The president said this when he addressed a gala dinner of the Young Presidents Organisation (YPO) Global Leadership Conference at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Thursday.
In the address, Ramaphosa also encouraged the chief executive officer (CEOs) to explore business opportunities, not only in South Africa, but also in Africa which he said has “vast untapped potential and a huge appetite for investment.”
He said this on the back of a YPO Global Leadership Survey, released in January, which revealed that an overwhelming 93% of YPO-affiliated CEOs believed that business must play a far greater role in making a positive impact on society for the benefit of all people.
“This perspective has led me to think of five tasks that I believe the YPO family needs to be preoccupied with, seeing that the majority of your members believe that business should make an impact on society for the benefit of all people,” Ramaphosa said.
The YPO is a premier global leadership organisation for more than 27,000 chief executives in over 130 countries and the global platform for them to engage, learn and grow.
Its members harness the knowledge, influence and trust of the world’s most influential and innovative business leaders to inspire business, personal, family and community impact.
Today, companies run by its members are diversified among industries and types of businesses and they collectively employ more than 22 million people globally and generate US$9 trillion in annual revenue.