ESSENCE KEY POINTS ON LEADERSHIP , BANKING, MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING FROM THE MAIN ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN THE BMD ISSUES OF 2022
HOW LEADERS CAN ENNOBLED BUSINESS FOR SUCCESS WHY PRIORITIZING PROFIT IS BAD FOR BUSINESS PRIORITIES FOR CEOS IN TURBULENT TIMES
THE DYNAMISM IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS JANUARY 2023
RS. 500/=
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CONTENTS 16 How Leaders Can Ennobled Business For Success
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Sri Lanka Key Player In Indo-Pacific Region ADMIRAL JAYANTHA PERERA
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Three Wise Lessons On Gifting
32 Six Trends In TV Advertising Marketers
36 An Alluring Entrepreneurship DHANUSHKA FERNANDO
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Why Prioritizing Profit Is Bad For Business
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Six Priorities For CEOs In Turbulent Times
Jim Collins on ‘Thriving In Chaos’
ESSENCE Key points on Leadership , Banking, Management and Marketing from the main articles published in the BMD issues of 2022
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LEADERS ARE THE DEALERS OF HOPE
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BRADLEY EMERSON
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DREAM BIG, BELIEVE IN IT!
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LEADERS SHOULD CLEAR THE PATH FOR EMPLOYEES!
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LALITH PIYUM PERERA
BANKING SECTOR NEEDS TO REEVALUATE ITS COST STRUCTURES SANATH MANATUNGA
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IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN YOU PLAN TO FAIL DIAN GOMES
MANOJA JAYAWARDENA
EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP GIVES PEOPLE WINGS!
PROMPT ACTIONS ARE NEEDED TO PROTECT THE GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS SUREN FERNANDO
RANJITH RUBASINGHE
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A KEY TO SUSTAIN A SMOOTH BUSINESS OPERATION KASTURI CHELLARAJA WILSON
CHANDRA WICKRAMASINGHE
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NEED OF THE HOUR IS A STRATEGIC TASK FORCE
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BRANDS’ SUCCESS DOES NOT HAPPEN OVERNIGHT! SABRINA ESUFALLY
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VISION 2023!
WHAT DO YOU PLAN TO DO THIS YEAR? Can you remember all those dreams and plans you have come up when you walked in to Year 2022? How many of those dreams were realised? If they were not successful at the first time, are you ready to give them another try? Because we have been given another chance. A new year has arrived. It’s time to start from where we left it off, and also to explore the new opportunities and to set new goals. We understand that lot of hard work have already gone into your strategic planning meetings and for setting your vision for 2023. To ensure the success of your goals, let’s have a good look at them again. BMD spent time on researching what works in making business goals work for organisations around the world and came up with a workable plan to help you achieve yours. Let’s give it a try.
A study done by Gail Matthews at Dominican University, states that those who wrote down their goals accomplished significantly more than those who did not write down their goals (forbes.com). Step 4: Review and include ‘yet-toachieve’ goals from 2022. Re-visit your goals from last year and mark anything you have not been able to achieve, but still want to achieve. Add them to the list of goals of the New Year. Step 4: Plan to Measure the Success
Sit comfortably. Close your eyes and focus only on your breath, for 3 minutes. Basic mediation technique following through your breath all the way up and down, giving your mind body and soul fresh energy for a fresh start.
Ensure you have plans to measure the success of your goals. Many researches confirm that Goals are useless without performance measurement plan. Among them a management accounting lecturer Ashan-kabir, clearly discusses the link between performance metrics and the success of achieving goals. Ensure this year you have a system to measure performance.
Start with your big dream. The Vision 2023 and far beyond. Enjoy the success in your mind through creative imagination. How does it feel like when you meet your goals? Feel that feeling, before you re-write your goals.
Dr.Madhu Fernando Member - BMD Editorial Board
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Without looking at the goals you have written last year, write down the new goals. Even if it’s already written somewhere, remind yourselves the goals set for this year and see whether there is anything to add. Think about the latest opportunities in your industry or your areas of focus. Where can you add value? Link them to your goals and write them down.
Step 1: Calm your mind
Step 2: Look at the Big Picture
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Step 3: Write down your goal for this year.
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Begin with the end in mind. And followup, MEASURE, until you make it all happen!!
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Anura Siriwardena
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Research Spinoffs
Firms With Female CEOs Report Higher Profits
Only 39 of Fortune 500 firms have female CEOs – a paltry figure, despite decades of awareness of the importance of gender equity in the C-suite.
female executives: increase the visibility of women, offer suitable career progressionopportunities and promote equality within the workplace.
But a new analysis from Frank Staffing Group, a global IT staffing firm, shows those companies are being rewarded: 87 percent of 2021’s Fortune 500 companies with female CEOs reported above-average profits. That compares with 78 percent of firms with male CEOs.
“Think about what opportunities you are offering to your female employees. Are you giving them a chance for career progression? Is the opportunity one that they will be interested in, or actually able to take?” Morris says.
Zoë Morris, President of Frank Staffing Group, offers a trio of tips for firms to bring about the necessary culture shift for promoting
Your Boss May Be Watching You on Screen
Employers suddenly charged with managing remote workforces are turning to employee monitoring software in increasing numbers. Companies who use monitoring software say that it increases productivity, helps people manage their time, makes things fairer, and is necessary for cybersecurity reasons. However, that monitoring software may also decrease morale, increase staff turnover, encourage rule-breaking, raise privacy concerns, and fail to truly capture job performance. The productivity benefits may also be overstated. Sources: NBC | The Washington Post | The Wall Street Journal | The New York Times | The Guardian | Inc | Fortune | Canadian HR Reporter
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“These are such simple questions, but actively putting more thought into the answers can make a massive difference.”
