As published on ceo.co.ug on August 22nd 2024
Hardly two years after arriving in Uganda to take up her very first CEO role at Uganda’s largest telco, MTN Uganda, Sylvia Mulinge has emerged as Uganda’s most admired CEO, in the CEO East Africa Magazine’s inaugural 100 Leading & Most Admired CEOs in Uganda survey.
The 2-in-1 CEO East Africa Magazine’s most trusted and respected companies & the most admired CEOs in Uganda survey 2024 is part of the magazine’s thought leadership agenda that seeks to create a body of knowledge on what exactly great companies and great leaders are made of, as well as recognise them.
This, we believe, will both guide and inspire the next generation of great companies and leaders, explains the magazine’s Executive Editor, Muhereza Kyamutetera.
The first set of survey results, which covers the 100 Most Trusted and Respected Companies in Uganda was published this week, on Tuesday, 20th of August 2024. Altogether, the survey which was carried out in two rounds involved 1071 respondents online.
57.24% of the respondents were male and 42.76% female. 43.45% of the respondents reported that they were between the ages of 31 and 40, while 27.59% were above 40. The majority of respondents were at the senior management/ExCo level, while 33.79% were either at the CEO/Managing Director/General Manager/Executive Director or Founder/Shareholder and Board Director levels.
In both rounds of the survey, respondents were asked first of all to define what an admired CEO is made of, by ranking a set of leadership traits and then based on that ranking of traits, respondent were asked to mention at least 3 CEOs across various sectors that they thought were the leading CEOs and the ones they admired most.
According to the survey, respondents ranked integrity, honesty, trustworthiness and reliability as the most important set of traits of a leading and most admired CEO. This set of traits was ranked at a weight of 96.67%.
The second most important set of traits was a clear, strong and well-articulated vision and being big-picture oriented with a weight of 96%. In the third position with a weight of 93.33% came that a leading and admirable CEO must be able to put the well-being of their people first by creating a company that is a good place to work.
The fourth most important trait was being foresighted, adaptable, decisive and able to lead from the front with a weighted score of 92.67%. The fifth most important trait was identified as being results-driven with a strong all-round performance record.
Based on respondents’ list of their leading/most admired CEOs, a shortlist of CEOs was developed for each sector category. This list was then subjected to a second round of a weighted-ranking survey to be able to determine the list of the 100 leading and most admired CEOs in Uganda 2024.
Accordingly, Sylvia Mulinge whose MTN Uganda emerged as the third most trusted and respected company in Uganda in the same survey, was ranked as Uganda’s Leading and Most Admired CEO for 2024 with a weighted score of 87.14%. In the second position came Amos Wekesa, the Founder & CEO of Great Lakes Safaris as well as the Uganda Lodges with a weighted score of 80.67%. Great Lakes Safaris was voted No13 in our 100 Most Trusted and Respected Companies 2024 survey.
Several studies have confirmed that the reputation of an organisation’s top leadership, especially its CEO, is crucial to that organisation’s reputation. There is also abundant research to show a strong link between a highly regarded CEO and financial performance, attractiveness to talent and market value, amongst many other benefits.
To gain an understanding of what goes into the making of a highly regarded CEO in Uganda, the CEO East Africa Magazine conducted a survey that measured how various sets of leadership traits influenced public perceptions of CEO reputation. Based on these perceptions, respondents then ranked various CEOs across a number of sector categories. The weighted ranks were derived to generate our inaugural CEO East Africa Magazine’s 100 Leading and Most Admired CEOs in Uganda ranking.
