In order to thrive in this era of ever-changing digital technology, business organisations require leaders who are independent thinkers, self-confident, innovative, creative and results-oriented.
This kind of phenomenon is termed e-leadership.
This view was shared by Dr Michael Twum-Darko, Academic Head of Postgraduate Research at the Graduate Centre for Management, during the Digital Transformation Talk hosted recently by the CPUT-based Centre for Enterprise Resource Planning in Africa (CERPiA).
Dr Twum-Darko said that in addition to e-leadership technical infrastructure and enterprise architecture were also required.
He added that people need to appreciate that, while business content has not changed over the last couple of years, the context of doing business has evolved. He argued that digital technology and the internet of things are now being used to integrate business process and office automation with industrial processes and factory automation and that this is a convergence towards the establishment of cyber-production systems.
CERPiA manager Jerry Ansen said the Centre trains academics from Africa to train others in the SAP software programme. “Our task is to reach out to African universities so that they can skill and train their students.”
The Centre has since 2012 trained more than 6 000 graduates, 575 lecturers and professors in Africa.
Students in the Human Resources Management Department who recently completed the SAP training were awarded certificates during the event. Ansen added that the graduates, who were nominated to participate in the training by their department, all obtained distinctions during the assessment.
Aqeela Dawood, one of the graduates, said the SAP certificate has opened many doors in industry for them as they have been equipped to handle all the business processes pertaining to HR management.
Advancement director Calvin Maseko thanked Investec for funding the training of the graduates.
Written by Kwanele Butana
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