How change management was employed during a large transformation project to challenge the status quo and get people to embrace a new way of work that resulted in exciting new solutions and amazing business benefits.

Gershon is passionate about data and the benefit that organisations can derive from properly harnessing it. He started his 20+ year career in IT fixing computers and today has successfully led a major transformation project that moved from a traditional relational database to a big data implementation that has resulted in a major benefit to the organisation. Through his career, he has utilised tools such as Microsoft SQL, Hadoop, Cognos, PowerBI and Tableau to build a multitude of solutions across many industries including Financial Services, Pharmaceutical, Telecoms, Consulting, Entertainment and Manufacturing. Gershon has a Bachelor of Science (majoring in Computer Science), Master of Business Administration (MBA) degrees and a number of industry-related certifications.

Why is it so hard for us to change? Why do we all start the new year with great resolutions that will make our life so much better, but by February we've forgotten all about them?! This fun, interactive and thought-provoking talk explains the neuroscience behind change - how our brains form thinking patterns that can keep us stuck at a certain level of performance. And leaves people inspired to use some new ways of communicating with themselves and others that can lead to sustainable development and higher performance levels for greater engagement and efficacy in the workplace.

· Why do business cases fail? Core reasons
· Steps to develop a strong business case
· Tracking phases for your business case to implementation
· Dynamic business case development for you and your business

Pragashani Reddy is the current Head of Enablement (Programme Office) in Client Coverage, Standard Bank CIB for non-bank financial institutions (NBFI) for South Africa and the rest of Africa. She has a vast and varied career history, backed by undergraduate and post graduate degrees in Commerce to MBA level. in addition, she is Six Sigma certified. Her background in terms of work experience has spanned from product development, product management, operations management, process engineering, management consulting, project management, sales, marketing and communications management, and strategy development.

She has successfully developed and launched several products in the banking and financial sector, some of which include the MySchool Card, Travel Card - the first card based Travellers Cheque, Money24 Investment Account and Individual online share trading.

Case study: Sea coast

Multinationals struggling to develop business in Africa despite huge promising potential on the short time always face the pressure of profit over business development. How to balance the two over time? Having the right business model is the critical recipe for success. How to customize and have a workable balanced approach to development of Route To Market, Product relevant to locals, Local organization structure , and supply chain.

Business Development professional with over 20 years of experience in developing & implementing successful sales. Marketing, Customer service and operations strategies.Expert at Localizing Global Strategic plans and transforming them into tactical Initiatives.Adept at designing and executing effective Sales & Marketing strategies to optimize market opportunities.Implemented Brand awareness strategy through Channel development of Smaller Shop In Shop format of Stores instead of Brand Stores or Brand Experience centers.

Offers Innovative solutions to Operational Challenges. Leverages decisiveness to implement solutions. Initiated and Drive alignment meeting between cross functional team members composed of Product, Supply chain, Sales and marketing at Region and Local levels.

Acknowledged for people capability development. Apply experience and emerging best practice to grow associates and development skilled talent pipeline to sustain medium and long term business growth strategies.

Case study: Sea coast

How Data Virtualization can improve Business processes with real life project scenario

Nicky is a Principal Consultant with over 29 years’ experience across the Financial Services, Medical Insurance and Consulting sectors. She has fulfilled several roles over her career which include Enterprise Analyst, Senior Business Analyst, Systems Co-Ordinator / Team Lead, and Account Manager.

As a Senior Business Analyst, she was accountable for analysing, optimising, testing and implementing end-to-end enterprise business processes as part of multi-skilled teams for a large Retail Bank. She has interacted with the business community at all levels, from facilitating design workshops and conducting end user training to leading presentations to executive management.

Nicky has fulfilled many core functions across various projects. Some of the more relevant capabilities include: Problem identification, root cause analysis, alternative solutions evaluation and recommendations; Business requirements gathering, business, systems and data analysis and documentation; Design processes and management of functional specifications development, data integrity, prototype and solution development and implementation; Relationship management with business across all levels.

Nicky recently joined Hoonar Tekwurks Consulting LLP as Principal Consultant after understanding the growing business requirement for data solutions within the south African market and opted to work for a Company that offered the best of breed solutions that would address this.

