May 2021 Issue

SEIZING TOMORROW TODAY May is an important month − it almost marks the middle of the year, and we all are taking stock of the first part of the year, probably wondering what happened to the past four months. As professionals managing change in these uncertain times, it is important to reflect and see how…

A fine balance for the reviewer

I always compare reviewing a working paper to marking an exam paper, for the simple reason that when you were writing an exam and it was all over the place without proper structure, untidy and hard to follow, the marker generally did not tend to be lenient when scoring marks. Whereas when your exam paper…

Does tech build or break leadership?

Technology is a constantly evolving entity, one that penetrates every aspect of leadership, business and life, bringing significant progress and change. How might leaders meet the challenges of the age of AI and wield technological disruption to their – and their people’s – advantage?   Early in my career, I received an excellent piece of…

Get engaged!

Do you feel like you are speaking to a robot during your online meetings – speaking to a series of letters? Have meetings become mundane and disengaged? Let’s bring back the engagement into meetings using a range of online technology   The basics It should be standard virtual meeting etiquette, that everyone on the meeting…

Finance function foe to friend

We begin with the obvious: team cohesion is decisive in whether an organisation succeeds. The finance function should critically challenge to what extent it adds to this cohesion. Are we intelligently weaving ourselves into the fabric of our organisations? With real buy-in from our colleagues, we can drive the positive change we seek   The…

Xero’s end-to-end solution for VAT

Xero integrated with the South African Revenue Service (SARS), to launch a VAT eFiling beta earlier this year. The closed beta is live now, with general release set for later this year when all Xero small business and accounting customers will be able to eFile directly with SARS. This follows the launch of two other…