Professor Barbara Simpson promotes leadership in public sector

Professor Barbara Simpson, expert in leadership and organizational dynamics from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland, has conducted a series of consultative meetings with some 20 stakeholders of the public service and will soon present a roadmap to implement a development process for leadership in the public sector. Professor Simpson was in Mauritius in the context of a research study on leadership in the public sector.

The project is undertaken by the NPCC in collaboration with the Civil Service College, Mauritius. She reveals that it has been a very busy week during which she had the opportunity to interview some 20 persons from the public service.

“An appreciative circle was also conducted with a number of people to learn about leadership in the public sector in Mauritius. I can say that I have seen a lot of ‘sophisticated understanding’ here. In my next course of action, I am going to propose a development process to implement the project,” says Professor Simpson.

She explains further that she will draft a report that she will submit to the NPCC in the coming months, after which a roadmap will be established to design the entire leadership programme for the public service. According to her, the project could take some two to three years.

Professor Simpson also conducted a public seminar jointly organised by the NPCC and the University of Mauritius at the R. Burrenchobay Lecture Theatre, Réduit, on last Thursday. In the seminar entitled “New Leadership for Interesting Times”, she focused on the conventional models of top-down leadership.

During her intervention, she stressed on how leadership should be more social and relational and why it should engage collaboratively with all available talents and skills. The officer in charge of the NPCC, Mr. Dev Appalswamy, in his opening speech at the seminar, spoke about the crucial need for leadership across all socioeconomic spheres. “We want to enliven the Mauritius Leadership Brand.

Leaders must have a wonderful vision so that they can consider all the opportunities of the future,” he said. The project is in line with the NPCC’s strategic plan 2016-2019, “Unleashing Full Potential through Positive Habits”, which lays strong emphasis on promoting leadership across all sectors and at different levels.

 Leadership 4.0 Primer conference

A leadership 4.0 Primer was held last week at the Ravenala Attitude, Balaclava, Mauritius. More than 100 delegates across the key industries of FSI, Hospitality, Sugar, Textile, ICT, Media, SME, Construction, Automotive, Professional Services, Education, Medical, Logistics& Transportation, Public Sector and Manufacturing participated.

Opening the Primer Workshop, Organizing Chairman, Chee-Peng TAN, the Group CEO, Business Technovise International (BTI) and Team SYNthesis (TS), set the mood of the workshop with a powerful visual comprising the objective, outcome and the next steps for this impactful initiative.

The Industry Keynote Speaker, Kok-Hoong CHEAH, Group CEO, Hitachi Sunway Information Systems, shared his view on Industry 4.0. He expertly navigated on the accelerating social innovation, leveraging on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Robotics.

Other themes elaborated included:

• Disruptive Innovation in the Sugar Industry & Impact to Growers, Millers & Government

• Digitalization, Disintermediation & Impact of ICT to Mauritian Citizens & Government

• Public Sector Innovation for Economic & Social Development

• FinTech Disruptive Innovation for SMEs, Large Businesses & Government

• Disruptive Innovation in the Hospitality Industry and the Impact to Hotels, Guests & Government.