CFOs seize the opportunity to Get Smart: Collaborate
Execs who attended the Get Smart summit agreed that people collaborate better with trust, support and a collective vision.
CFO South Africa, in partnership with SAP Concur, hosted the Get Smart summit on 21 February at Summer Place. Some of South Africa’s leading CFOs and CHROs explored how executives stay relevant and adapt to change, and collaborate to tap potential and accelerate performance.
The OMG CEO Mqondisi Gumede kicked off the event with his famous “Think BIG” talk, giving the example of a big sporting company that marketed to its customer base, believing they wanted to crush the competition and winners, when in fact they were training to look good in a “little black dress”.
“All that boxing, yoga, sweat and tears wasn’t for the Comrades or the Half Iron Man. It was to look good in a cocktail dress. It shook everyone at the sporting goods manufacturer to the core. It was a stunning reversal of what they thought they were providing to the customer.”
Mqondisi pointed out that even though some of the things that human beings do aren’t always rational, they are completely predictable if you put enough time into assessing them correctly.
The attendees then split into three groups and rotated through three breakaway sessions.
TransUnion Africa CEO Lee Naik shared in one of these breakaway sessions how, when he took up the role two years ago, after a 19-year career at Accenture, he took his consultancy learnings and applied them to the business he was now heading up. He broke his direction down into three key points:
• Create a vision that people can believe in. Close your eyes and think what “good” looks like. If you
can’t articulate that, no one will follow you.
• Gain a followership by sharing the vision. Identify the yesses and double down on them. Make the changes to the nos immediately.
• Use leverage to extend your existing base of yesses to deliver on your vision. They can’t do it alone.
Peregrine Holdings CEO Rob Katz hosted another session in which he spoke about how getting people across diverse teams and cultures to collaborate is extremely hard.
“My own experience of dealing with people is that they will surprise you on the upside and the downside, but most people are average and you have to understand how to get the best out of them.”
He said that once people are secure in their jobs, you can work with them across jurisdictions and cultures.
EOH group finance director Megan Pydigadu spoke about the importance of collaboration in the remaining session.
“You need to have transparency and trust. People need to know that you are sharing information with them and that they are trusted, and understand how they fit into the bigger picture.”
Megan holds weekly or monthly team meetings with people represented by different functional areas. “People get to learn how everyone is fitting into the bigger picture and how what others do might impact on their work. It sparks impact and discussions and encourages richer decision-making processes throughout the organisation.”
The evening was brought to a close by Henley Business School dean Jon Foster-Pedley, who praised Lee, Rob and Megan’s exceptional insight. He encouraged their audiences to discuss how these could be applied in their own workplaces.