In its drive of shaping future leaders, the Graduate School of Business and Leadership (GSB&L) in partnership with Nedbank recently hosted a business breakfast themed: “Business of the Future: Driving Growth through great people practices and with Business Model Innovation”.

The breakfast meeting saw UKZN alumni and Managing Executive of Nedbank’s Retail Branch network in South Africa, Dr David Schwegmann delivered a presentation on this theme to business professionals, MBA students and GSB&L’s academics who attended the event.

Through his presentation, Schwegmann took the audience on a journey of Nedbank’s leadership strategies that ensures that the bank retains quality staff, enhance their client orientation and achieve flawless execution in their strategies.

‘Business is about people and good leadership. Therefore, you have to create a clear picture of the future of your company and once that is done, you put strategies in place and get feedback from everyone involved to ensure that you achieve that vision. Hopefully there will be practices that you will hear today that you will take back and implement in your business,’ said Schwegmann.

GSB&L academic, Dr Emmanuel Mutambara said the breakfast meeting is an indication that it is no longer ‘business as usual’ for the business school as it has an ambit to produce ethical leaders who are abreast of developments in the industry.

‘GSB&L’s main thrust is to partner with the business world and such collaborations ensure that we are aligned with the developments in the industry to ensure that the School contributes to providing solutions to the challenges facing the businesses,’ he said.

To ensure that the audience was part of the conversation, Nedbank’s marketing team created a digital forum where people can login with details SMSed to their cellphones on a webpage specifically designed for the event and share their insights and have Dr Schwegmann personally respond to their questions.

Thandiwe Jumo