Business Leaders Malta’s team has acted on feedback submitted after last year’s event and chosen strategy as its central theme for its annual conference on February 22.
There is demand for scientific studies into employee attitudes
Around 400 chairmen, chief executives and top managers are expected to attend the most highly anticipated networking event of the year at Monte Kristo Estates with the theme Moves to Checkmate.
BLM is a joint venture company of recruiter Konnekt, events manager Jugs Malta, and training company Mdina Partnership, which originally came together to hold a “modest” event for 150 people. Now in its fourth year, the major annual conference is designed to be thought-provoking and fun, and includes three networking opportunities across its five-hour programme.
More than 800 invitations were dispatched this week. Attendance is free for loyal BLM participants; this year a nominal charge has been introduced for firms wishing to bring additional staff members along for the experience.
“The annual conference continues to be BLM’s reason for being, even though we have extended the brand to initiatives, including awards and the Insights seminars for professionals over the past few months,” Mdina Partnership managing director Steve Tarr told The Times Business. “Strategy featured heavily on the evaluation forms for the past two years. Last year, we drew parallels between the sporting world and business with the One Second Ahead theme. This year, we found the military, chess, and conflict also came to people’s minds – besides business – when they considered strategy. The feedback helped to select this year’s speakers.”
Ixaris Systems (Malta) chief executive Alex Mifsud will talk on Strategy and Serendipity. He will share strategic turning points on the 10-year journey to building the innovative payments company from a technology idea shared with his students at the University of Malta.
Group Captain Robert Grattan, who retired from the Royal Air Force after a 30-year career, will lay out the parallels between military and business strategy, the subject of his 2002 PhD earned at the University of the West of England. He has lectured at the School of Strategy and International Business at the UWE, where he is now a visiting research fellow and is a prolific writer on strategy formulation. Dr Grattan is currently writing his fourth book which researches the origins of the Cuban missile crisis.
Takuya Hirano will explain the objectives of Microsoft’s strategy to put people first and share his experiences on how strategy impacts successful results. He will also talk about Microsoft’s decision to venture into hardware.
Mr Hirano, general manager, multi-country, central and Eastern European headquarters, is responsible for all aspects of business in 24 countries. Born in Japan but based in Munich with his wife and four children, he joined Microsoft in 2005 after an eight-year career at Oracle Corporation’s predecessor Hyperion Solutions. He was previously based in Silicon Valley driving business projects for Kanematsu USA.
Six of Malta’s best-known and most experienced business leaders will take to the purpose-built stage to share insights, thoughts and learning experiences in a panel discussion. Alf Mizzi & Sons chief executive Alec Mizzi, Simonds Farsons Cisk plc group chief executive Norman Aquilina, MSV Life plc chief executive David Curmi, De la Rue Currency and Security Print head of operations Marc Jordan, Fimbank plc president Margrith Lutschg-Emmenegger, and Melita plc chief operations officer Ludolf Rasterhoff will discuss issues surrounding strategic thinking and planning, and winning competitive advantage.
Konnekt managing director Josef Said will then present the 10 titles of the first BLM Awards. Based on a scientific study focusing on seven areas of human resources management, the initiative saw the participation of 26 companies.
Since last September, more than 3,800 invitations were sent to individual employees seeking their responses to 70 questions; just over 2,691 filed replies which were later analysed by customised software. The participants included staff members at family businesses, igaming firms, IT and software houses, pharmaceutical firms, and diversified groups.
Mr Said will present awards for leadership and development, communication and team cohesiveness, training and development, reward and recognition, corporate culture, performance orientation, and employee well-being. Three awards will be presented to the top-performing firms in their category size.
“On the day, we will give an overview of the response to the study,” Mr Said explained. “Using visuals, we will give some top level insight into the data. The awards ceremony will not be a pompous affair, and participants will be provided with their ranking for each question and each domain after the event. There is demand for scientific studies like this which distinguishes top places to work from poor employers. We have been encouraged by the response and the study will be a regular feature in future conferences.”
Jugs Malta managing director Gianni Zammit will lead the customary team-building exercise to close the morning, which this year involves music and colour coordination.
“We hope to cause people to think, challenge the status quo, and have fun in the process,” Mr Tarr said. “Our objective is to organise a high standard event which gives value to the busy people who make time to attend.”