CMO Breakfast 2025 Links Boardroom Vision with Media Power

At the 2025 CMO Breakfast hosted at Kampala’s Serena Hotel, Uganda’s business and marketing leaders gathered to reflect on a deceptively simple but deeply consequential question: what does it really take to get to the boardroom?

Organised by the Uganda Marketers Society (UMS) under the theme "The Leadership Leap: Positioning Yourself for the Boardroom", the event brought sharp focus to a changing definition of leadership in both global and Ugandan contexts.

It was not only a forum for theoretical reflection but a rallying call for practical transformation in how leadership is nurtured, projected and amplified.

Keynote speaker Gloria Evelyn Byamugisha, Group Chief HR Officer at Dangote Cement in Lagos, struck the day’s strongest chord with her argument that today’s corporate leaders must anchor themselves in emotional intelligence, compassion, and adaptability.

“The future belongs to leaders who are able to rethink, re-invent, and re-configure to global trends," she urged, framing leadership not as a climb but as a construction—one of self-mastery over time.

“You can only be a king in your kingdom,” she said, underscoring the importance of domain expertise backed by consistent personal development.

Her description of the boardroom as a terrain inhabited by "lions, scorpions, sloths, pythons, and human beings" earned particular traction on LinkedIn, where attendees posted thoughtful reflections.

These posts pointed to a common conclusion: leadership today demands not breadth for its own sake, but depth, character, and strategic clarity.

Hassan Saleh, Managing Director of MultiChoice Uganda, complemented this theme by reflecting on the power of mentorship.

“I am where I am today because someone reached out to help me,” he said, urging aspiring leaders to choose their mentors and champions with the same rigour they apply to business deals.

From a different vantage, Goretti Masadde, CEO of the Institute of Banking and Financial Services, challenged attendees to think of leadership not only as technical competence but also as a capacity to build trustworthy, professional relationships.

Her contribution reinforced the day’s dominant note: leadership excellence lies in marrying hard skills with soft power.

Yet the conversation did not end within the walls of Serena Hotel. Thanks to a strategic media partnership led by Next Com—Next Media Group’s communications arm—the event’s insights travelled across digital and broadcast platforms, including NBS TV and social media networks.

Next Com’s campaign ensured that the leadership debates moved beyond a privileged breakfast audience to become part of a larger national conversation.

This partnership model illustrated how media is no longer a passive reflector of leadership discourse but a core pillar of it.

One older participant aptly noted online that “ideas can be fantastic, but they must be amplified by the right platforms, or they vanish.”

The notion that platforms can determine whether ideas survive or disappear was a running undercurrent of the event.

For Next Media, the alliance with UMS was more than a sponsorship—it was a declaration that leadership today must be communicable and visible.

The ability to navigate media landscapes, both traditional and digital, is now part of the core competencies for any leader with aspirations to influence or sit on a board.

In the end, however, it was Byamugisha’s closing sentiment that lingered longest. “Humanity is at the heart of great leadership,” she said, asserting that leadership is ultimately a form of service.

Her appeal went beyond performance metrics or influence strategies and touched something more fundamental: the idea that real leadership is deeply human.

In an era when Uganda’s business and political environments are shifting under the weight of globalisation, digitisation, and generational change, the lessons from the CMO Breakfast are timely.

Leadership demands courage, clarity, and connection—but above all, it demands the wisdom to serve.

As corporate leaders, media players, and policymakers plot their futures, one truth is becoming impossible to ignore: in today’s world, amplification is not optional, and the right platform can turn a good idea into a national transformation.

Uganda’s top marketers gathered in Kampala to explore the emotional, strategic, and media-driven traits needed to reach the boardroom.