To Stand Out, Send A Thank You Email After An Interview
There are numerous benefits to sending a thank you email after a job interview, including the following: You’ll stand out: Studies show that only about 4% of candidates send thank you letters. They make a positive impression and establish a connection with hiring and HR managers. It shows your professionalism and social skills. It affirms your interest in the job. A thank you email should be sent within 24 hours of your interview, and it should be short and sweet: Address the person who
interviewed you, being sure to spell their name correctly. (If you spoke to multiple people, you should send each a separate email.) Briefly thank them for their time and for considering you for the job. Briefly note something about the organization or the visit that impressed you. Note your continued interest in the company. Offer to answer any follow-up questions. Finally, don’t be long-winded or make requests that create work for anyone. Also avoid typos. Courtesy: HBR
Research Spinoffs
How To Eliminate Your Workplace’s ‘Masculine Defaults’ Inject Creativity Into Marketing Strategy If your organization’s mission statement uses words like "bold," "competitive," and "analytical," if you go kitesurfing on a company retreat, or if you reward excessive time spent at work, you’re encouraging a "masculine default" that excludes women and non-binary people.
lives over Zoom, has moved the dial only a bit. With many workplace norms currently up in the air, it’s a good time to take stock of the remaining masculine defaults and make changes.
Masculine defaults can also pervade recruitment processes. For example, when a design company rewrote its job ad and replaced "driven" and "unreasonably talented" with "deeply excited by the opportunity of creating thoughtful digital products that have lasting impact," the proportion of women applying rose from 15% to 35%.
You can either counterbalance masculine defaults or get rid of them completely.
Research shows that the performance of organizations improves if they introduce more feminine defaults. The pandemic, with its work-from-home revolution and new windows into colleagues’ private
To counterbalance them, include a feminine default (e.g., "collaborative," "holistic," "nurturing," or "humble") for every masculine one in job ads and company documents.
Dr Alex Connock (Missile) Dr Cammy Crolic (SBS) and John Summers (Halle Orchestra), said that the most successful companies are the ones that are least business-like, and suggested that businesses would do well to ‘inject creativity’ into their marketing strategy at the second annual Oxford Future of Marketing Symposium recently. This idea supports recent research from Oxford Future of Marketing Initiative (FOMI)which finds that businesses that presented themselves with a more social, human persona on social media, as opposed to a corporate brand, had stronger brand performance from their advertising.
To dismantle them, change the structures that reward masculine defaults. For example, stop asking people to selfnominate for awards and ask for peer nominations instead.
Connock concluded by stating that hiring new creatives and cultivating their originality would help businesses to thrive. ‘These are the people that come up with zeitgeist changing ideas. They are the ones who are looking for new ways to do things, rather than focusing on the bottom line.’
Courtesy: Harvard Business Review
Courtesy: Said Business School
People On Average Dedicate 1-2 Seconds Of Attention To An Advert Peter Buckley ,a communication planner of Facebook said that eye tracking studies show that people on average dedicate 1-2 seconds of attention to an advert before moving on. at the second annual Oxford Future of Marketing Symposium recently.Longer views were found to have little impact on recall, suggesting that the first few seconds of exposure to an advertisement are the most important
In order to address this, Buckley reiterated the statement made by David Radford (Allianz) that businesses need to focus on creative content, and on establishing positive associations with their brand. ‘Ads should be designed for impact. They should be recognisable in almost every context, and easy to process.’bmd Courtesy: Said Business School
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TECHNOLOGY
THE DYNAMISM IN
TELECOMMUNICATIONS By Sabrina Zavahir
A digitally driven lifestyle is transparently being created with advanced technologies by many telecommunication providers. Innovative approaches with global recognition are been adopted for sustainability by many telecommunication providers globally and even within our island nation. Superior experiences to be delivered to the customer is an idea that underpins the mutually shared ambitious goal set by most telecommunication business entities. Many have comprehended that connectivity is really equalling Oxygen in today’s modern society. BMD connected with Ms. Sandra De Zoysa , Group Chief Customer Officer, Dialog Axiata PLC / Director, Dialog Business Services, who shared her expertise on the revised vision or mission for a positive evolution in broadband.
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The Dynamism In Telecommunications
Innovative approaches with global recognition are been adopted for sustainability by many telecommunication providers globally and even within our island nation.
Sandra De Zoysa , Group Chief Customer Officer, Dialog Axiata PLC / Director, Dialog Business Service
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The Dynamism In Telecommunications
Q:
During recent years we have vividly witnessed unprecedented growth in the telecommunication sector. Is it because an ‘experience’ was delivered in the form of "made-tomeasure" to customers specific requirements consistently?
Yes, it is one of the major reasons behind the unprecedented growth in the telco sector. Brand identity is no longer as secure a source of advantage as it once was. Our industry has witnessed challenges as well as opportunities, particularly during the pandemic and post pandemic era related to customer demands for personalized propositions that support everything instantly and virtually. As a result, service providers, not only in the telecommunications sector, but in all other sectors as well, saw the demand for fulfilling majority of the customer needs through the creation of digital products and services while the demand for digital transformation is changing the rules of the game, growing exponentially, from large
Our industry has witnessed challenges as well as opportunities, particularly during the pandemic and post pandemic era related to customer demands for personalized propositions that supports everything instantly and virtually.
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The Dynamism In Telecommunications
scale businesses to startups and SMEs/ MSMEs. This change has caused a shift in the power from organisations to consumers. This transformation has accelerated the rate of change, as telcos shift their focus to empowering the end users to determine the terms of engagement provided by taking an "outside-in"approach to crafting product propositions. Therefore, personalization, contextual offerings, proactive service management and customer journeys supporting ease of use resulting in value creation have proven to be winning approaches in all sectors of business and industry including telcos. Following the pandemic, as remote work becomes a norm, consumer expectations begin to soar and to keep up with the competition posed by the "over the top" (OTT) players in particular. Telcos too are accelerating their digital transformation efforts and implementing new business models to emerge as digital telcos so as to remain relevant and stay ahead. Due to the increase in bandwidth demand spurred by remote work and adoption of digital, the use of technologies such as AI/ML and robotics has enabled faster digitalization. For example, when call volumes grew and the service providers could no longer recruit and physically bring call centre
employees to work, the need for handling such volumes through "do it yourself" (DIY), social and digital platforms was the obvious solution to address the need of the hour. Service providers saw accelerated adoption of these digital and social channels and customers enjoyed the control over managing their services from anywhere and anytime without the need to depend on service providers. This has also enabled the delivery of "on demand products and services" via apps, web, social and chatbot platforms for higher consumption such as data add on packs, service bundles (FB, TikTok, YouTube), Pay TV channels, etc. , that can be activated by a few clicks.