How to create a modern sourcing model to recruit the best talent for your business whilst not losing focus of critical areas in recruitment that can never be automated.

Ali Moroane is Head of Talent Planning & Executive Staffing at Sasol – an international integrated chemicals and energy company that leverages technologies and the expertise of more than 31 270 people working in 32 countries. A globally admired petrochemical giant, Sasol’s string of accolades include being the number 1 Top Employer for the Chemicals and Energy industry sectors in South Africa (as per official 2020 certification and rankings by the Top Employers Institute) and also number 1 Best Employer Brand on LinkedIn in South Africa (as certified at the 2019 LinkedIn Talent Awards), to mention but a few.

As a member of Sasol’s Centre of Expertise (CoE) for Human Resources, Ali’s role entails among others strategy formulation, business enablement and governance for talent sourcing, recruitment, onboarding and systems for these processes.

Ali’s 16 years’ talent management experience is backed by a BCom degree specialising in Human Resource Management from the University of Pretoria, and a Postgraduate Diploma in Management in the field of Digital Business from Wits Business School.

Let’s examine the role of the CEO/MD, senior leaders and the critical middle management. Without the absolute recognition of the need for change, support and sponsorship of the CEO, the transformation will be challenged before it gets off the ground. The case for change has to be championed by the collective Senior Leadership and consistently messaged through every phase of the transformation, including landing it post implementation. The middle management must be brought on the journey very early, they are catalysts, implementers and critical messengers, we need ensure the case for change is clearly understood and that they are empowered to articulate the same.

Nerisha joined Mars as the People & Organisation Director in 2017, having extensive experience within the HR function that spans over 20 years. Prior to working for Mars, Nerisha’s experience includes working within FMCG, Manufacturing and Retail sectors for companies such as AfriSam and Pick n Pay.

Nerisha has been applauded for her business insights and constantly pushing the status quo by her industry counterparts. Her unconventional thinking and creative methods of solving business challenges such as talent swarming have seen her on prominent industry panels like HR Indaba Africa, LeaderEx, L& D Conferences and many more.

Nerisha is renowned for formulating workforce strategies by building collaborative relationships and creating agile, future-ready organisations to meet business goals. Her key deliverables include leading business-wide strategic change initiatives and transformations, building a robust talent pipeline with a clear succession plan, incorporating insights to derive fit for purpose learning solutions within the business and driving a culture of learning and development.

Nerisha is passionate about People development, particularly Women empowerment prompting her to speak to women from diverse backgrounds on their role in the World of Work, driving personal agility and resilience.

Nerisha studied at the University of Natal (Durban) and has a B. Social Science as well as an Honours in Personnel Management. Nerisha also studied Retail and HR Management at Technikon SA during her time with Pick n Pay.

In her spare time, she loves being with her family, reading inspirational books and watching documentaries.

The 4IR is the marathon that we all find ourselves running, whether by choice or not. The current world of work is already in the future and demanding a lot of digital fitness from HR Professionals and the workforce that is expected to be the end user of such technology. The digital dynamics pushes all corporate individuals to always upskill themselves on subjects like Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Predictive Analysis, Machine Learning, Internet of Things (IoT), Hybrid Cloud, Data Analytics and Security, etc. The investment for such is costly but wait until you see what ignorance will and can cost you!

HR Professional with vast experience in various industries like ICT, Telecommunications, Healthcare, Mining, Manufacturing, Consulting and Insurance. Holds various Post Graduate qualifications and always upskill herself though short programs.

Building a coaching culture to develop change management capabilities.

I would best describe myself as mindful and as an advocate for others. I am passionate about quality of service delivery and I possess the ability to build sound, long-term and sustainable relationships. I am passionate to make strategic business plans a reality through empowering others to achieve their full potential. My post-graduate and Masters qualifications have exposed me to broader Leadership capabilities through improved understanding of Coaching, Behavioural Economics and Storytelling to enhance my leading, motivating and influencing those around me. My IT operations background, primarily in Technical Support and Strategic Operations execution has provided me solid experience around People, Process and Technology management. This strong operational focus has been an enabler to deliver exceptional results through self and others.

