WINDHOEK - Emerging managers are pivotal contributors to organisational performance and a vital link between frontline employees and the executive team in organisations as they are the backbone that sense and respond to various industry forces and drivers of a business to secure optimum performance.
This is according to Bank Windhoek’s Managing Director, Baronice Hans, who made the remarks during the graduation of the first group in the Capricorn Group and University of Stellenbosch’s Business School’s Management Development Programme last week in Windhoek.
The evening’s graduation was preceded during the day by teams pitching their final presentations to a select panel of subject experts from Capricorn Group and Bank Windhoek on the topic of their Business Development Action Learning (BDAL) project.
“In my opinion the term middle manager is outdated and we should rather refer to them as emerging managers, since they are the future of an organisation. Ultimately their responsibility is to create circles of excellence which in turn drives the high-performance culture within Capricorn Group,” Hans said.
“Human capital and the quality of leadership, more than any other single factor, determine the success or failure of any organisation. Therefore, the Group realised that to maintain a high quality of leadership it is of utmost importance to continuously seek and develop the leaders within our organisation,” Hans said.
Over a seven-month period every graduate completed eight modules ranging from Essentials of Managerial Finance to Systems Thinking with a focus on Strategy Formulation and Implementation; and concluding with a Business Driven Action Learning project.
“The challenge of completing the Programme required dedication, sacrifice and motivation, characteristics which need to be embraced to successfully lead teams,” Hans said.
“I would like to congratulate each of you on successfully completing the Management Development Programme. It is well deserved and I believe that receiving this certificate is an appropriate reward for your hard work and dedication over the past few months.”
Alexandrine Stephanus, Risk and Compliance Consultant at Bank Windhoek, was the top scoring student winning the prestigious Best Student Medal. “I want to thank my colleagues and family for their support during this course and look forward to the next challenge,” Stephanus said.
The winning group who scored the highest combined marks for the BDAL presentation and individual marks in three assignments were the ‘Capricorn Big 5’ with team members: Chris Hoëseb (Capricorn Group IT), Michelle Mahecic (Payment Solutions at Bank Windhoek), Brisley Cloete (Branch Manager at Bank Windhoek Oranjemund), Christina Beukes (Credit Manager at Bank Windhoek VAF Branch) and Indoline Hoaes (Branch Administrator at Bank Windoek, Ondangwa).
“I trust that you, as Capricorn Group leaders, will continue to inspire, motivate and encourage staff members in your branch or department, as well as the members in your community to demonstrate every day that, we are Connectors of Positive Change,” Hans concluded.
“Congratulations to all 30 students who participated in the first Capricorn Group/USB Management Development Programme. At USB we never compromise on quality and we are responsible in all our actions, ensuring educational content, learning processes and frameworks that are globally responsible and sustainable, and as such contribute to the economic and social well-being of Africa and the world,” said Jim Linskey , General Manager at ED4Africa USB-ED.