Q:
Apart from technological advancements, what are the supporting attributes that contribute notably and retain an “overthe-top” elevation in success?
Competition is fierce in the telecommunication sector. While it’s essential to have the right technology in place to help shape customers’ experiences, it’s also necessary to have the right people, culture and processes also in place. Together, they will provide a foundation for delivering consistent and highquality experiences to customers
The best way to achieve and retain market leadership is to closely monitor a range of KPIs spanning from marketing campaign effectiveness through customer satisfaction and engagement parameters, to financial and network performance. across multiple channels based on customer choice and demand. Of course, people, processes and technology need to work in sync to provide customers with great experiences. Also, it is essential to develop strategic partnerships that strengthen the current ecosystem and collaborations that build new ecosystems. The best way to achieve and retain market leadership is to closely monitor a range of KPIs spanning from marketing campaign effectiveness through customer satisfaction and engagement parameters to financial and network performance. Setting proper structures and being a catalyst, "rather than an expert," leading through uncertainty, setting the direction, and empowering those
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The Dynamism In Telecommunications
with the greatest expertise to lead the way to building an agile and nimble workforce equipped with the relevant digital skill sets are all equally critical to forge ahead and remain at the top. It is more important than ever to ensure that managers and leaders of an organization take a human centred leadership approach when dealing with employees and customers.
Q:
Do you believe in the traditional "across-theboard" marketing method in telecommunications?
The traditional across the board marketing method has since eroded and has been replaced by amplified trends that are redefining the basis for success. Telcos leverage rich customer data and analytics to precisely engage customers with personalized offers, communication via social and digital channels with a "segment of one approach." Through this we aim to deliver personalised customer experiences, curated, based on customer interest, recency and frequency-based purchase behaviours. Customers "journeys" are designed to be seamless and relatively effortless, particularly in the case of DIY platforms. The telecommunications industry continues to expand its horizons by adding value through adjacent technologies and business models ranging from entertainment to education, health and e-commerce, in addition to regular services such as mobile, television, broadband and fixed line. Technologies such
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as 5G, IoT, 3D printing, big data, cloud computing and robotics help to enhance the overall experience that customers receive. While traditional media like magazines and newspapers have good market reach, social media and websites are digital marketing tools that allow for targeted consumer reach in comparison to the traditional marketing channels, where the former cater to the discerning tech savvy millennials and those born after, whose preference is to engage within social and digital spheres. Current trends suggest that two in three people globally will be online by the end of 2023. As we all know, more than 75% of eligible (13+ years old) audiences already use social media today. The typical user already spends more than 40% of his/her working life using the internet. The mix of social platforms that capture the largest share of our time has changed. For example, consumers now spend considerably more time on tiktok than they did a few years ago. It is important to understand that each platform has a different functional and emotional role in consumers' lives. For instance, most use "Facebook Messenger" to chat with their friends and family while Instagram is used for sharing photos and short video clips. So, the optimum approach depends on the brand, the audience and objectives. It is the responsibility of digital marketers to use the most relevant data points to identify their consumers actual behaviour and make informed decisions as to how best they can reach, attract and engage relevant target audiences.
Q:
In your perspective, how should telecommunications react on a continuous mission to thrive in the modern digital world?
Increasing expectations from industries and consumers and new advanced technologies will eventually give rise to challenges beyond what even 5G can meet. In 2023 and beyond, services will be distributed, deployed and run across multiple resources such as "public cloud," "edge cloud," networks and devices all working together to provide a single service or set of services. Advances in digital technology and the evolving demands of customers will spark a rapid transformation within all industries and more so in ours. Organizations and businesses that embrace new ways of working and relevant technologies and platforms with audacious ambitions, willing to make investments ahead of their competition will lead in this new era.
Q:
Do you find the rapid technology evolution very exciting in the present day and instantaneously how does your telecommunications strategize for this?
Of course, I believe that each new wave of technological change brings in potential benefits to an organisation even larger than the last. The evolution of technology is embarking on an exciting new chapter. Cloud and the Internet of Things have the
The Dynamism In Telecommunications
power to redefine entire industries, and our lives and businesses are being transformed faster than ever before as a result. As Gen Z takes over larger wallet share, telecoms will need to focus even more on innovation and staying ahead of the curve. Keeping an eye on global trends, global benchmarks and local competition is also extremely critical. Telcos need to focus more on allocating sufficient funds to drive innovation, even in today’s constrained economic environment, to dive into the future, today. Telcos need to continuously invest in resources and talent development and stay abreast with the latest trends in technology to address these rapid changes that are taking place.
Q:
A world is being constructed which is about digital technology, networks, devices and social interaction. Would you agree that a solid brand image is certainly capable of creating a remarkable customer experience as well?
Certainly YES, building a solid brand is critical for success in an increasingly online world. However, I am a firm believer that customer experience is a prerequisite and central to the purpose of building and strengthening the brand image. As we all know, brand image is built on consumer trust and by maintaining consistency on
delivering the brand promise. For telcos, this would be offering the best network, product and service experiences at an affordable price , leveraging on their technology and large data sets. Managed right, these can help build life-long customer loyalty and trust, thus growing market share, minimizing churn and revenue enhancement through new sales, cross-sell and up-sell. With the internet and social media, consumers, stakeholders, potential employees and the general public have access to a vast amount of information about every brand, from online reviews and ratings, social media posts, and influencer reviews, to viral PR "nightmares." There’s no shortcut to customer love. The only way to gain the trust and respect that elevates the brand image is to spend time and energy to learn what your consumers need. While investing in building and creating delightful customer experiences can be daunting and expensive, realizing the impact it can have on your brand image and bottom line is certainly the way to go!
