#LWS2021: Panel- Flexible Options And Agility Champions To Fuel Culture Change In The C-Suite

Published 3 years ago
Young businesswoman walking with digital tablet at coworking

At the 2021 FORBES WOMAN AFRICA Leading Women Summit held as a virtual event on March 8 and 9, the panelists that converged for the discussion, ‘Agility And Flexibility: Culture Change In The C-Suite’, dwelt on the new needs and challenges of a pandemic-ridden world and what will set apart organizations that will be the big winners of the future. Surveys prove that this agility is now paying off in improved productivity. Companies that are customer-focused, people-driven, tech-enabled, and flexible are the ‛agility champions’, according to PwC. Shirley Machaba, CEO of PwC Southern Africa, on of the panelists, expounded on some of these points.  

She was joined from Kigali by Clare Akamanzi, CEO of the Rwanda Development Board, as well as Eva Mattheeussen, Head of Human Resources at DHL Global Forwarding, Middle East and Africa; and Sheikha Hend Faisal Al Qassimi, an Emirati businesswoman, author and artist from the UAE. The diverse panel looked at ways to redraft company work ethics to embrace sustainable business practices as a must for future success. “Unfortunately, women are always being overlooked, whether they deliver or not. This is why women have to work twice as hard… You have to give women milestones, and you have to see them achieving those milestones. And a lot of women are achieving those milestones because they’re used to multi-tasking. This is their second nature,” observed Faisal Al Qassimi on the panel.