Essence

Day two of the conference started with the same vigour as day one and although the entire program was captivating, the highlight for me was the talk by Dr Brand Pretorius who is the former CEO of Toyota SA Marketing and McCarthy Limited and currently the Director of many listed companies. He spoke about the Guidelines  for business success in a rapidly changing South Africa.

He said that to be able to be successful in business, one needs to take cognisance of the following.

• embrace change
• Be socially responsible
• Be the best in leadership
• Embrace empowerment
• Keep in lines of principles
• behave with integrity within our businesses
• be the best in innovation
•  be the best in marketing and sales
• be the best in customer satisfaction and retention

He shared his key lessons he learnt through his journey and said that

• if you want to lead others you must have the ability to lead yourself.
• Leadership is about influence, the ability to influence is one that needs to be earned. He went on to say that it is important to set the right example and deliver the results.
• You need to understand management, therefore learning how to execute effectively is important.
•  One needs to develop their your own authentic leadership
• Only ethical leadership can translate to effective integrity
• Learn to translate vision into reality

Dr Pretorius made an interesting quote by Mandela, “I am not here to lead, I am here to serve. This quote rings so true. In the business and work environment so many managers fail in their role, instead of seeing their role as an opportunity to lead by example which brings  trust and respect, they opt for a more dictatorial approach.

After all that has been said and done, the day brought about topics that will assist not only for moving forward in an economy that is rapidly changing.

 

 

PHOTO  AND VIDEO CREDIT : DIGIN PHOTOGRAPHER

 

 

The Durban International Conference Centre set the stage for the first of the six day Essence festival. Eager and ready to learn more about what the international business arena I made my way there with an open mind and thirsty for knowledge.

The Welcome Address was done  by Her Worship, the Mayor Cllr Zandile Gumede who said that the reason “we hosting Essence in Durban is because of sister city partnership with city of New Orleans in the US. This festival is about cultural exchanges through creative arts and it is also about knowledge exchange on how to develop small businesses. As the result of that partnership, the city of Durban decided to consolidate that partnership with City of New Orleans by identifying other platforms that could be of mutual benefit in terms cultural exchange. We looking at knowledge exchange in terms of Small business development”.

Some of the knowledgable speakers that shared the stage on day one were

• Ms Ipeleng Mkhari who is the Chief Executive Officer  of Motseng Investment holdings.
• Mr Aubrey Stone who is from the California Chamber of Commerce.
• Ms Jackie Wright from Enterprises USA
• Ron Busby who is the President of the US Black Chambers, Inc

The first day of the Essence Festival Business conference proved to be enlightening for all in attendance, with many women saying that the Essence Festival in Durban is exactly what was needed to form a steady bridge between the two countries.

Success? Yes so now all  thats left is for more knowledge to be shared on day two at the Essence Festival in Durban.

 

PHOTO CREDIT : LUNGILE MAQUBA PHOTOGRAPHY

VIDEO CREDIT : DIGIN PHOTOGRAPHY