Q:
How do you see the implications of this new digitized lifestyle and is it contributing in a certain manner to our island nation’s economic growth?
Digitization can play an important role in expanding businesses and growing enterprises through new business models. It can also assist policymakers to spur economic
I am a firm believer that customer experience is a prerequisite and central to the purpose of building and strengthening the brand image. As we all know, brand image is built on consumer trust and by maintaining consistency on delivering the brand promise. growth and employment if they set the right agenda and business climate. In the current world, borders are irrelevant as people are digitally connected. Artificial Intelligence and software, power everything. Enabling broader participation of organisations in the innovation economy, widening the diffusion of new technologies and building complementary capabilities in the workforce can deliver both stronger and more inclusive economic growth. Reforms in these areas can reduce inequality and economic insecurity more effectively than fiscal redistribution alone. In capturing the full promise of digital transformation, growth and inclusion agendas are one and the same. BMD
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LEADERSHIP
HOW LEADERS CAN ENNOBLED
BUSINESS FOR
SUCCESS “Challenges come our way to strengthen us and polish our souls to seek greatness. Giving into struggles is not what the human journey is about. It is about building resiliency to use the roadblocks as steppingstones and see the silver lining in each cloud. Success is forged by continuous polishing and never giving up on us and others around us.”
- "Dr. Kasthuri Henry, Ennobled for Success, From Civil War to a US CFO, Oct 2020" The world around us is rapidly evolving at previously unheard-of speed and evolving with it, we must. Evolving to remain relevant is a necessity. The guidance for this journey of intentional evolution comes from knowing, understanding and living our purpose. Our purpose remains the true north of our transformation, when we mindfully navigate
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life, even during turbulent times. The global pandemic has created the situation where every person around the world had the opportunity to take an introspective journey into their own life, work, and relationships to ponder their purpose and where the road forward was. This is such a transformative period , offering each one of us the perfect opportunity to choose our paths; not just the road we take, but how we take it as a whole person with our heart, mind, body and spirit intact.
How Leaders Can Ennobled Business For Success
The realities that were ignored prior to the pandemic became the centre of focus and the workplace had to transform to meet the call of our times. That workplace transformation opened the door for workers to seek value-congruent prospects. The Great Resignation and the Silent Quitting seen in the workplace is the direct result of employees being devalued by employers. Failing to create an authentic sense of belonging to lay the foundation for inclusion is the lasting failure of most employers as they have historically rushed to build a profit-motivated transactional workplace culture. A culture of a disposable workforce rotating in and out through the proverbial revolving door. When workers evaluated their life purpose and determined their selfworth, they saw emerging opportunities in the rapidly growing work from anywhere global workplace culture that allowed them to harmonize life by balancing paid and unpaid work that is involved with human existence while making happiness the center of career choices. The realities that were ignored prior to the pandemic became the center of focus and the workplace had to transform to meet the call of our times. That workplace transformation opened the door for workers to seek valuecongruent prospects. The pandemic has also taught workers to become more self-reliant, giving them the courage to choose what is in their self-interest. Now, employers need to learn to embrace the human spirit and cultivate a culture of belonging while being purpose driven if they are to attract and retain talent that will innovate and grow their organization.
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Kasthuri Henry, PhD, CTP, Six Sigma Black Belt
Dr. Kasthuri Henry, PhD, CTP, Six Sigma Black Belt, is driven by her mission of Building to Last and Ennobling for Success. Her ability to understand the importance of first developing the being and then bringing that authentic self to all the doing makes her a sought-after member of Forbes Coaches Council. She is an accomplished international business professional who trains organizations and coaches individuals across the world to grow with mindfulness demonstrating good governance to balance the interest of the individual, organization, and society for sustained mutual prosperity while driving continuous process improvement for economic sustainability. Dr. Kas is the CEO of KasHenry Inc. (US) and LancerLution Ltd (Belize) as well as the Founder of Ennobled For Success Institute. Her business change management, financial strategy, business process improvement, and leadership acumen includes •
The global acquisition of the Duracell Brand by Warren Buffet from P&G and stand up as the global leader of acquisition and post-acquisition integration.
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The business transformation and modernization of the $22 billion dollar Chicago Teachers Pension Fund as the Fund’s CFO.
•
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Business Process improvement, automation, and lines of business integration for HSBC as the VP of Finance
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to strengthen financial reporting, real time analytics for effective decision making, and building sustained competitive advantage to be a market leader. •
A CFO at Aon transforming risk management and leadership decision making through initiating business analytics, continuous process improvement and implementing disaster recovery with regulatory compliance to rise above real-world challenges such as 9/11,
Katrina, S-OX Regulation Compliance, and more. A graduate school professor, she continues to transform emerging leaders representing the US military, public safety, private sector, and nonprofit sectors via Southern Illinois University, DeVry University, and North Park University. Dr. Kas shares her wisdom filled lessons to help others live an ennobled, empowered, and positive life by drawing from her life journey in her #1 International Best Seller Ennobled for Success: From Civil War to a US CFO. Her other world ranked books include The Resiliency Playbook and Ennobling Business for Success: Inspire – Ignite – Influence. A centered approach to solving life’s challenges is the theme of her weekly international video podcast Unleash your Inner Goldilocks: How to get it just right.
How Leaders Can Ennobled Business For Success
I see the opportunities that lie ahead. I realize that there will be a need for guidance for those individuals and organizations who need to lean on. As a nurturing global business leader and graduate school professor, who values the potential of every soul to live their full life, I believe in providing multiple sources of guidance for my students and teams. Born of this intentionality is Ennobling Business for Success: Inspire - Ignite – Influence (Oct 2022), focused on the human skills necessary for organizations to cultivate a sustainable culture rooted in humanity. The soul of an organization is the character of that organization. From that organizational character stems the behaviors, values, and actions that drives the organizational economic engine. Since excellence is a habit demonstrated by consistent behavior, the human capital attraction and development becomes the new frontier of organizational excellence.
