Korah Jane Jude talks business

KORAH Jane Jude is Director, Business Development & Culture, Symptai Consulting.

AW: What was your first job?

My first job was at an advertising and marketing company called James Hill Design as a client engagement executive. I was responsible for managing the accounts, activities and deliverables for each client as well as some communications and sales. The company has since dissolved, but the owner Marlon James, a communication genius, went on to make history, becoming the winner of the 2015 Man Booker Prize for his incredible writing. I learnt a lot from him

AW: What would you say is your best career achievement to date?

Becoming the architect for something new and lead tactician in bringing it to life. When I joined Symptai Consulting in 2014, there was no active business development function. It was primarily an IT consulting firm that grew on the excellent work and a solid reputation of trust and excellence. I was given the opportunity to build the function with all its key pillars for success, supported and guided by loyal custodians of the company. This involved building a strategy, hiring resources, creating an action plan, establishing key success measures, creating the right external associations, internal change management around the topic of sales, implementing technology to support our objectives, increasing client base and market share across the region. Since 2014 we have grown upwards of 25 per cent annually

AW: When would you say you have worked the hardest?

Definitely at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 when our mode of work completely changed and I was charged with reorienting my team to perform a very personal function through a laptop screen. It required a change in thinking, in process and in discipline. Information that would typically float around in your space now had to be deliberately sought and actioned. Connecting virtually with emotion and purpose had to be mastered. Work-life balance had to be achieved and in the absence of active, thriving, encouraging culture, individual intrinsic motivation had to emerge. That was hard work.

AW: What is your go-to thing for inspiration/motivation?

Inside, I believe I was blessed to have accessed the fuel of great influences, good knowledge and values, good habits and sheer joy, so most of the time I can reach for it inside. On days when I can’t, happy music, beautiful sunshine and my “village” of family and friends do the trick for me

AW: What is your advice to young women who are looking to pursue a career in your field?

Learn, listen, read, fill your space with all that’s good and helpful to your craft and then LET IT show. Speak up and be bold.