CRISPY, SPARKLING, SIZZLING, CRUNCHY, CRACKING, SNAPPING, BUBBLING.
These are but some of the sounds Unisa SBL stakeholders experienced at the Sweet Sounds of Success stakeholder event held at The Venue in Melrose Arch on 21 July 2011. The purpose of the evening was to recognise and thank Unisa SBL stakeholders for the immense contribution they have made toward the success of the school.
“Today, we are the largest business school in Africa and are widely regarded as one of the top three business schools in South Africa. We have produced more than a third of all the MBA/MBL degrees awarded by South African universities and some of our alumni include industry giants like Allan Knott-Craig and Brian Molefe,” said Prof. Abdulai as he welcomed the guests during the function. “We want to thank you for your time, your passion, your commitment to the Unisa SBL and our vision of being the leading African business school of choice offering internationally recognised leadership and management education,” he emphasised.
The highlight of the evening was when Unisa SBL’s longstanding customer, Transnet Freightrail, represented by the employee relations manager, Mr Ernie Aylward gave a presentation on the relationship between the SBL and Transnet Freightrail. “During the late 90’s beginning 2000’s we were faced with a number of wild cat industrial actions which caused serious financial losses to the company and caused us great headaches. We had to change this culture of employees resorting to un-procedural action when matters could have been resolved around the table and by following the procedures as per the Labour Relations Act (LRA). The Unisa Graduate School of Business Leadership was engaged with a view to develop a product (a short course in Employee Relations) that would serve our needs and it was an important selling point that the course be recognised as such. I can say without contradiction that this Short ER Course is really adding value to our business and the relationship between management and labour. It is money well spent and an investment in human capital that would be very difficult to calculate in monetary terms,’ highlighted Mr Aylward.
While this event was a first for the SBL, it certainly is not the last one. We believe that success is something to be savoured and celebrated. For this event, music was used as the sound of celebration and our unique theme this year, had our guests intrigued as the platform of sound was used to communicate all the positive feelings that are inspired by it. Every touch point for the event had an auditory aspect to it from the invitations to the music of buskers guiding guests from the parking area to the venue and the food that was enjoyed throughout the night. It truly was a night of sweet sounds of success.
Written by Nolwazi Mwabi