A leader embodies very different character traits than a boss. A boss exerts the positional power and uses fear, intimidation, and punitive measures to force their will on to the teams. A leader takes perspective, seeks input, creates an environment of psychological safety and drives results through their influence power. Therefore, a leader cultivates a culture of belonging and innovation. Leaders
are ennobled because they embody noble character traits such as kindness towards all stakeholders, empathy for the realities stakeholders face, grace under challenging situations, always value centric and not only when it is easy, invests in building self-sustaining ecosystems for everyone to thrive, and understands that employees are the true value creators of the business without whom there is no business profits. Ennobled leaders have mastered the art of the following: 1. Inspire: Inspire the human spirit so
each soul feels valued and could live its full potential.
2. Ignite: Ignite the sense of purpose to mindfully build a fulfilling life. 3. Influence: Influence by design to thrive and leave a legacy of ennobling.
Leaders ennoble their businesses for success by employing a combination of the following strategies:
1. Gratitude: The single most powerful positive brain chemistry booster and enhancer of emotional intelligence responsible for 80% of a person’s success. 2. Learning from Mistakes: Mistakes are not failures; they are learning opportunities for continuous improvement and innovation while giving up or never trying is the true failure.
3. Collaboration and Co-Creation: Building high-performance teams that drive lasting synergies to think outside the box and co-create in a collaborative manner. 4. Belonging: Cultivating a culture of belonging to embody inclusion of individuals and their perspectives thus delivering equity and diversity resulting in innovation and unleashing the hidden potential. 5. Mindfulness: Value each employee and honor that whole person and guide their success with value congruence.
Business is run by people, to serve people, and is facilitated by people. All stakeholders of all businesses are human. That makes human skills the secret sauce for business success. In an era of super specialized technical skills, the human skills have gone unaddressed and undeveloped through the educational process as well as professional development processes. Ignoring it is no longer an option when empathy and resiliency are the two highly sought-after workplace capabilities. Any business that seeks effective long-term economic success must be willing to invest in its human capital and cultivate a sustainable ennobling environment. BMD
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ECONOMICS
SRI LANKA
KEY PLAYER IN INDO-PACIFIC REGION Given below are excerpts of a speech made by former Navy Commander Admiral Jayantha Perera at a forum in New Delhi recently. The forum was held over three days at the Manekshaw Centre under the theme Indo-Pacific Regional Dialogue (IPRD-2022). The global maritime supply chains undoubtedly are instrumental in shaping the trade pathways of nations, as a majority of the exchanges takes place through sea routes. However, having in place an all inclusive multimodal transport system unfolding connectivity platforms bridged by rail, road, air and water ways, would be essential in building a more holistic industrial eco-system, that may seem business friendly. Nevertheless, regions across the globe have continued initiating efforts facilitating the improved functioning of the supply chains manoeuvering the maritime industry. Amidst the progress gained till date in creating connectivity channels beyond borders for the ease of doing business, many nations have now quite attentively begun implementing the "One Stop Shop" strategy, to provide investors with all supply chain services under one roof. While it is noteworthy to state that trade, ports and transport have become key components of the connectivity network, enabling nations to function as one global village, the maritime sector may certainly serve as the greatest stimuli in improving the trade profiles of nations.
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Sri Lanka Key Player In Indo-Pacific Region
In this context, Sri Lanka’s role as an island nation in the contribution made towards promoting regional maritime connectivity, is certainly vital to understand as the locational advantage of occupying a strategic position along the main maritime pathways, provides seafarers and supply chain intermediaries with better integrated navigation platforms. Gaining insight from theUnited Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) provisions for fostering maritime diplomacy which stipulates the legal framework governing all maritime operations, the global maritime sector has scaled new heights towards becoming more inclusive by enforcing open policies. However, at a time when the concept of maritime connectivity is gaining precedence, the Indo Pacific region in particular has excessively commenced investing in water ways, air and road ways with the primary purpose of gaining easy access to all global markets. Ports have become the centre poles integrating coastal economic zones, smart port cities as well as industrial parks into a network of activity, allowing port led industrial investment opportunities to surface and multiply. Therefore building connectivity across a blue economy may certainly require having in place, better marine spatial planning and management systems, which could offer secure channels of navigation, flexible overflight regulations, suitable marine ecology protection guidelines, easy approaches to access inland road and rail ways as well as an open, free, fair and multilaterally beneficial trade and investment governance framework.
