A day at the desk with Rasmus
Rasmus Christjansen, Senior Partner
It’s always a pleasure chatting with Rasmus, one of our senior partners, as he brings so much energy to the Malmö studio! Today he shared a bit about his transition from Nokia to Frankly and how it feels to transition from an employee to co-owner of a large company.
Hey Rasmus, so what were you doing before you came to work at Frankly?
I was working at Nokia mobile phones in Copenhagen, I started there in 1998 as a mechanical designer in the beginning and then slowly moved to project leader. Then in engineering management with personnel and project responsibility, before switching back to the tech side as a senior specialist within new tech and manufacturability. The Nokia 3310 was my first project at Nokia; as a mechanical designer I did a lot of the parts. Morten was the mechanical project leader and he participated in hiring me. So that phone has a special place in my heart, it was super fun and challenging. I learned a lot and spent a lot of time in Asia and Finland working on that for almost two years. It was awesome, I loved it! You don’t stay at a place for that many years if you don’t love it.
What is your job title and what does your role at Frankly entail?
That’s a good question! I’m a senior partner along with Claes and Christian and my work consists of leading projects with clients, different projects simultaneously. Also helping Claes run the office along with new business development, handling supply chain management and some sales.
What do you find to be the biggest difference in your daily experience now and before you worked at Frankly?
At Nokia I was an employee and at Frankly, well it’s my own company and thats a big difference. You have to run a company and learn alot about how to do that. There’s a steep learning curve and there’s a lot of responsibility and skill needed; luckily I’m not alone. We have responsibility for more than 30 people and their well-being and salaries and that they enjoy the work — providing an exciting and fun environment that they want to be in.
What do you find to be an important factor in your work environment?
Fun! Engaged people. One of the reasons I was at Nokia for so long was that it was fun and engaging. I hope we can replicate that for our employees — that it’s the place to be, where the cool kids hang doing great work and where we can develop as people and engineers and thrive in this environment. That is what makes me come to work every day. I need to have fun, otherwise I don’t want to go.
What’s something you can’t live without on your desk every day, that contributes to your job?
Coffee and then a little bit more coffee. It contributes to my work. Then, not on my desk but, I need people around me. I thrive in an open office space opposed to working alone.
