ethic and methodology, where the goal is to reach the
“DURING COVID, THERE WAS A BIG MOVEMENT TOWARDS YOUR OWN INDIVIDUALITY IN TERMS OF YOUR APPROACH TO WORK. IT’S A NEW WAY OF WORKING AND LED TO A NEW WAY OF ENGAGING WITH DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND INNOVATION AND THE BIG CORPORATIONS NEED A NEW PATH TOWARDS ENGAGEMENT”
Ronni Holmvig Strøm, CEO and Co-Founder
benefits of the business case or strategy rapidly, effectively and safely.
“It's also a response to a trend that we seem to be observing, where a lot of the incredibly competent talent within digital transformation and design industries seem to value freedom and independence more than anything – more than being a part of a large organisation or business. So they have established themselves more and more either as individual freelancers or small agencies, possibly because there is a degree of creativity that comes with it. These people value creative space, creative freedom and maybe have other values than big corporate life. But this major talent pool exists in a way that is still partly connected with big business so requires a new approach that's different from what we've seen before.”
Ronni believes the COVID pandemic was a catalyst for this new trend. “The pandemic definitively disproved the myth that when you work outside a traditional office environment you don't work as efficiently,” insists Ronni. “During COVID, there was a big movement towards your own individuality in terms of your approach to work. It’s a new way of working and led to a
new way of engaging with digital transformation and innovation and the big corporations need a new path towards engagement.”
Rasmus weighs in here as a freelance Brand Strategist and Business Designer operating under the Privateers umbrella. He adds that 10 years ago, there was a trend in Europe where a limited number of large design agencies dominated the sector. Ever since then, according to Rasmus, there’s been a shift towards the freelance movement.
“When agencies grow past a certain point, you focus less and less on the actual work that made you become a creative,” says Rasmus. “You spend more and more time on finding a client, getting more hours and making sure that the projects don’t stop because you need to feed this big machine that is the large agency.”
Rasmus recalls wanting to nurture the passion for creativity and freedom freelancing provided to him, but also the feeling of being alone and vulnerable as a freelancer.
“Although I learned my consulting business strategy, I'm not necessarily a businessman,” says
Rasmus. “I remember the first big projects I took part in with a group of freelancers. We looked at each other and said, ‘Who's going to draft up the contracts?’, ‘Who's going to send the invoice?’ among other questions about business formalities.
“Working with Privateers is the first time where, as a freelancer, I can go in and work as part of a set team with structures in place. These structures protect me and reassure me that the projects are safe, there’s a solid agreement with the client and we can just focus on doing the creative work we need to do. It significantly reduces the risk for us.”
Privateers’ core mission is to connect large businesses with the right talent pool of freelancers like Rasmus and leaner digital agencies. Ronni elaborates on how the company also helps those clients adapt to the pace and pressure of digital transformation and innovation efficiently and swiftly.
“When we put ourselves in the shoes of any executive or C-level representative, it is clear they have incredible challenges ahead of them. These are exciting opportunities, for sure, but they're also very intimidating and require a lot of thinking and planning – especially if the projects sit outside the client’s core competencies or business capabilities.
“We have an enormous amount of respect for the situation that many big companies are in with regards to the rapid pace of and demands presented by digital transformation,” explains Ronni.
“Digital transformation is essential because if you don't embrace it, then you're setting yourself up for failure no matter what industry or business you're in. When we initially speak to clients, they might have a corporate strategy to tap into or maybe even be at the forefront of digital innovation. They identify digital transformation as a key component in their corporate journey for the next few years. But that realisation is just step number one. Then you need to take step number two, which is to elaborate on digital transformation and break it down. Not just in terms of strategic goals, but actual engagements, projects, programmes, portfolios, KPIs and more. Step 2 involves a significant investment of resources.
“If you're a senior or C-level executive overseeing this investment, you are relying heavily on people with the know-how and the skills to guide you
“WORKING WITH PRIVATEERS IS THE FIRST TIME WHERE, AS A FREELANCER, I CAN GO IN AND WORK AS PART OF A SET TEAM WITH STRUCTURES IN PLACE. THESE STRUCTURES PROTECT ME AND REASSURE ME THAT THE PROJECTS ARE SAFE”
Rasmus Thomsen, Brand Strategist and Business Designer
into that unknown. But more than this, you need people who help you determine not only what the business case of it is, but also how you get results from that business case. You can, of course, depend on the organisation that you already have. You can try to retrain skilled people that have some experience and know what they're doing. That's challenging in itself. But it's especially difficult to attract external talent that has experience operating in various different businesses, drawing on multiple relevant perspectives and wielding the know-how from in-depth research in these fields. How do you venture into that unknown and get tangible business results out of it? The talent is difficult to find, but it absolutely does exist – and that's what we represent at Privateers.”
The other important dynamic Ronni underscores at Privateers is speed.
“It is challenging for bigger businesses with many components to operate swiftly but also effectively,” says Ronni. “You need help to ignite transformation and maintain velocity so you don't fall behind or suffer project disruption. Here is where Privateers shines because it is one of our major competencies to engage at a high level, at an early stage, kickstarting
the velocity of transformation very efficiently and effectively.”
