Don't let society decide what 'having it all' means to you: Elzandi Oosthuizen

The exchange4media group hosted the 2nd edition of the PR and Corporate Communications Women Achievers Summit and Awards 2021 on Friday, the 2nd of July. The congregation saw power-packed sessions featuring industry experts and was followed by the Women Achievers Awards 2021. 

It was presented by Adfactors PR and powered by Standard Chartered, Hero MotoCorp Limited, PhonePe and Hill+Knowlton Strategies, along with Tute Consult as gold partners. 

The Keynote Address at the conference was delivered by Elzandi Oosthuizen, APAC Head Regional Marketing & Market Development, Bayer, on the topic ‘Women empowerment through agriculture and food. The role of communication in supporting the cause’.

Offering her advice to women about thriving and differentiating themselves in a competitive job market,  she said: “You have to be authentic, real, live with passion, and make the world see and know what you're passionate about. Don't try to mimic what you see around you or leaders that you see are successful. It's really about why you and what do you bring to the table.” 

She insisted that it’s important to equip oneself with all the necessary skills, have room for growth in any opportunity and focus 100% on performance both at an individual and at a team level. 

Oosthuizen also believes in the importance of constantly evolving with the changing world and environment. She added, “We must get creative and find new ways of doing things. The world in totality around us have been evolving and changing for many years, but somehow the male-female roles in the typical household have been frozen in time. It's time to change, and the change will be for the better”. 

Emphasising on being confident and taking control of lives and situations, she added, “You have to build your confidence, which comes really from within. Take time to really think about this and be brutally honest with yourself.” 

She expressed immense passion for agriculture, but she also aspires to serve a bigger cause -- making peoples’ lives better. She explained “A career in agriculture is meaningful in many ways because you can touch and change people's lives. Having a great passion for children and the elderly, these are the two segments of a human population that must rely on others many times for their prosperity.

"Not everybody in this world has a great sense of responsibility and that's really something that I'm passionate about. Almost half of the world's population live on less than $2 per day, and according to UNICEF, there are 22,000 children that die each day due to poverty-related reasons. I can make a difference in this industry. The agricultural industry is working to address the challenges that directly impact these people's lives and this is why I'm doing what I'm doing.” 

Concluding her session with some words of wisdom for women who are trying to make a career for themselves, Oosthuizen advised: “When you think about having it all, do not allow society and the outside world to prescribe what having it all should be for you as an individual. But secondly, who defines what matters and what I can accomplish? Find the confidence within yourselves from the fact that you deserve everything that you are willing to work for and go after. Go to a place and in the industry where you can potentially make more of a difference than anyone else, anywhere else. The way I feel about agriculture, that's how you should feel about your career and where you go and what you do with your potential.”