CILLIAN McCARTHY
Cillian McCarthy is CEO of Cadoo, which integrates SMS and payments to collect outstanding debt from customers.
T he pandemic has made us all look at things from a different perspective. We are seeing a better work/life balance with less travelling, which has positively impacted employee morale. Personally, the pandemic gave me some more time to catch up and reassess the business direction. We now have a clear vision and a great team to get us there.
On the business front, we have seen increased adoption of our SMS marketing and electronic payments solution. During the pandemic, consumers moved dramatically towards online channels, and this helped our business grow substantially. Since in-person meetings are very limited, communicating and receiving payments through electronic means have never been more important for businesses.
I believe the trading environment is stable at the minute. Covid threw a wrench in the works in terms of new projects and business, and sometimes it is difficult to put together proposals and projects when teams are dispersed. However, on the flip side, the pandemic accelerated the pace of digital transformation and the transition to online and digital experiences. In terms of the general economic performance, we are seeing very positive signs for 2022.
On a personal level, we spent some time in Majorca in 2021, which is always beautiful, and we have plans to have our delayed honeymoon to Mexico in February. Fingers crossed, it can go ahead this time!