e4’s Fikile Sibiya on a challenging 18 months for IT leaders [promoted]

Loading player...
Fikile Sibiya is chief information officer of e4. She knows just how much pressure CIOs and IT leadership teams have been under over the past 18 months, with Covid-19 impacting them hard.
In this podcast interview with TechCentral, Sibiya talks about how CIOs have helped steer their organisations through a time of great stress and uncertainty and how they are beginning to emerge on the other side wiser but with the battle scars to show for it.
Can IT leaders ever really prepare for an event like Covid and the sudden need for their companies’ employees to work from home en masse? And what lessons have been learnt through it all?
Certainly, many people may underestimate the strain that people in positions of IT leadership have been through in the last year and a half, Sibiya explains in the podcast. And South Africa’s unique problems – not least of them load shedding – has added to this.
Is a remote workforce, or even a hybrid workforce, sustainable in the longer term? How do companies manage productivity when their employees are working remotely? And equally, how do they ensure people don’t burn themselves out? Sibiya tackles all of these important questions – and more – in the podcast.
The conversation also touches on the security aspects of working from home as well as the impact of the Protection of Personal Information Act.
Lastly, Sibiya talks about a passion of hers: fintech. She explains why fintech start-ups have seen enormous growth through the Covid lockdown and how the technology holds huge promise for the unbanked and the so-called “township economy”.
If you’re in IT leadership, or even just interested in it, make sure you don’t miss the conversation.
31 Aug 2021 English South Africa Technology · Business

Other recent episodes

TCS | Piet le Roux on Sakeliga's fight with Icasa over BEE

Business group Sakeliga is taking Icasa to court over the 30% ownership rule for telecoms licensees, and its CEO, Piet le Roux, says the regulator has "clearly misunderstood" the law. In this episode of the TechCentral Show, Le Roux tells Duncan McLeod why Sakeliga has asked the high court in…
13 Nov 19 min

W&W | AA’s Bobby Ramagwede on a car industry running out of road

AA CEO Bobby Ramagwede tells Watts & Wheels that South Africa’s car manufacturing industry could be decimated within five years. Is South Africa’s car manufacturing industry running out of road? Automobile Association (AA) CEO Bobby Ramagwede thinks it might be. In this episode of Watts & Wheels, he tells William…
12 Nov 30 min

TCS | Pick n Pay fights back in online grocery wars

Pick n Pay will keep Smart Shopper Pro, its new paid loyalty tier, at its R99/month launch price "for a very extended period", says Vince Viviers, executive: innovation and digital transformation at the retailer. If the price does change, customers will be told well in advance, "so that there are…
11 Nov 27 min

TCS | Nomvuyiso Batyi on the battle over Sim registration

South Africa’s mobile operators want tougher Sim registration, but not on the terms communications regulator Icasa has proposed. Draft amendments to Icasa’s numbering plan regulations, published for comment last month, would require a fingerprint or face check against home affairs records for every new Sim, reactivation and Sim swap. Subscribers…
9 Nov 33 min

TCS+ | Old Mutual's Celiwe Ross on leading people through AI

AI is the defining technology of our era. At one extreme, it fuels fears of job losses, robot wars and computers ruling over human beings. At the other, it holds out hope: curing diseases such as cancer, bolstering global food security and even freeing people from the need to work…
6 Nov 36 min