Technology has been at its outstanding best in the last few years. Whether it’s the advent of Artificial Intelligence or the art of machine learning, organisations have drastically changed how they perform their business operations with the help of technology. Some business owners have unearthed new ways to conduct businesses as well. For instance, Rikard Hegelund, the cofounder of a borderless creative tech company, Klingit, has taken a unique approach to executing its operations. Hegelund and his Stockholm-based company aim to disrupt the conventional technological arena with unconventional methods.
“Learning is not a one-time event or a rare luxury. Great leaders in great companies recognise that the ability to constantly learn, innovate, and improve is vital to their success.” – Amy Edmondson inTeaming: How Organisations Learn, Innovate, and Compete in the Knowledge-Economy
It’s a common notion that business leaders are good learners. They learn every step of the way and use their experiences to make better decisions. Formerly a marketing executive, Rikard Hegelund stepped into the business world in 2015 when he co-founded a virtual office space rental service, Workaround. Sweden, and Stockholm, in particular, are home to several start-ups in Europe. Hegelund noticed how these companies started with one or two employees, and soon, they were adding new members to their teams, requiring more space than they could afford at that point in time. Therefore, his idea was to help young businesses acquire office spaces that they could use on a monthly basis for charges lower than the usual office rents.
Hegelund used the learning he acquired from Workaround to start Klingit. Similar to Workaround, Klingit had an unconventional business model right from the get-go. With the goal to leverage remote working to the fullest, Hegelund, along with the other founder Teddy Wold, created a tech company that wasn’t confined by boundaries.
“Working remotely is based on having result-oriented tasks, focusing on individual performance. It can definitely be effective, but we are all usually in the long run dependent on having some kind of context” – Rikard Hegelund
Klingit caters to the design needs of organisations of all sizes and industries, with staff from every corner of the world. It received booming applause during the pandemic when it provided job opportunities to professionals globally with the flexibility of working from home. Hegelund believes that offering flexibility and allowing the employees to work from the comfort of their homes can help businesses flourish.
While the company promises projects to be delivered within 24 to 48 hours of being initiated, its workforce is not expected to work all the time. The secret behind Klingit’s quick service and shorter turnaround time is that it employs competent professionals from all around the globe who can work in different time zones. The benefit of this is that this makes its services available 24/7 without its workforce getting overworked and burnt out. Furthermore, it also gives the business the freedom to hire the very best professionals in their respective fields from anywhere in the world while eliminating any potential discrimination that may be involved in the traditional recruiting processes. After all, their approach is purely merit-based, which removes barriers that professionals encounter, like age, gender, or race.
Rikard Hegelund and Teddy Wold have somehow mastered how remote businesses operate in the new normal. Klingit is among the leading companies operating in Stockholm, and it is planning to expand its horizons further. Presently, Hegelund is adding other digital marketing services to Klingit’s list of operations. However, their success is imminent, given that they aren’t distracted by demographic limitations that most companies have to ponder upon. So, it’s safe to say that the world is their arena, and they are willing to hire people from anywhere.
