{"id":28096,"date":"2019-08-09T14:37:03","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T13:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=28096"},"modified":"2019-08-09T14:38:14","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T13:38:14","slug":"get-to-know-yolanda-smit-regional-director-gauteng-at-pbt-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2019\/08\/09\/get-to-know-yolanda-smit-regional-director-gauteng-at-pbt-group\/","title":{"rendered":"Get to Know: Yolanda Smit, Regional Director (Gauteng) at PBT Group"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What would you\ndescribe as your most memorable achievement? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a career\nperspective my journey towards becoming the Regional Director for Gauteng for\nPBT Group has comprised of many smaller milestone achievements. With that in\nmind, my most memorable achievement is where I am in my career now \u2013 being part\nof the dynamic data space and having seen myself assume a leadership position\nat a fairly young age, while still managing to find a good work\/life balance,\nhas been nothing less than a dream come true for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What first made you\nthink of a career in technology? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was fortunate\nenough to have been exposed to the technology industry from a very young age. My\nfather was my first inspiration, and to this day I have great admiration for\nhis work and achievements in the technology environment. He introduced me to BI\nand since then, I have spent my working career exploring my passion for data,\ngrowing my knowledge and expertise in this very exciting and dynamic\nfield.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What style of\nmanagement philosophy do you employ with your current position?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Servant leadership.\nThis means that I focus on empowering staff through providing guidance, while\nalso involving them in responsibility and accountability for projects. I also\nensure that I walk the project road with them, providing support as it is\nrequired. I believe that such a leadership approach allows staff to play their\nrole in accomplishing the set vision of the company while developing their\nskillset and expertise and together we achieve much more than originally\nthought.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you think is\nthe current hot technology talking point? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are starting to\nsee an undeniable shift from a focus on pure technology to a strong interest in\ndata.  While the focus in the past has been on \u2018what are the latest\ntechnologies we need to chase\u2019 there is a realisation that technology itself is\nplaying \u2018second fiddle\u2019 to the wealth of opportunity companies can unlock from\ntheir available data. In the evolving technology world, technology-spend is\nbecoming driven by data and the ability to harness the power of data to allow\nbusinesses to make more informed decisions. My view is that technologies that\nplace data at the centre will continue to gain the most attention. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you deal with\nstress and unwind outside the office? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As proud as I am of\nthe career-space I find myself in, I by no means live to work. I am very\nfortunate to have a wonderful family and spending time with them is very\nimportant to me and is probably the first place I head to in order to recharge,\ndestress and refocus myself on what is truly important in life. In order to\nincrease my personal capacity to deal with stress, I do also steal some time\naway from work and family for moments of solitude These are my WhiteSpace\nmoments inspired by Juliet Funt, where I ponder life, love, work, data,\nchallenges and more, making room for personal \u2018ah-ha moments\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you could go back\nand change one career decision what would it be? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the greatest\nlessons I can take away from my career growth is realising the role that women\ncan play in the technology space and with that, the value we add. Being\nnaturally more nurturing, women tend to view aspects through different lenses\nat times and while we do still focus on the next revolution, we naturally\nobserve all dynamics and dimensions, which can add immense value if leveraged\ntowards sustainability of success to the broader technology and data field. If\nI could go back and come to this realisation sooner, I would, as part of adding\ncontinuous value within my role. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you currently\nidentify as the major areas of investment in your industry? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe that there\nis an increased investment in data and aspects associated to using data more\neffectively. Globally, we are seeing many explore aspects like Artificial\nIntelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) \u2013 where many businesses are looking\nto invest. In South Africa, while conversations around these areas are also\nbeing had, there is still a sense of reluctance and ambiguity as to what\nbusiness value these technologies can generate. It all comes back to data being\nthe core component of realising what opportunities exist and making new\ntechnologies effective. An AI chatbot can only be as \u201cclever\u201d as the data it\nhas available to learn from.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the region-specific\nchallenges when implementing new technologies in Africa?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

My view is that one\nof the biggest challenges in South Africa is skills and the lack there of them.\nThe whole industry, across the public and private sectors, needs to work\nhand-in-hand to ensure the sustainable development of the required data skills,\nas well as retaining such skills in the local market. The demand for\ndata-related skills is growing significantly and will only continue as this\nspace innovates.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What changes to your\njob role have you seen in the last year and how do you see these developing in\nthe next 12 months? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While evolving in my\nrole over the past 24 months, I have seen myself as more than just another team\nleader to the people I work with, and more than just a solution provider to my\nclients. While excelling in both is important, creating and sustaining\nempowering work relationships across the board makes the difference between\ndeals and partnerships. Partnerships are key to a sustainable approach to business\nand being able to form such partnerships and sustain these will remain key to\nfuture business success. This will be a focus for me on the next 12 months and\nbeyond, to ensure sustained business growth and the success of my teams and my\nclients. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What advice would you\noffer somebody aspiring to obtain C-level position in your industry? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Personal development plans should be holistic in nature – think bottom-up and top-down. My bottom-up advice is, give your best to whatever is put in front of you because the reality of the industry is that you are only as good as your last success (or failure). My top-down level advice for those looking to grow into the C-level is, lift your head up sometimes. To succeed at this level, you need to be flexible and always have a grasp of the \u2018big picture\u2019 on the strategic level of the organisation \u2013 and contribute on that level. Additionally, research and read as much as you can on your technical areas of interest but also stretching personal self-awareness. A track-record of small achievements, coupled with a good grasp of the complex landscape of business, all glued together with the unique self-insight of what you uniquely contribute to this picture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What would you describe as your most memorable achievement? From a career perspective my journey towards becoming the Regional Director for Gauteng for PBT Group has comprised of many smaller milestone achievements. With that in mind, my most memorable achievement is where I am in my career now \u2013 being part of the dynamic data […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":28097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1949,6,19,9059,13],"tags":[496,386,1054,443,1228,10588,392,7257,5301,453,5300],"class_list":["post-28096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-get-to-know","category-insights","category-regional-news","category-south-africa","category-top-stories","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-bi","tag-data","tag-gauteng","tag-juliet-funt","tag-machine-learning","tag-ml","tag-pbt-group","tag-south-africa","tag-yolanda-smit"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28098,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28096\/revisions\/28098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}