2023’s award winners for CFO, CHRO, and CIO Awards respectively, were immersed in dynamic and robust conversation as part of a distinguished panel discussion at the 9th Annual Executive Women’s Event.
In an engaging panel at the 9th Annual Executive Women’s Event, top women executives discussed innovation, diversity and the unique challenges women face in the C-suite.
In an insightful panel discussion spearheaded by CFO South Africa’s content producer Jacqueline Maphala, Aneshree Naidoo, CFO at Webber Wentzel, Sharon Taylor, chief people and culture officer at Standard Bank and Dr Denisha Jairam-Owthar, CIO at the Council of Medical Schemes, all shared their triumphs and challenges in the C-suite.
The impact of innovation and diversity were the key drivers of conversation, as well as the nuances of the female experience in the corporate space. There was a very participatory energy in the air as audience members leapt to their feet to share in the conversation and contribute their own powerful testimonies as executives, mothers and women in business.
Jacqueline began by outlining the complex nature of the journey for women in the workplace, “Women leaders have to find ways to navigate things with agility, reshape structures, and drive innovation. We need to unpack how women make an impact through their leadership, how they show up and most importantly how they make their presence felt,” she said.
This requires seismic leadership to ensure that the industry is taking up meaningful space.
Aneshree emphasised that impact can also be seen in the final details and does not always have to be data-driven, “Even though impact is super important it does not show up in the numbers only but in the sustainability aspect,” she explains. Her stance is focused on the knock-on effect of exponential impact, “Exponential means doing one small thing that touches one person, who then touches another person. It is about the art of replication to create seismic impact,” she said.
With “Seismic Leadership” being the theme of the evening, Denisha reflected on the literal nature of making an impact and believes that something seismic can be felt forever: “It means a change. We can’t go backwards, we need to move forward for the better. Innovation, for me, is very cognitive. It is quick, it is reshaping and it is rethinking,” she added.
Moving forward is something that is very familiar to all the panellists as they have all innovated in their careers in some way. Even in the midst of resistance, their success was largely from sheer grit and driving excellence.
Sharon shared that their professional accomplishments as a team weren’t necessitated by the potential of accolades, but by doing what was best for the business in principle, “We did not see what we have done as super special, but when we talk to people out there in the industry, locally and internationally, we understand that we have achieved some things that other people in the world have not necessarily achieved,” she explained. These are the markers of naturally adding value, and reaping the rewards later.
The overall sentiment was that collaboration, diversity and intentional support will continue to drive sustainable innovation, “The sustainable aspect of seismic impact is at the forefront of all my decisions. We can’t think of anything in silos anymore, it all needs to be infused,” said Aneshree.
