Venture capitalist, entrepreneur and public speaker extraordinaire Vusi Thembekwayo has earned plaudits (including from the likes of Nelson Mandela) and enthralled audiences all over the world with his lessons from the public speaking pulpit, which began when he was a teenager. He did not disappoint when opening Finance Indaba 2016 and earned himself a legion of new fans in the process.
- FinTech Africa | 14 March 2017 | Future of Payments Event | REGISTER NOW
In a lively, impassioned speech to the more than 2000 finance professionals in attendance at the time, Vusi covered the history of disruption, from the earliest days of man to today's whirlwind of technological innovation, and related it to how the business landscape of South Africa had been shaped by its painful past. He also looked at examples of leading multinationals that had gone awry because of their inability to adapt, while peppering his talk with his trademark humour and incisive wit.
"All companies started at startups, but eventually get ran by managers without a corporate memory of the early days. When the blip happens, do you keep doing what you always did? Then you will die, I don't care how long it takes. Will you go to finance and try to make the company more efficient? You can succeed, but you won't grow. Or will you do the most difficult thing: innovate and build a business for the future?"
The Finance Indaba is the biggest annual event on the continent for financial managers and specialists who are seeking partnerships to drive progress. Thousands of delegates will gain valuable insights into realising financial performance and growth, becoming more efficient and accessing funding, among a host of other opportunities from leading players in financial services.