Lehan encourages leadership to provide guidance to their teams in order to triumph over new challenges.
“As South Africans who chose to remain in the country, we have experienced many adverse events, including the unemployment fallout since the global financial crisis, Nenegate, day-zero in Cape Town, Covid-19 and now unprecedented levels of loadshedding and water issues,” says Ecentric Payment Systems CFO Lehan le Grange.
Inflation is a big problem for many businesses at the moment, especially in tech, he explains. “Not only are Eskom tariffs increasing, but skilled resources are becoming scarcer as well, driving up their cost. The margin squeeze will definitely impact the business adversely in the short and medium term, but we remain hopeful that the tailwinds of economic growth and consumer confidence will make up for this in the coming years, once the energy grid is stabilised.”
An optimist at heart, like many South Africans facing the challenges in front of us right now, Lehan encourages other CFOs to make 2023 a better year.
“We have risen to become leaders during this time, despite the external circumstances, and we are trusted by our peers and followers to provide guidance through dark times – excuse the pun.”
He explains that CFOs’ and other business leaders’ task this year should not be to criticise and bemoan the challenges we face, but rather to lead and inspire their teams in order to triumph over yet another mixture of socio-economic challenges.
