Irish Innovation During Crisis

Alina Sidbrant

Local Group St. Petersburg

IRISH INNOVATION DURING CRISIS

An interview with Martin Casey, Managing Director at Arekibo Communications

How has COVID-19 crisis impacted the business at Arekibo?

COVID-19 has impacted businesses across the world and Ireland is no different. As our teams are based across the world, we were fortunate to have had advanced notice of its pending impact already by January, so we began planning and it all felt like an experiment - it was going to be useful to see how well we would cope and what could happen if everyone had to work from home -, however, I didn’t think it would happen as quickly or as severely as it did. When the experiment became a reality, we were prepared.

Thankfully, unlike many, we can work from home with all of our tools, systems, and data available in a cloud, which significantly reduced our operational concerns and allowed us to focus on the team and our clients. With the novelty of working from home gone, the team adapted well to this new scenario, which allowed us to focus on the well-being of the team and work hard to ensure that we can help everyone, as we transition from working from home in the summer to the winter. We have no plans to get the team back to the office and have no dates in mind. We will wait and see to ensure that nobody is at risk.

Our business has been impacted, but that was to be expected. This is the third time in my career that I have had to deal with significant economic changes: starting with the ‘Dot Com’ collapse in the early 2000’s, passing by the financial crash in 2008 and now COVID-19; these were all significant global events, but you get through them and we will get through this one. What was the most challenging part in this transition?

People are the core of every business and at Arekibo is no different, if your team is doing well, your business is probably doing well. From a personal perspective, I felt much more responsibility for our team’s well-being as COVID-19 has many similar effects to the other two crises with additional layers of anxiety, that are significant both from a personal and a family perspective.

Working from home was supposed to be temporary, but six months in, it seems to be turning permanent, and it’s getting harder. At first, we were focused on helping our team adjust but as every month brings new challenges, initiatives that worked during the first few months are becoming stale or harder to sustain. We are therefore continuously looking for new ways to engage with the team and this is probably the most challenging part of the transition for me. We have been talking about this as a team and we have encouraged everyone to check in regularly outside of talking about work. The team has embraced this and we can all recognise that everyone is tired and frustrated - the small things count and I would recommend you to focus on those.

On the flip side, from a business perspective, we know what we need, and we are doing this very well. Much like ourselves, our clients - which have been impacted in many different ways- also need more attention to make sure they are also getting through this. As a business we need to be looking for ways to be more helpful and supportive; thankfully this is in our DNA and the team just knows what they need to do, which has been wonderful to see!

What did businesses learn from COVID-19?

I have always liked the quote from Bruce Lee: the idea that you have to work in an office is no passes, many will return to their offices, but employees will look for alternatives to the old ways: they will want a balance - business will have

“In the middle of chaos lies opportunity”. This is forcing us to consider how we want to live our

pandemic has highlighted many areas where our business needs to focus on improving - as we look at these as opportunities as chances for improvement and streamlining, and not as a negative aspect.

One of the major benefits of COVID-19 is that it has given us back time, for instance, I have reduced the amount I travel - which sums up to a full day back every week to focus on these areas. We have looked across the business to assess our processes, technology and capabilities and have been actively working to make improvements to clients and across my peer group. We realised

these; exploring these new opportunities to see how they can benefit and strengthen the business and as well offer more value to our clients.

As COVID-19 has exposed the gaps and faults in a business, it has provided clarity on the priorities that need to be focused on. I am sure you have seen the articles on how COVID-19 has accelerated the business case for digital transformation. As an example, for our business, we have seen a significant increase in contact from organisations who need to improve their digital services. COVID-19 has exposed or validated the impact digital has in a business. Within days and weeks of lockdown your digital a greater impact on society and culture, which will have long-term implications for us all. Therefore, our primary focus.

maturity was evident to your management, your teams and your customers.

What do you think future going out of COVID-19 holds?

In just six months, COVID-19 has fundamentally changed how people think about running businesses, not to mention the impact on our personal lives, on employees, customers, and partners. Some of these changes are seismic, longer true. There is no doubt that once COVID-19 to embrace this in order not to lose great people.

For students, fresh out of college, these times are terrifying as it seems like your options have been significantly restricted, which is true for the short term. You may be forced to move back home and put your plans on hold, however, COVID-19 lives - and this is a good thing as you begin to plan your career. The progressive and forwardthinking businesses have embraced the idea that their teams can work anywhere, which will bring new opportunities that can result in benefits for your career and for future generations.

COVID-19 has also accelerated innovation across many sectors and will increase entrepreneurship - which can already be seen in our team, our we need to keep moving and deal with the reality, and are now looking at things differently and having embraced the idea of evolution. We cannot stand still and wait for it to get better as nobody knows when that will be – eventually it will, and until then it is important that we embrace the opportunity and take advantage of the situation. My experience is that you can never be comfortable and three recessions in 20 years proves this.

My perspective here is focused on the business side, but COVID-19 has and will continue to have anything our business can do to help our team and our clients - and everyone’s families - will be as this has challenged everything, for instance,