Robert Crosby-Clarke, Commercial Director, Electrolube

2021 was a challenging year. The Covid-19 pandemic impacted our company and all of us individually, highlighting the vulnerability of our workplace systems and our socio-economic environment, as well as underlining the need to accelerate our agenda toward corporate social responsibility and global sustainability. However, this was also an opportunity to evaluate our internal processes, improve our ability to respond to new challenges, and strengthen our employee teamwork and spirit.

With the changing environment, our customer base shifted from traditional marketing events to online virtual events and social media. We saw movement away from tradeshows, brochures and sell sheets and towards digital footprints. We worked closely with our customers and strengthened our digital services to focus on content creation for websites and virtual events.

2021 also marked the end of working in an office environment in favor of virtual home offices. That shift necessitated new company policies, software implementation, office equipment and frequent virtual team meetings and events to ensure a strong team atmosphere. We successfully made significant work environment changes while delivering superior value to our customers.

In 2021, we also saw the need to become more involved in the communities where we operate. We encouraged employees to volunteer and/or donate at food banks, and we supported multiple nonprofit agencies including Think Together, an after-school program that delivers educational opportunities to underserved children. This program delivered computers, tablets, and WiFi services to low-income families, supporting under privileged school children who were forced to attend school remotely from their homes.

In 2022, we will continue to focus our strategic framework around our three strategic business units (360Circuits, Animazed Studios and 360Civic), while continuing to enhance our relationships with key business partners and local community programs.