CIMA Business Leader’s Summit unveils true face of leadership

The top is the only position that counts for businesses and individuals in the contemporary success-oriented world. The likes of Sir Richard Branson, Sheryl Sandberg and Steve Jobs, have dominated the media and made business leaders the rock stars of today, with fame, fortune and even fashion following in their footsteps.

Success is sweet, but the fall from grace can be devastating. How, in an age just recovering from major economic crises blamed on the people in power, does a leader do the right thing?

The Business Leader’s Summit (BLS) 2013, the star event in an engaging line-up of knowledge sharing and thought leadership forums held by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in Sri Lanka, articulates the need of today’s business for a transpersonal leader one who knows how to transcend himself and put the success of true stakeholders first. Radical Evolutionary Authentic Leadership, addressing what a leader should do better or differently, is the next step in the transformation of the corporate leader into a leader of people rather than just businesses: “The theme for the Business Leaders Summit 2013, ’Get Real!’ is what would actually influence your surviving or thriving.” CIMA Middle East, South Asia and North Africa Regional Director Bradley Emerson said.

Emerson underscored the need for this paradigm shift from business as usual to next practice, saying, “Neither the present nor the future is an extension of the past. In a brutally competitive environment, understanding the realities and reacting to them quickly is the difference between those who survive and those who perish. Our intention is to force you to get real in terms of how radical you ought to be if you are to let go of the past for good. We’re talking about evolution to evolve each day, fresh in your mindset. Authenticity in business decisions comes more out of conviction than out of past successes what worked for us in the past is definitely not going to work for us in the future, so your authenticity is no longer validated by historical data.

“Your conviction and how accurately you can predict your future that’s authenticity going forward. The next question is, ‘How do you make the people who are slaves of experience, lead them out of that and truly be radical evolutionary and apply conviction rather than historic data?’ You have to self-lead. Leadership is no longer about having a following but requires a soul shift, leading yourself, out of the shackles of history.” The conference, scheduled to take place on 1 and 2 July, at Cinnamon Grand Colombo, will play host to a diverse mix of renowned global business leaders who will challenge the existing dynamic and transfigure the meaning of leadership as we know it.

Amongst the speakers featured as BLS 2013, provokes leaders to ‘Get Real!’ will be Tomorrow Today co-founder Dean van Leeuwen, Tata Sons Director R. Gopalakrishnan, Lightman Consulting President/CEO Dragos Bratasanu, Bridge Asia Pacific Managing Director and Reuters formerly Operations Director Simon McKenzie, The Oaktree Foundation CEO Viv Benjamin and University of Ruhuna Vice Chancellor Professor Susirith Mendis. The strategic partner for the BLS 2013 is Sri Lanka Telecom, while Citizens Development Business Finance PLC is the principal sponsor of the event. HSBC the official Banker, SriLankan Airlines the official airline, Cinnamon Grand Colombo as official hotel, and co-sponsoring the event Thakral One and Lankem. Wijeya Newspapers is the exclusive print media partner with News 1st, MTV and MBC as the electronic media partner. LBR and LBO are the official digital media partners for the conference.