South Africa’s leading CIOs, CFOs, and CHROs gathered at the elite Marble restaurant in Rosebank on 11 October for Executive Day, an interactive executive gathering that united leaders under the theme, Boardroom IQ – the conversation today’s C-suite needs to have.
South Africa’s leading CIOs, CFOs, and CHROs gathered at the elite Marble restaurant in Rosebank on 11 October for Executive Day, an interactive executive gathering that united leaders under the theme, Boardroom IQ – the conversation today’s C-suite needs to have.
The full-day event featured a jam-packed programme, which kicked off with Chuck Robbins, the chairperson and global CEO of Cisco, sharing valuable insights on the role of what was termed the tripartite alliance of CIOs, CFOs and CHROs.
Chuck, who is also a member of the US Business Roundtable, emphasised the importance of transparency, authenticity, and the need for executives to have a voice within corporate structures.
Chuck highlighted prevailing perceptions in the C-suite, including the belief that CIOs don’t do enough, CFOs are excessively cost-conscious, and CHROs lack concern. He encouraged CFOs to reconsider viewing IT as a cost centre and to focus on strategic technology resource allocation.
Unathi Thosago, group CTO for Adcorp, highlighted the tendency for companies to rely on spreadsheets for cost management, particularly during times of cost-cutting.
“The problem with CFOs is that it’s inherent in them to do cost control. Companies run from a cost sheet. IT is the biggest expense. So at a time of cost-cutting, that’s where they come to. They come with a spreadsheet and you have to abide by that spreadsheet,” she said.
Situational awareness took centre stage when Brenden Pienaar, founder of Lowveld Trails Company, shared a captivating story about an encounter with an African buffalo. He underscored the importance of vigilance, not only in the external world, but also within organisations, pointing out the need for effective communication and teamwork.
Dieter Veldsman, chief scientist at the Academy of Innovate HR, addressed the shift toward a skills-based approach in managing the workforce and pointed out the need to deconstruct traditional roles and focus on skills.
Global strategist Abdullah Verachia led an interactive exercise called the World Cafe, challenging executives to understand their colleagues’ priorities and challenges, fostering effective collaboration.
Protecting the margin
A riveting panel discussion titled Learning to Speak My Language featured Nikos Angelopoulos, group CIO at MTN, Charl Keyter, group CFO for Sibanye Stillwater, and S’ne Magagula, group CHRO at Tiger Brands.
Charl referred to the earlier conversation about “death by spreadsheets” and noted the need for businesses to maintain a commercial approach, emphasising the importance of balancing income and expenses, even in non-profit organisations.
“With all the best will in the world, if you don’t have money coming into the business, to pay people and invest in infrastructure, then you have nothing,” he said.
He also suggested a language update for finance departments to improve their image, proposing alternative terminology like “protecting the margin” instead of “budget cuts”.
And, he said, even that doesn’t paint the full picture of finance’s role. “I am protecting the margin, but I am also protecting the jobs for 85,000 people. And in South Africa, we say that 10 people outside of our business rely on the income of each of those employees. So we’re indirectly looking after 850,000 people, which is 1.5 percent of the country. It’s all social responsibility.”
With reference to key HR and IT focus areas, Charl noted the constant need for executives to ask why and hold stakeholders accountable for the outcomes.
“Why are we investing in cloud, or in an EVP? If you say the cloud is going to save us money, I will hold you to that. If you say that the EVP will result in more motivated staff, and attract people from other industries, I am going to hold you to it,” he explained.
The event ended on a positive note with inspiring talks on achieving success through resilience by Richard Sutton, director at SuttonHealth, and a post-match analysis of the 2023 Executive Day by Dayalan Govender, partner at PwC.
Executive Day was made possible with support from key partners, including Entelect, EOH, Liquid Intelligent Technologies South Africa, MakwaIT Technologies, Mercer Africa, OneStream Software, PwC South Africa, Sanlam, Workday, BCX, and BDO South Africa.