Speaking of the Indo Pacific region at length, it must be stated that, the region offers the primary passage of connection, bringing together the busiest sea lanes of global trade transportation. Half of the world’s container traffic, one third of bulk cargo transportation and two thirds of global oil trade transit the waters of this region, approximately accounting for 50% of the world’s shipping trade. Ports in this region have been categorized based on their transshipment incidents percentages, as gate ways, regional hubs and pure transshipment ports. Furthermore, this region is expected to contribute to 22.1% of the World GDP by 2025 and this process of regional maritime integration which regional nations have reaffirmed its faith in taking forward towards a successful closure, has been further facilitated by the gradual unfolding of the phase of digitalization, which has necessitated a majority of the supply chain functions to be carried out on virtual platforms. In this context, Sri Lanka’s role as an island nation in the contribution made towards promoting regional maritime connectivity, is certainly vital to understand as the locational advantage of occupying a strategic position along the main maritime pathways, provides seafarers and supply chain intermediaries with better integrated
navigation platforms. While eight nautical miles south of Sri Lanka lies the East West shipping corridor, it further serves as a bridging platform connecting Asia to Europe. This is the busiest sea route in the world, where more than 200 ships move along these channels daily, carrying two thirds of the world’s oil and one third of the world’s container shipment. Moreover, Sri Lanka has also been identified as the only South Asian transshipment hub and the central point linking the Middle East and the Far East hubs within four days of sailing and four hours of flight time. Therefore, as time goes by, it may certainly become evident that Sri Lanka will be able to transform itself into a hub of maritime trade in the Indian Ocean region. Although the unfavourable post COVID19 conditions and the economic dilemma encountered by the nation since lately, have served as impediments towards driving forward sector oriented growth and development work, the country is keen in implementing private- public partnership oriented strategies to help alleviate instability and overcome the economic setback. Therefore, all such initiatives will certainly be applicable when necessary to also maintain both certainty and stability within the
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Sri Lanka Key Player In Indo-Pacific Region
The present maritime operator base consists of 500 shipping service providers, 185 shipping agents and 28 container providers. The ongoing maritime sector operations have also been able to elevate local content development activities, merely by creating 40,000 to 50,000 direct employment opportunities alone maritime sector. Sri Lanka has prioritized the undertakings relating to marine spatial planning as well as the realignment of inland resource and land management systems, which the nation believes may help complement the process of promoting maritime trade activity and gaining advantage of being positioned in the world’s fastest growing economic region, comprising widening consumer markets and industrial sectors. Therefore, increasing the productivity levels and the handling capacity of sea ports located along the coastal belt of Sri Lanka, while also improving the associated infrastructure will remain mandatory, if the envisioned long term hopes of becoming a regional hub for maritime trade is to be realized as planned. The speedy development that is taking place to recreate the shipping logistics infrastructure facilities in and round the main ports of Sri Lanka such as the Colombo, Hambantota and Trincomalee ports. In this connection, the expansion of existing terminals and building of new terminals with enhanced capacity, that could easily handle the largest categories of vessels, while also paving the way for extending entrepot services are going at a pace. Moreover with a share of 2.5% of the
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GDP, the entire maritime sector of Sri Lanka has been able to draw a US$ two billion revenue annually and has been able to contribute to seven per cent of the national export income. The present maritime operator base consists of 500 shipping service providers, 185 shipping agents and 28 container providers. The ongoing maritime sector operations have also been able to elevate local content development activities, merely by creating 40,000 to 50,000 direct employment opportunities alone. As a point of observation, it must be stated that, efficiently managed maritime operations with time, have been able to enhance the quality and quantum of the nation’s maritime sector driven trade exchange flows, which is indicative of the substantial contribution made by the sector towards boosting both national and global trade operations. The efforts initiated by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) along such lines are plenty and as a part of the National Port Master Plan, the capacity and efficiency enhancement strategies which the SLPA intends to enforce and practice is expected to increase the two way flow of business activity conducted close to the sea ports of Sri Lanka. The Port of Colombo identified as a deep draft port, which was able to
secure a milestone achievement of being able to handle a total of 7.2 million TEUs in 2020, as assessed by the UNCTAD Port Liner Shipping Connectivity Index 2022 "of the first quarter," was identified as the 17th best out of the 25 world’s best ports and was further recognized by the World Shipping Council in 2020, as the 25th best port among the top 50 container ports in the world. Plans have already been undertaken to improve the level of efficiency of the major container terminals to gradually reach a handling capacity of 18 million TEUs by 2030. At present, 80% of the container transshipment are from India and the balance are from other countries in the region. To help unleash Colombo Port’s actual potential and create a suitable business culture to secure greater investment, Government of Sri Lanka (GoSL) has also taken great strides in introducing the port city concept, allowing for the expansion of Colombo Port operations in a more commercially promising manner. The Hambantota Port as the next best cargo handling sea port of Sri Lanka is gaining recognition as a lucrative window of connectivity and would eventually become a value addition to the Sri Lankan maritime sector, for
Sri Lanka Key Player In Indo-Pacific Region
The construction of container terminals are in progress within identified port areas. The eastern coastal belt’s geographic conditions have indeed provided the Trincomalee Harbour with greater advantage to become the second best natural harbour in the world. the capacity it harbours to function as a multi-services hub. Moreover this Port is located close to the major international east-west shipping route and well positioned along the maritime gateway to the sea lines of communication and creates good business opportunities for providing bunkering services, conducting "Ro Ro" operations, extending oil and gas drill ship layup services, in addition to carrying out usual port functions. The construction of container terminals are in progress within identified port areas. The eastern coastal belt’s geographic conditions have indeed provided the Trincomalee Harbour with greater advantage to become the second best natural harbour in the world. Trincomalee was initially identified to cater for bulk and break bulk cargo handling and for carrying out port related industrial activities related to heavy industries, tourism and agriculture. The anticipated transformation which is in progress as an undertaking initiated by the SLPA, is expected to convert the Port of Trincomalee to a strategic port and an industrial hub, which the present government is closely working on. Furthermore, Galle and Kankasanthurai ports as locations holding great economic value, will be developed for commercial purposes as well as for promoting tourism internationally. Regional connectivity comes in many forms and fostering a multimodal
transport system within nations and between nations that have easy road and rail access may certainly complement the operations of the maritime activity chain. Growing support extended through various modes of transportation which include air, road and rail connectivity channels is becoming an added advantage. In this context, Sri Lanka holds the advantage of having the highest road density in South Asia, connecting all major seaports and airports such as the Colombo and Mattala airports, through well laid out infrastructure. Nevertheless, building maritime connectivity often requires the introduction and practice of diversified and innovative strategies that may help strengthen and widen the activity sphere offering better trade opportunities.