The intersection between new technologies and work is not new, the fourth industrial revolution. There is a need to encourage actionable dialogues, methodologies, and leadership that engage employees and organizations with meaning and intent on how everyone can be carried into the the fourth industrial revolution

Nomihlali Ntsunguzi, the founder and director of NISSI: Human Capital Solutions. Having worked in the Human Resources field for more than 18 years, she is motivated to see people succeed by helping them make a positive impact in their work environments. Before founding NISSI, Nomihlali held executive HR positions at Aveng Trident Steel, the De Beers Group, the Department of Trade and Industry, and Lonmin.

Nomihlali is fearless and determined to break boundaries in the HR industry. Thus, NISSI was created. The establishment of NISSI is centered around disruptive HR solutions that ensure the performance of employees in organizations through strategy and organizational structure.

Employee job satisfaction is tremendously crucial not only for the employees but also for the organization as a whole and Nomilali believes that prioritization of employees pain points ensures overall organizational effectiveness. Consequently, it is crucial for an organization to understand what employees exactly feel.

With high levels of mental health, workplace harassment, bullying and trending hashtags like SoWhatImprganant, Nomihlali wants to use for her experienced voice to shed light around HR and rights of employees.

This discussion aims at engaging the participant on the “sparkling momentum” of the change management: “get your team in movement”. We will give concrete examples and a tactical plan to ensure that the team moves from “suspicious spectators” to “active and willing participants”. We will first reflect on the 3 preliminary aspects of the team change management:

1. Most of the leaders having to drive a deep change management of one organization must first align themselves as in many cases the changes are imposed on them.

2. We are not equal on how well we endure the stress link with a deep change, therefore you must have a clear mapping of your team on that aspect.

3. The targeted “new setup” will generate “ a new winner – loser” status quo. You can’t avoid it, you must manage it.

We will then present a simple methodology: Core, bulk and frontier:

- ensure that you generate your change core team;
- give yourself clear KPI to ensure that you strike your bulk targeted group; and
- finally make sure that even secondary groups (frontier group: for example subcontractor…) are part of a sustainable change.

They role and responsibility of HR to ensure that organisation development, (re)design, due process, employee voice and clear communications are appropriately and effectively addressed as part of the change process in the workplace. And then how to successfully adopt HR technology.

Nomazibulo Theo Tshanga is a Co- Founder and Managing Director of Ziyana Business Consulting and Training, she help organizations in building a value-based working environment, values and culture embedding and in designing and implementing the various organizational development interventions to align with the organization’s underlying values and culture.

She started her HR career 12 years ago at Coca- Cola SABCO as an HR, later moved to Schaffler South Africa, Bidvest Facilities Management, CSIR and Bidvest Steiner.

She is registered as an HR Professional at South African Board of People Practices (SABPP) and a member of Black Management Forum (BMF) Young Professionals. Theo Tshanga is also accredited by APSO a professional recruitment body as an ISPr. Theo sits in the Ethics Committee of the SABPP.

Companies with more diverse work force perform better financially, tend to have a higher productivity and high staff retention rate. Why does this matter so much? Employees like companies that are inclusive. Now more than ever, doing good has become good business. Millennials who are quickly making up more and more of the workplace care about how inclusive a company is and what their transformation policies are.

Kayiba Malebe is the lead BEE and Employment Equity consultant at Smart Consulting and has an extensive8 years’ experience in BEE & Transformation.

Specialist in sector specific BEE Codes, ICT, Construction, Property, Financial Services and more.

Ranging companies from start –ups, Large enterprises as well as multinationals and listed companies.

Strong focus on Ownership Structures, legal and BEE requirements, Enterprise and Supplier Development as well as Skills facilitation with the SETA’s. Applying for grants, and submitting WSP and ATR’s.

Kayiba studied a BCom Accounting Qualification with Monash University and went on to complete a Diploma in business accounting with the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).

Kayiba has completed and an MDP majoring in B-BBEE from the university of the Witwatersrand.

In 2017 Kayiba was approved as Technical Signatory to sign of on BEE certificates & Reports by the South African National Accrediting Systems (SANAS)