Thomson Reuters summit: Empowering African business

Johannesburg, South Africa - For the 6^th consecutive year the Thomson Reuters Africa Summit will bring together a network of Africa’s best thinkers, visionaries and thought leaders, to address key challenges and discover vast opportunities, through experiential learning, technology, knowledge sharing and debating optimal solutions for empowering and to bolster Africa’s continued success.

With key themes such as Africa 4.0 and how to turn disruption into opportunity, doing things differently to future-proof tomorrow and how to harness opportunities in 2018 – the Summit is set to stimulate powerful discussions on what the future of doing business in Africa will look like; and what succeeding in business in the future will require.

“As digital technologies continue to transform the economy, many leaders and businesses are struggling to maximise the potential opportunities that lie within such disruption,” says Sneha Shah, Managing Director, Africa, Thomson Reuters. “Many businesses feel that technology disruptors are a direct threat to the future of their business; but disruption is not so much about new inventions, rather a change in the customer experience. It is for this reason that we need to bring together regulations/policy, technology and people.”

A good example is the tax and accounting profession. Tax automation which began as a disruptive trend is now moving toward ‘business as usual’ and has enabled tax professional to move away from monotonous manual tasks into strategic advisory roles. What’s more, disruptive trends in big data and data analytics not only enable timely and accurate tax reporting for multi-national tax departments, but also present an opportunity for strategic insights that can help tax professionals analyse historical trends and use them to optimize tax provisions for smarter decisions for the future of the business.

“In the end, disruption and innovation can be seen as the same thing,” notes Shah. “It’s about having the right conversations and being open to change – and this is exactly what the Africa Summit platform looks to drive.”

Thomson Reuters Africa Summit 2017 is a must attend event for the financial services industry, investment community and public and private sector industries looking to grow business on the African continent – providing a unique opportunity to network, learn and leverage diverse points of view through face-to-face interactions with key government officials, analysts, industry experts and peers, alike.

“This year we are focused on driving more networking opportunities, and more focused takeaways and concrete actions to produce outcomes that will empower and bolster Africa’s continued success. We are not just here to talk, but rather, we are here to listen, contribute and act – and we will all hold each other accountable as we move forward. The time to lead is now. In times of disruption all of us can be leaders, and this is our call to action,” concludes Shah.

About Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the world’s leading source of news and information for professional markets. Our customers rely on us to deliver the intelligence, technology and expertise they need to find trusted answers. The business has operated in more than 100 countries for more than 100 years. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto and New York Stock Exchanges (symbol: TRI). For more information, visit www.thomsonreuters.com.