Sri Lanka is also making efforts to step into diversified off-shore business domains. Undertaking off-shore hydrocarbon exploration operation, off-shore green hydrogen sourcing and off-shore wind farming are such branches of trade activity, which the GoSL is presently setting plans to venture into. Furthermore, it is the firm conviction of the government that, both “diversification and diversity” are much needed components of change, which should be tapped rightly to boost trade activity. The introduction of smart port concepts
and virtual platforms as an interface to carryout regional maritime operations and other trade related ventures, can also be considered as agents of change, drawing together nations to synchronies their time bound tasks and work in union and in unison. As gauged by regional nations, advancements that take place within the maritime domain will often bring in the necessity to keep intact the regional maritime security network, that becomes the basis for promoting both security coorperation and trade alliances within the region. Therefore, further strengthening regional maritime security information sharing systems and practising well tailored off ashore disaster response management strategies would remain essential. This may very well imply that the sea lines of communication in the Indo Pacific region and the lifelines of global commerce must be open for peaceful use, while safeguarding the interests of regional nations and protecting the rights of sea farers.Sri Lanka as a neighbouring nation in the Indo-pacific region holding long standing partnerships within the regional maritime sector along multifaceted pathways, is certainly committed to extending its fullest cooperation in collaborating with all purposeful movements initiated by the Indo-Pacific region towards leveraging maritime sector operations as a critical factor for attaining self reliance by regional nations. BMD
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ENTREPRENEURSHIP
As Sri Lankan entrepreneurs we also need to look at other markets apart from Sri Lanka to earn foreign revenue. And as entrepreneurs it’s vital to develop a sense of urgency and a vision of opening up new opportunities outside Sri Lanka to reach out to investors, connect with Sri Lankans abroad to pick on opportunities and work on innovative business models. Dhanushka Fernando – Founder / CEO, Finez Capital Ventures,
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By : Sabrina Zavahir
Entrepreneurs are constantly powered by their visions and passions. They have been the engine for creating new job opportunities while assisting in generating revenue, evolving in continuous innovation, enhancing efficiency and improving business models and processes. Entrepreneurship can be considered the cornerstone of the unrestricted enterprise structured systems implemented around the globe. BMD – connected with Dhanushka Fernando – Founder / CEO, Finez Capital Ventures, on income generation, economic growth, and contribution to sustainable development goals with an entrepreneurial drive.
Q
:The plague which was experienced a few years ago with gray areas still being experienced may have laid a platform with waste to great swathes of any chosen industry. This also fueled an extraordinary surge in startups and new small businesses, as those laid off from affected firms were forced to explore new opportunities. How do you see Sri Lankan Entrepreneurs connecting to this thought sense?
First of all if you an entrepreneur it’s important to develop an entrepreneurial mindset to see any challenge as an opportunity. As challenges only can fuel new thinking and innovation to do better. Even during Covid industries such as healthcare, technology, and online relating etc saw a massive boom. Even in Sri Lanka there was a surge in online delivery related businesses and innovative healthcare related businesses. Therefore it’s important for any entrepreneur to look at adopting to new technologies and always keeping ahead of the curve when it comes to businesses. As Sri Lankan entrepreneurs we also need to look at other markets apart from Sri Lanka to earn foreign revenue. And as entrepreneurs it’s vital to develop a sense of urgency and a vision of opening up new opportunities outside Sri Lanka. Reaching out to investors to connecting with Sri Lankans abroad to pick on opportunities and working on innovative business models.
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An Alluring Entrepreneurship
World is moving irrespective of all the issues and if you are an entrepreneur you need to learn the art and science of evolving with these changing times and circumstances.
Q:
Regardless of how anyone can structure or define a definition of entrepreneurship, certainly it isn't easy. I am sure you can share your expertise regarding the optimistic approach toward this mission of being successful!
Well success in entrepreneurship shouldn’t only be measured with the amount of profit or revenue one would make but rather through the impact one would leave behind. So for me entrepreneurship is about adding value. Adding value to your customers, adding value to your team members, adding value to the community and society as a whole through your operations. This requires to rethink our value models and purpose any business venture to serve the greater good, specially in a society like Sri Lanka where I believe entrepreneurs have a key role to play towards the betterment of our country. Once you understand this there is great support you would gain too from all the stakeholders around you.
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Q:
It’s been given to understand that entrepreneurs play a key role in any economy, using their skills and initiatives that are necessary to anticipate needs in expediting productive new ideas to market. In your perspective, what sort of industries should be focused on considering a Sri Lankan market of course to boost sales turnovers?
Right now I would say export oriented industries as long as they can repurpose the business models and have products and services that can be competed internationally. Specially agriculture, value added crops and also KPO and BPO related industries have bigger opportunities in this regard. Therefore in developing business models it’s important to study these areas and obtain guidance to from more experienced and seasoned businessman and also entrepreneurs. And reaching out to Sri Lankans living abroad too to understand the market conditions in other countries. Research and partnerships also plays a big role when it comes to reaching out to other markets.
An Alluring Entrepreneurship
Q:
There might have been certain strategies that worked well early in the business that isn’t so useful at present. How should a business founder make that swift change considering a sustainable transformation?
It’s vital for any business to adopt to the changes in the market very fast. As the market and environment for business changes at a rapid pace around us, I would say learning and unlearning plays a key role in this regard. What we knew five years back is not relevant at present with so much technological and environmental factor changes and advancements. So it’s important to constantly learn and keep one's self ahead of the curve when it comes to entrepreneurship and business. Also business strategies adopted should be measured and evaluated constantly and tweaked to suit market conditions. And at the same times it’s vital to have the right team around you to drive the business forward. Another important strategy to master is delegation and getting your team to stick to one common purpose to fuel growth overall. And also keep on innovating and challenging the norm and develop a sound entrepreneurial mindset.
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SUCCESS
THREE WISE LESSONS ON GIFTING The views of the giver, not just the recipient, strongly influence how people perceive Christmas gifts, as do the price and packaging. Brands should take note. By Richard Shotton & Will Hanmer-Lloyd
1. GIVING MAKES US HAPPY Gift-giving is universal across cultures and fundamental to the fabric of society. Psychologists have long been fascinated by the practice: why do we give, what makes a good gift, and how much should we spend? Well, it turns out that there are certain consistent psychological characteristics linked with gifting. These insights can help you as a marketer to work in alignment with human behaviour – so you can help the givers keep giving, while you grow your brand.