When asked to describe a project where Privateers’ new wave workforce and dynamic approach to digital transformation truly shone, Ronni highlights Gateway, made by Garrets International.
Gateway is a new digital platform for global provision management in the maritime industry. It is a rare case of true digital disruption for the sector because Gateway presents a digital and radically more efficient alternative to tangible work processes that were done by manual and cumbersome means for the past 70+ years.
Gateway came to life when Privateers carefully talked through strategic direction, financial goals and digital ambitions for Garrets International, firstly with the executive management. This enabled Privateers to gather the right talent in terms of digital strategists and design thinkers who facilitated multiple sessions in quick succession with all relevant stakeholders in the business, from the CEO and C-level executives to operations and sales specialists. Within the context of the sessions, Privateers asked everyone to leave titles at the doorstep and engage
as equals within the context of innovative design thinking.
Today, two and a half years later, Gateway is a global market leader in terms of digital maritime services. And with the roadmap Gateway currently has, there are many exciting and bigger innovations in store for the future at Garrets International.
What if you could order or count your stock within minutes?
We’re introducing Gateway — the faster and smarter way of ordering provisions, bonded and non-food including managing budget and stocktaking on board.
“The Gateway project is a phenomenal example of how we operate at Privateers,” says Ronni. “When we started the transformation endeavour with Garrets International it commenced at a highly strategic point to engage in a digital transformation with them. Our work together began two and a half years ago. The first thing we
“GATEWAY IS A GLOBAL MARKET LEADER IN TERMS OF DIGITAL MARITIME SERVICES. AND WITH THE ROADMAP GATEWAY CURRENTLY HAS,
did was engage in thorough and productive talks with the C-level management. We asked: What are the ambitions? What is the risk willingness? What is the intended business case and benefit that you want out of it? When we started there were no tangible products, services or even concepts formulated yet.
“Once we answered these questions, then we could engage incisively and efficiently with all layers of Garrets simultaneously, including everybody from board members and even the CEO, to the people in operations and on the forefront of sales. We gathered all these people together physically, managed to leave all titles at the doorstep and then facilitated a highly focused, collaborative process. Within a few days, we conceptualised the goals and targets at the highest strategic levels but also how to get there. Traditionally this process could have taken months of analysis and come at a steep cost, with going back and forth in various
Privateers is your future digital transformation partner. We source world-class creative talent and match a tailor-made team with your organisation — giving you the speed of change you’re looking for.
meetings to get agreement and all stakeholders onboard. But our process was super rapid.
“With our expertise on hand, we managed to convert that into a programme and a project that included new ways of working for Garrets International, showcasing more agility than they were used to, that still complemented and supported their core values while introducing a new way of doing things.”
As a member of the team who helped deliver the Gateway project, Rasmus lauds the dynamic approach to digital transformation Privateers embarks upon.
“I think one of the big differences between engaging with Privateers as a creative compared to through an agency is that as the person who does the work you pick up the phone and interact directly with the client. You have no account management layer or sales team there. We're just the actual people doing the work. I think the flexibility of that model with direct workflows provides an extremely creative and fast-moving process. I've sat with the C-suite executives and board at Garrets and designed with them, right there on the spot. In the very early stages of the project, we brought their industry experts into a room and had them map out and draw apps to imagine
the solutions they actually wanted. It's these types of approaches that are fascinating and radically different to the traditional agency setting. There’s something about getting together with other experts, creatives and designers to wield the tools we’ve built over years of experience to drive digital transformation forward – instead of following an established model. It’s a total game-changer because all we have to think about is doing great work.”
Ronni echoes the importance of excellent work at Privateers.
“One of our passions at Privateers is the quality of our approach and the tangible, positive outcomes it yields for our clients,” says Ronni. “Of course, ambition is important –but it’s paradoxical to think that putting earnings or abstract targets in front of customers and employees will propel things forward. It’s just not what drives us. We are very, very serious about good work and putting action behind our words.”
Learn more about Privateers by visiting their website privateers.dk.
Rasmus cannot wait to attend OFFF TLV 2023, a visual design festival on October 1516, 2023 in Tel Aviv, Israel.
“OFFF is an incredible event, driven by designers for designers and other creatives. It was where Adobe launched Firefly this year and given the calibre of the attendees, it is still very reasonably priced as an event. For freelancers and people interested in doing creative work or digital transformation, this is one of the best events to attend – I highly recommend it.”
Ronni embraces the opportunity that working at Privateers presents.
“We feel a sincere responsibility on behalf of the businesses we work for as the people who can be more adventurous than most, faring into the unknown with them,” says Ronni. “We have to be brave and curious as we guide our clients.”
Ronni channels the adventurous spirit of Privateers in his personal life, dabbling in acting and extreme scuba diving as ways of challenging himself to explore new experiences.
“In August 2023 I’m venturing way out in the Pacific Ocean to study big marine life and it’s going to be awesome,” says Ronni.
