Tag: diversity

South Africans have a treasure trove of stories from the past that tell of historical struggles and majestic discoveries. Ethnic separatism in a multicultural society has always been an oxymoron, and today we get to celebrate and build on our unity and diversity across cultures, borders, and language barriers.

What you don’t measure, you don’t achieve. It is the reality in just about every organisation. However, despite the progress in gender equality over the years, issues of gender mainstreaming in the workplace are still commonly seen as a sundry matter – and this needs to change.

For millions around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused immense workplace disruption and compelled many companies to reassess how they do business. By this time last year, about 50% of the South African workforce was working from home, while globally, this number was up to 76%.

As leaders, one of our biggest fears is no longer having a meaningful role to play in our organisations. For many business leaders, the fear of obsoletion can be crippling, especially when it comes to the vital process of succession planning.

Humans create ideas and technology helps us share them. Finding a team that can marry the two, will give any brand a competitive edge. The human behind the tech always has to ensure that their ideas are culturally relevant to the audience and that the tech used is accessible to their market.

South African brands have experienced several marketing blunders over the years, with the recent haircare brand catastrophe gaining considerable international attention on the back of consumer uproar and political party protests.

I asked the only woman to have made it to the senior ranks of a leading bank to what she attributed her success. “I was fortunate,” she said. “The bank hired a coach to teach me how to act and react like a man. I was even taught techniques to stop tears when I felt emotional.” Today this practice would be unacceptable, but the attitude still manifests in other ways.

PODCAST An interview with Alex Roberts, Regional Director, Sales and Operations, and Jessica Knight, Strategic Manager Product & Channel, CURA Software Solutions, and Dr Ivor Blumenthal,...

According to the Pew Research Centre, millennials have surpassed all other generations as the largest portion of the global workforce. This fact may be met with trepidation and discomfort from some Generation Xers (or baby boomers, as they are commonly known), who often assume millennials to be entitled, tough to manage, narcissistic, self-interested and an affront to the work ethic that is characteristic of the X generation (Gen-X).

Despite some organisations taking steps to boost the number of women at executive level, progress is still slow. The proportion of women to men in executive roles is still low, with only one female CEO among the JSE top 40 companies. These are some of the findings from PwC Executive Directors Practices Remuneration Report 2018.