Cogebanque promoting leadership skills in the business ecosystem

If you have to take into account business growth, the motivation of stakeholders and personnel, it is strongly recommended to be very careful, strike the balance when making decisions to treat stakeholders fairly and assess how decisions are going to impact them and keep employees happy, henceforth improving efficiency.

Effective leadership skills provide ground for smooth coordination of the team, make the workplace a conducive environment for the staff,   improve wellbeing and creates path for the business to thrive and generate more profits.

As a Rwandan bank committed to creating impact in the community, Cogebanque takes heed of effective managerial skills and believes the entire business ecosystem can work hand in hand to address challenges affecting business operations.

It is against this background that Cogebanque has beyond top notch banking services, committed to sponsor the second edition of Rwanda CEOs Summit 2019, one of highly recognized local events bringing together most influential business leaders in the country organized by Karisimbi Business Partners.

Held at Kigali Marriot Hotel on Friday 15^th November 2019, the second edition of Rwanda CEO Summit 2019 explored insights into ‘Decision Making Styles’ to optimize decision making capacity.

The Summit of which Cogebanque was among major sponsors attracted CEOs and business leaders from Rwanda.

It was an opportunity for CEOs and business leaders from Rwanda to talk to each other, network, discuss challenges and share ideas to advance leadership skills making the right decisions for businesses to thrive.

The CEO of Cogebanque who was the keynote speaker challenged participants with few questions propelling them to the rationale for right decision making.

“What is strategic thinking?” and “Why does your company exist?” What do you think of this statement? “The purpose of the corporate is not just to serve shareholders, but create value for all our stakeholders. The truth is that if a company is not generating profits, it will not be there in the long run,” said Gaye.

Talking on the importance of profit for sustainable operations and delivering shareholder value, Cogebanque CEO advised business leaders to make sure that employees are not being exploited, treat the staff with dignity and establish competitive advantage.

To achieve collaborative advantage, he observed that businesses should be delivering value not only for shareholders, but for staff, customers and the community.

Cogebanque CEO emphasized that the summit is an opportunity to talk about important topics that CEOs don’t seem to be talking about and considered it a   platform acquainting participants with right values and practices on how they should conduct businesses.

“Decision making is the key thing for leaders to understand themselves, understand their style, how do they make decisions and it is very important to know because we sometimes get so busy at work that we don’t step back and reflect on ourselves,” he said.

“Everything starts from you. Because if you don’t understand yourself, who you are, your interactions with the world will be very challenging,” observed Gaye.

On gains pulled from the gathering of which he was a keynote speaker, Cogebanque CEO said is opportunity to raise questions that are very important for CEOs to start discussing and interact with fellow CEOs to understand the business landscape, collaborate and elaborate strategies in areas of common interest.

“It really gives the opportunity to understand who we are as leaders to understand our decision making style and how it affects our interaction with the people and gives an opportunity to talk about important topics that we don’t seem to be talking about,” he highlighted.

Reminiscing on Cogebanque experiences; he stressed: “At Cogebanque, we are not an island. We operate within the context of a wider environment where we have many players. We provide funding to businesses, hence impacting the real economy. Developing our team, treating stakeholders fairly, offering training in important areas take center stage at Cogebanque for them to become better staff and contribute to the society at large.”

Annet Baingana, the CEO of AB Leadership Solutionsobserved that ‘Decision making styles’ are extremely important for leaders to be self-aware.

“It is hard to lead people when you are not at a good level of self-awareness.  It is extremely important that you know your strength, weaknesses,  decision making styles and how it is working for you and how it is not working and what needs to change because it is impossible to change what you are not aware of,” she said.

Greg Urguhart , the co-founder of Karisimbi Business Partners underscored that the summit responds torequests from CEOs from Rwanda that there is need for a platform to talk to each other about challenges they face, how they make decisions and how they establish strategies.

“With the growth of Rwanda continuing to accelerate, the region and other countries in Africa are looking to Rwanda as an example that they want to follow.  This platform will continue to ensure that leaders continue to consistently talk to each other, pushing each other and challenging themselves and take businesses to the next level,” he highlighted.