At a time where there is a push, to get more women into C-Suite and executive roles, one often wonders to what extent experience should be considered a limiting factor, if at all. Millenials, those born between 1981 till 1996 and and GenZ those born between 1997 till 2015 are strong contenders for today’s executive and C-Suite appointments. Whilst this generation is well poised to compete, what with their sterling academic track records, the fact of being digitally innovative, inherently and by virtue of being born and growing up, right at a time and era where TV game was the Xbox of yesteryear and simulation games were just another past-time for the GenZ crowd.
However, does all of this add up? Nor, does it compare and compete.. With good old experience? The lessons that come with postmortems instead of innovative foresight, the clout that comes with rising the ranks, from the very bottom and way up, in blood sweat and tears? Is it necessary to start off by scrubbing the floors, grating the lettuce and someday earning the coveted corner office in the C –Suite lounge? Or is this now a fib, an old story in a once loved book, on some lonely library shelf?
I pondered this, as I walked past the C-Suite corridor of a prolific multi-national fast food group, about to meet the talent team and take a brief on an exclusive search assignment mandate, for which I already had a few millennial candidates lined up my sleeve!
Nontobeko Mdhluli is a seasoned headhunter, the Founder and Director at Zanati Group, an Executive Search and Full Service firm based in Johannesburg.
Nontobeko enjoys her spare time camping around bonfires
