Celebrating 30 years of Fotoware’s culture and values

The early days: People at the core

In the beginning, Fotoware was just a small team driven by a shared vision. Founders Ole Christian and Anders understood that their ability to identify and address gaps in the market by offering modern, cost-effective solutions helped drive Fotoware’s success early on. To craft software that truly addressed the needs of their users, primarily newspapers, journalists, and media professionals in the early days, they needed more than just technical expertise - they needed a dedicated team that shared this vision of helping people to make more out of their images and their image workflows.

Read more: Three decades of driving change - Interview with co-founder Ole Christian Frenning

The founders believed that everyone in the team should have a voice in shaping the company’s direction, and decision-making has thus always been a team effort. This collaborative approach fostered a company culture based on trust and mutual respect. Employees were encouraged to bring their ideas to the table, knowing their contributions would be heard and valued. In these early days, innovation wasn’t just a goal, but an intrinsic motivation.

Long-term thinking and sustainability

People at Fotoware have always demonstrated a clear focus on building solutions that would stand the test of time - and this sustainable decision-making philosophy has been a key factor in the company's enduring success. Choosing to prioritize quality and long-term stability has helped Fotoware establish a reputation for reliability - something that continues to resonate with customers today. Careful, deliberate decisions ensure that every solution is built to meet real-world needs, both now and in the future.

Balancing innovation with responsibility

Innovation has always been a cornerstone of Fotoware's culture, but never at the cost of reliability or customer satisfaction. Throughout the years, the team consistently pushed the boundaries of what their software could achieve while remaining deeply committed to the needs of their users.

In this way, Fotoware solutions serve the needs of a variety of very different industries today – from media to museums, healthcare to law enforcement, to energy, retail, and manufacturing, and even a few royal families around the world.

Understanding how to balance creative solutions, intuition for market trends, and responsible execution is possible due to decades of image management experience and deep industry knowledge. By getting the big decisions right, the company ensures that customers receive not only cutting-edge software but also dependable, user-friendly tools that integrate seamlessly into their technology environment.

Read more: 30 years of DAM - Fotoware employees reflect on the journey

Empowerment and trust

Central to Fotoware’s company culture is the belief in giving autonomy and empowering its employees. From the earliest days, the leadership team placed a strong emphasis on trust - trusting that the right people would make the best decisions for the company and its customers.

This empowerment has created a culture of ownership and innovation, where employees are encouraged to explore new ideas and take initiative, contributing to the evolution of Fotoware's products and services.

Living our values

Current CEO, Anne Gretland, has formalized these values that have been living on over the last 30 years. In 2018, in collaboration with the entire Fotoware team, these aspects of Fotoware’s culture were discussed and set as four core values: Responsible, Passionate, Caring, and Innovative. They have always guided decision-making processes and shaped the company's approach to growth, innovation, and customer relationships, and will continue to do so.