Accountants gear up for VUCA world

Cape Town - Business leaders recently assembled at the Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) Africa Inaugural Conference at the Sandton Convention Centre.

The conference which was titled: Leading the way in a VUCA World. It attracted hundreds of business leaders who came to join forces in developing strategies that are fit for survival in a so-called VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) world.

The Association of International Certified Professional Accountants was at the forefront of this conference.

Andrew Harding (FCMA, CGMA) chief executive management accounting of the Association of International Certified Professional Accountants, said at the conference that these are currently are extraordinary times where business models must be designed differently.

"Strategic thinking is essential in order to develop business models that are designed for sustainability," he said.

"We face up to the big question: How do we prepare, adapt and lead our organisations in these extraordinary times?”

Regional vice president: Africa, management accounting Badibanga Promesse (FCMA, CGMA) said: “We are long past the days of sitting around boardroom tables in January to plan for the year ahead, because we will be disrupted in March.

All the political and economical 'shocks' that we have witnessed: the instability of the African economy, the South African cabinet reshuffle, the outcome of the US elections and Brexit; are substantial evidence to that. An on-the-go strategy is vital in order for us to be able to identify signals and be flexible in our approach.”

Jay Naidoo, founding general secretary of Cosatu and a minister in Nelson Mandela’s Cabinet, addressed delegates on the negative impact that corruption and unethical leadership has on the development of the nation.

“Imagine if the billions of rand that are being stolen could be used in redesigning and improving the quality of education, how much difference that would make to the future of our continent. We need to be bringing the bottom ones up, not taking the ones on top higher than they deserve to be,” said Naidoo.

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