Globally empowering women and youth in business

Business leader, coach, consultant, capital introducer, speaker, and social entrepreneur – the versatile Arthi Rabikrisson is a force to reckon with in the international world of business coaching and consulting.

Based in South Africa, Arthi completed her MBA, and Post-graduate certificate in Coaching and Behavioural Change, from the prestigious Henley Business School. A journey, she credits to the inspiring role of her parents. “My parents have undoubtedly shaped me, from a values basis but also in their actions. Under apartheid their choices were limited, yet they found a way to reach their goals. I learned tenacity by watching my dad persevere to achieve success in this environment before finally running his own business. I learned money management from my mum, who took charge of the finances at home. They continue to inspire me, along with my own little family today,” Arthi tells us fondly.

Arthi spent more than 15-years in the investments industry, wherein she led multiple, successful initiatives across geographies and client segments in business. “There have been numerous experiences that have shaped my life’s journey, failure and setbacks, trauma even. But of course great joy and opportunity too. The learning that really catapulted me to where I am today was the realisation that I am the unicorn investment (to borrow the phrase from the investments world). As a result, I claim my hard earned rewards and knuckle down on the setbacks, eager to return better equipped for success. When you invest in and back yourself, you become unstoppable in attaining your goals,” she shares.

Strategic and solutions focused in nature, Arthi is now channelling her energies to offer her clients these insights directly, through her Global firm – Prerna Advisory. “At Prerna Advisory we believe companies and individuals are ecosystems – resilient, synergistic and efficient in working towards a common outcome. The outcome is, mostly, aimed to be optimal for people, planet and profit. However in many instances, through either internal or external forces, this optimal balance becomes destabilised. Our belief is that in supporting corporate ecosystems to find balance, through rectifying some of the fundamental building blocks, and encouraging individuals to #FindYourPrerna (inspiration), latent potential is unlocked to achieve phenomenal results,” explains Arthi.

With presence across continents, Prerna Advisory aims to:

• Enable individuals and teams to give their best, through executive coaching, mentoring and development.
• Invest in organic business opportunities, through capital raising and alternative investments.
• Drive evolution in organisations as a result of strategic business and organisational development consulting.

Arthi has focused her work predominantly in women empowerment and development, as well as helping Gen Y and Gen Z create a winning personal brand. “I am passionate about guiding people, especially women, to realise their latent power, bring it to the fore, and unleash it to be impactful. I also love watching entrepreneurs succeed, so I use my knowledge of business and investments to guide founders through their journey,” she adds

A thought leader and highly effective communicator, Arthi launched her first global masterclass on Ubuntu Leadership: Empowering Women in Business, in September 2021, in collaboration with Corporate Diva, a leading professional women’s development platform based in India. She’s also a respected Keynote speaker, podcaster, serves on the Executive Panel of Coaches for a number of companies, and an independent non-executive Director of Global Grassroots – an NGO focusing on women empowerment in vulnerable communities, currently focusing on Rwanda and Uganda. Her most recent accomplishment? Becoming an Advisory Council Member of the very prestigious Harvard Business Review.

With such an acclaimed international presence, Arthi has been bestowed with some leading Global honours: Featured in The NYC Journal’s ‘50 under 50’ list of disruptors, leaders and thinkers in various industries 2022; won the Leadership Coaching Award in the Finance Monthly UK Global Awards 2021; won the Positive Role Model Award (Gauteng, and Southern Africa) in the Entrepreneur/Consultant category at the 9th Gender Mainstreaming Awards; Prerna Advisory won the Best Corporate Coaching & Strategic Advisory Firm 2022 – South Africa in the Corporate Excellence Awards by Corporate Vision Magazine.

Resilient, risk taking and agile, we ask Arthi to share her biggest learning. “Being a business owner is hard work. It is also smart work. Knowing where to focus your energy is important, because as a solopreneur it is easy to burnout. Thus, it is important to cultivate the right mindset to be able to identify the correct path to take. I also learned the hard way that the right partners in business matter. It is a costly mistake in many ways, should that synergy not align. Diversity, inclusion and fairness matters to give perspective, and to augment thinking, for better solutions to be derived and implemented,” sums up Arthi.