Today we’re talking to Ruth Kieran, CEO of Cirkle, about how an independent firm like Cirkle has coped and responded to the Covid-19 crisis so far.

Here’s a summary of what Ruth and I discussed:

• How has the Covid-19 pandemic impacted the business?     
• How the crisis has been very specific in the way it has impacted firms. For example, Cirkle has a lot of food and drink clients including Morrisons and Cafe Nero. Morrisons is extremely busy and Cafe Nero obviously had to shut all of its stores.      
• Ruth talks about the pressures of constantly having to review and re-scope work.     
• How many in-house comms teams are run off their feet at the moment.     
• How Cirkle has on-boarded clients since the lockdown began.     
• How Ruth and her senior colleagues prepared Cirkle for the lockdown in the days and weeks beforehand.     
• Why all firms need a good IT expert.      
• What Cirkle is doing to look after its employees in this working-from-home environment era.     
• Why do we all turn up to a Zoom call on time, but not to a physical meeting?     
• Whether Cirkle has furloughed any staff?     
• Why long-term planning and a rigid approach doesn’t work in this environment.     
• How client KPIs and objectives have changed since the lockdown started.     
• How has Ruth adapted and changed her own leadership style since the Covid-19 crisis kicked off?       
• The importance of empathy and kindness in business currently.     
• How Cirkle is preparing for the return of its employees to the office.     
• How working remotely can impact the culture of a business.