The first thing we did back in March 2020 when the pandemic got serious was obvious: We closed our offices and carried on with our day-to-day business virtually. It went off without any hitches. We instituted a daily 30-minute “water cooler” call on which we connected, covering personal subjects (who cooked what, watched what, got engaged, went to the dentist, etc.) and business matters (work in progress, deliverables, etc.) The team continued to feel connected.

By Maxwell Chalkin, Chief Digital Officer and Senior Project Manager

Looking back to the start of 2020, we had no idea what this year would bring. (And, boy, was it a doozy!)

It’s a funny thing being a creative marketing and communications agency: our clients hire us for our ideas. As fun as it is to be creative, it can be a lot of pressure to know that the bills only get paid when the ideas are good. After all, creativity flows most freely when the livin’ is easy! So, how do we keep the creative juices flowing despite the challenge of having to be creative on demand?

Most people would agree, there is no silver bullet for promoting a culture of engagement and enthusiasm at work. Large companies (and some medium-sized ones) often have some sort of employee engagement program spearheaded by Human Resources (with varying results!). But what’s a company on the smaller side to do?

In celebration of our 25th year in business, President and CEO Hillary Kelbick reflects on some of the challenges and satisfactions of leading MKP through the years.

You mentioned that MKP started out with some major successes against much larger firms. How did you manage that?