Uncertain times can severely test and reveal the quality of an organisation’s leadership and the COVID-19 crisis is giving leaders everywhere a test of unimaginable proportions.

Everyone is scrambling to come to terms with the outbreak of COVID-19. That includes business leaders, of course.

Mteto Nyati, Chief Executive of Altron, has always been driven by values, something he has tried to bring to every senior executive role he has held in the South African IT industry.

On 6 January 2020, Dr Richard Maponya passed away. A legendary business icon and activist, Maponya was known to many as ‘Soweto’s most humble giant’.

A sports fan, a zealot and a hack all look at the outcome before they decide if they’re happy with the process that led to it.

Whenever the office phone rang, Jeanette Marais wanted to answer it. That was how she realised a career as an actuarial scientist wasn’t for her.

When we look about us, we see the truth everywhere of the failure of any of the three metanarratives of the 20th century; capitalism, communism and fascism, each one of which has proven to be unsustainable in the end.

Change starts from within. Nowhere is this adage truer than with the internal appointment of Satya Nadella as CEO of Microsoft in 2014, succeeding Steve Ballmer, who in turn succeeded Bill Gates.

The idea that business must sacrifice profits to do good must be turned on its head.

What kind of organisation do we need for the future? Creative and innovative? Or lean and efficient?