Chief Executive Officers of state-owned enterprises were reminded of their vital role in supporting economic growth and investor confidence.
The CEOs were tasked to always prioritise service delivery to avoid becoming a burden to the state through continuous bailouts.
South Africa-based Take Charge Leadership Institute CEO Nyimpini Mabunda has said the burden of service delivery rests on the shoulders of CEOs.
He was speaking at the Public Enterprise Breakfast in Windhoek.
Mabunda, who is a seasoned CEO, executive coach, and author of the book titled "Take Charge", said underperforming SOEs often require repeated government bailouts, which in turn divert public funds away from essential services.
"The organisations that we lead can have a catalytic influence on growth, but I'm saying this with a big caution, only when things work, because when they don't work, the cost is too high, and if your institution is not working, we need to really, really have a look at it very clearly because we've had some serious mishaps of late."
Mabunda also stressed that when public institutions fail to operate efficiently, the economic cost to the country becomes severe.
He added that unreliable infrastructure and poor execution by SOEs can prevent countries from attracting major international investments.
"And I'm saying this because the work that you do can enable or prohibit economic growth because it is the catalyst for investment, and I'll show you in that very same capacity the conversations we've had in South Africa and how the state-owned enterprises have responded. I don't think sometimes we do a good job in driving good sentiment about the important work that you do and how complex it is."
Other speakers emphasised the importance of a positive organisational culture among the board, CEO, management, and staff.
"There's always somebody who thinks that their CEO is useless. If board members are preoccupied with believing the CEO is ineffective, the CEO will struggle to succeed. The second thing is that you have a board chairperson who says, 'I'm going to fire the CEO.' You know, it's almost like his primary responsibility is to make sure that they get rid of that CEO, and then you have a third relationship of executive management that doesn't trust the CEO," said NBC Board Chairperson Lazarus Jacobs.
The breakfast forum was held to provide insight into organisational culture and performance management within public enterprises and to allow a cross-pollination of shared learning from the private sector.