MANCOSA hosted a business breakfast at the Hilton Hotel, Sandton recently aimed at initiating dialogue on leadership and finance.
The theme of the breakfast was the Global Economic Climate and its impact on South Africa and leadership. The event was a stakeholder engagement initiative aimed at creating the platform for interrogating topical issues among our stakeholders. Guests included alumni, academics, business leaders and public sector representatives.
Dr Martin Davies, the Chief Executive Officer of Frontier Advisory led discussions focusing on the financial perspective. His topic of titled: The World, Africa and South Africa – Why South Africa now Has to Work to Grow presented a snapshot of the how global economic activities has impacted on South Africa.
Dr Davies informed guests that while South Africa had seen growth in certain areas of its economy, overall growth rates has been slow. He was of the view that South Africa was on the brink of experiencing a dire economic climate and had to work really hard to see economic benefits in the country.
Speaking on leadership was Mr Deprose Muchena, the Director of Amnesty International (Southern Africa) who discussed the topic of Building a culture of Leadership in challenging times. He provided an insight of leadership challenges in South Africa especially under tough economic times.
Mr Muchena advised guests on the leadership strategies to adopt under challenging circumstances and indicated that good leadership entailed more than just undertaking a set of managerial tasks. He said leadership was about leading and inspiring your personnel to perform optimally and go beyond the requisite duties they needed to undertake.
Guests participating in the question and answer session commended MANCOSA for hosting an event that presented the opportunity to discuss and debate relevant issues that affected the country. They were appreciative of the fact that stakeholders from the academic, private and public sector converged to explore important economic and leadership matters.