Connecting, Flourishing and Optimizing at our Global CFO Conference
Last month, South Africa played host to our annual Chief Financial Officer Conference. With the beautiful city of Cape Town as the backdrop, the conference was attended by almost 50 people including CFOs from KFC markets around the world and key members of their teams (80% of whom were participating in a CFO Conference for the first time!). Lanchi Venator, our Global Chief Financial Officer, excitedly delivered a conference experience focused on Connecting, Flourishing and Optimizing. CFO. Get it? ;-)
Leading up to and during the Conference, Lanchi spoke about the importance of not only being goal-oriented, but also being creative problem solvers. So, to kick off the CFO Conference adventure, she encouraged everyone to show their creative side – particularly their creative expressions of the KFC brand – by taking pictures of themselves en route to Cape Town.
Akhona Qengqe, General Manager of KFC Africa, also spent the first two days of the conference with the team. She led an introduction and overview of the Africa market, and her finance & commercial team provided details around business performance, KFC Africa’s transformation journey and the strength of brand there.
Throughout the conference’s working sessions, participants received business updates and details on the competitive landscape, shared experiences, explored strategies deployed by peers, built plans for KFC’s future, and took frequent opportunities to recognize each other. Additionally, everyone took part in more informal and memorable activities to bolster connection and conversation, including two immersion experiences.
The first immersion experience was to Robben Island in the morning and then the Newlands Cricket Ground where everyone played mini cricket. KFC South Africa and Cricket South Africa have had a long-standing partnership through which KFC supports mini cricket, T20 Internationals, and the Proteas (The South African National Cricket Team).
On Thursday, the team visited Afrika Tikkun. KFC South Africa’s Add Hope Foundation and Afrika Tikkun have enjoyed a great partnership since 2013 and are currently celebrating 10 years of bringing hope to the lives of children. Afrika Tikkun vision is an end to child poverty and youth unemployment. They do this through a holistic approach that begins in early childhood and ends with productive adults accessing the economy.
KFC partners with Africa Tikkun in two provinces, Gauteng and Western Cape, to accomplish a variety of goals including providing over 1,700,000 meals per year to children in Early Childhood Centers and After School Centers in Gauteng and Western Cape and providing scholarships and bursaries to deserving children.
On the last night of the conference, everyone assembled one last time to celebrate the group of individuals coming together as ONE team. Everyone was encouraged to come showcasing their cultural heritage pride (full national dress or an article of clothing with the flag of their home country / ancestral homeland) as another opportunity to show their creative side.
At the end of the week, it was clear that having the opportunity to connect, flourish, and optimize in Cape Town’s stunning setting was impactful for everyone involved. From the networking to the learning to the one-of-a-kind immersion experiences, the 2023 CFO Conference was truly special.
