Chantel Illbury & Guide To Prosperity Seminar By Hospice March 2010

Hospice "Guide to Prosperity" & CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Seminar - PMBurg March 2010

This seminar offered outstanding material including an address by

Dynamic speaker & renowned authoress - Chantell Ilbury

She is one of South Africa's leading strategists and facilitators, working both locally and internationally. She specializes in guiding companies and other organizations through their strategic conversations on the future, and she believes passionately in the power of scenario thinking to unlock the best ideas on strategy.

Educated in Zimbabwe before moving on to the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg where she completed her BSc in Chemistry and apost-graduate Higher Diploma in Education, Chantell has sincec ompleted an Executive MBA from the University of Cape Town Graduate School of Business and has also studied Strategic Negotiation at Harvard Business School in Boston.

While Chantell was at UCT Graduate School of Business in 2000 - she met highly regarded economist Clem Sunter. They shared their ideas on scenario planning that led to the writing of their best-selling book,"The Mind of a Fox". The second book, "Games Foxes Play", was launched in April 2005; and their third, "Socrates & theFox", in November 2007.

Chantell has also lectured on strategy and scenario planning at a number of South Africa's top business schools. She is an accomplished speaker on effective management in times of uncertainty; and has addressed audiences as far afield as England, Ireland, the Netherlands, the United States, Austria, Italy, Kuwait, Jamaica, Tanzania, Jersey and the Isle of Man, as well as throughout Southern Africa.

Chantell is married to columnist and broadcaster Daryl Ilbury and they have two children. Her hobbies include travel and reading.

Des Storey of First Rand spokeon their CSI activities quoting "Over time, we've learned that people give of their best when they're giving to something that they really care about. So we let them."

The First Rand Volunteers Program allows any staff to concentrate their efforts on the charities that they hold dear. If they give of their time, First Rand gives that time back to them during office hours. And if they give financially, First Rand will match their donation rand for rand!

25% of First Rand's staff are actively involved in helping to create a better South Africa, in the best way that they know how & First Rand remains commited to do everything that they can to help these employees make a meaningful difference in the lives of other South Africans.

Information was also valuably shared by Stephen Thomas, CEO and Founder of 1in1Out - on how company's should develop CRS

(Corporate Social Responsibility) programs:

• Pick the right issue. To succeed in solving a significant social problem and enhancing its corporate image, a company needs to find the right problem to solve. It should find a single issue that is important, timely, and leverages the company's core competencies. An issue such as this is more likely to attract media attention, which will help bolster the company's reputation. Equally important, an issue that captures media attention will make it easier for the company to engage non-profits and government agencies and create the sort of cross-sector partnerships and are essential to solving the problem.

• Establish concrete goals and report progress. Business stakeholders long ago became jaded with companies' vague pledges to address social issues. To stand out from the crowd, a company needs to publicly commit to an ambitious and quantifiable goal that goes beyond what is expected, and to provide regular reports on its progress using independent external audits or reviews. A company should set ambitious goals, but it must also deliver the results it promised within a reasonable period of time.

• Deploy the company's key assets. The truly valuable assets that a company has - its products and services, skilled employees, industry expertise, global infrastructure, and its network of connection, credibility, and influence - are rarely tapped for social progress. Yet these company assets are every bit as powerful in solving social problems as they are in creating economic value for the company. Once a company learns to break down internal barriers and integrate its CSR initiatives with its entire value chain, new and more powerful opportunities for solving social problems will arise.

• Work in cross-sector partnerships. The term "partnership" in CSR or corporate philanthropy is often used loosely to apply to any relationship between a company and a non-profit organization or government agency. Often these partnerships are no more than large cash contributions accompanied by joint press releases. The most effective solution to social problems are those that engage non-profit, business, and government agencies in cross-sector partnerships where each sector concentrates on what it does best.