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Giving to others seems to boost our own happiness more than spending on ourselves. There’s plenty of academic evidence to support this. For example, a 2008 study by Elizabeth Dunn, Lara Aknin (University of British Columbia) and Michael Norton (Harvard) ran a study to explore this. The researchers gave 46 participants a small sum of money ($5 or $20) and asked them to spend it that day. Half were told to spend it on themselves, half on someone else. When asked at the end of the day, those who had spent their unexpected windfall on others were measurably happier than those who’d spent it on themselves. Interestingly, the amount they’d been given didn’t impact their happiness. This is just one of many studies showing the same thing – giving makes us happy.
Three Wise Lessons On Gifting
T
here was a clear winner: experiences made people 13% happier than new stuff. So, a gift of tickets, a day out or a spa treatment will be well-received and deliver genuine joy.
What can brands do? You can spread joy by helping people to be generous. This will benefit everyone — not only the giver and receiver, but of course, your brand image. A great example of this comes from Pret A Manger, which handed out vouchers designed to be passed on to others. This works so well because it makes two people happy for the price of one, whilst bringing new customers through the door. And of course, it needn’t be saved just for Christmas – why not pass on joy year-round?
2. DOING IS BETTER THAN HAVING (BUT DON’T FORGET THE PARCEL) A friend recently offered her dad a choice for his Christmas gift: a jumper, or tickets to an Abba tribute gig. He picked the latter, and photos of the evening show what a fantastic time they had together, glittered flares and all. It seems he made the right choice. This is an example of what almost every study exploring the issue
has revealed – experiences trump material possessions for boosting happiness. In one 2010 study, Thomas Gilovich from Cornell University carried out a survey to explore this. He asked participants to describe their most recent experiential purchase or material purchase over $100, and to rate how happy the purchase made them. There was a clear winner: experiences made people 13% happier than new stuff. So, a gift of tickets, a day out or a spa treatment will be well-received and deliver genuine joy. Give the recipient the excitement of unwrapping and the giver a chance to witness the magic of the opening moment. But there’s something important to keep in mind. While recipients will be delighted with an activity or event, the giver also needs to get something out of the exchange. There’s evidence that gift-givers place value on the moment of handover. For them, the exchange lets them see how well-appreciated their gift has been: is their lovedone surprised, touched or grateful? This matters for marketers, whose focus should be the giver as much
as the receiver.
WHAT CAN
BRANDS DO?
First, don’t underestimate the value of offering experiences as well as products. If your brand doesn’t naturally lend itself to this, are there any smart ways you could combine product and experience – what about after-hours shopping, taster sessions, launch events or influencer talks? Anything that needs an exclusive invitation, which would make a nice gift. Second, consider the giver. Printing off a voucher at home, or simply sending a PDF by email, can feel transactional and bring little satisfaction. Sometimes, it’s the only option – but it’s a good idea to offer a packaged version too. Think about ways to box up an experience beautifully, giving the recipient the excitement of unwrapping and the giver a chance to witness the magic of the opening moment. Amazon offers various choices for their shopping vouchers, including eye catching gift boxes as well as instant print-at-home and email options. And Red Letter Days have
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An Alluring Entrepreneurship
I
n the second stage, they were asked to imagine it was their friend’s birthday and they had decided to buy them a pair of headphones as a gift. They then selected a pair of headphones for their friend.
mastered this with their ‘Joy in a Box’ messaging. BMD
price-sensitive than normal when it comes to purchasing gifts.
3. WHEN IT COMES TO GIFTING, MORE IS MORE
In one 2018 study, Sherry Shi Wang and Ralf van der Lans from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, compared price sensitivity in personal and gift purchasing.
Gift-givers believe that the more they spend on a gift, the more it will be appreciated. There’s academic evidence for this from a 2009 study by Francis Flynn and Gabrielle Adams at Stanford University. They examined gift-givers’ and gift-recipients’ feelings about price and gift appreciation: 237 participants were randomly assigned to the role of either giftgiver or gift-recipient. Both were asked to estimate the value of a recent birthday gift they’d either given or received and answer several questions about their experience. Givers predicted that the more a gift cost, the more joy it would bring, assuming that pricier presents convey a higher level of thoughtfulness. Interestingly, for recipients, price did not predict appreciation. Linked with this, research has revealed that people are less
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They gave 99 pairs of friends a choice of six headphones, each with a randomly generated spec based on various product attributes, including price. Each pair was asked to indicate their headphone preference if purchasing for themselves. In the second stage, they were asked to imagine it was their friend’s birthday and they had decided to buy them a pair of headphones as a gift. They then selected a pair of headphones for their friend. The findings suggest we’re more generous to others than ourselves: on average, participants were willing to spend 6% more when buying headphones as a gift, rather than for themselves.
WHAT CAN BRANDS DO?
Gift-givers believe that a gift that is perceived to be expensive will be appreciated more. This, of course, was harnessed by DeBeers in the 1940s, when the brand explicitly related the amount a man spends on a diamond engagement ring for his fiancée with the degree of his love for her. So, despite our current economic climate, it may be wiser to use discounts with caution if you’re in the gifting market. Otherwise, you risk making your product less appealing. Taken together, the tactics discussed here can help grow your brand, while spreading generosity and joy. And why not apply a tip or two to your own Christmas shopping this year? The more people you give to, the happier you’ll be. Richard Shotton is founder of the consultancy Astroten and author of The Choice Factory, a book about applying behavioural science to advertising. He tweets at @rshotton. Will Hanmer-Lloyd is head of strategy at Total Media. BMD Courtesy: Marketing Week
SUCCESS
NEVER TAKE
SHORT CUTS
The Colombo International Nautical and Engineering College, more popularly known as CINEC is a private higher education institute that specializes in maritime education and training. We met with CINEC’s president, Captain Ajith Peiris to understand more about CINEC and his views on the managment principles he applied there. Below is an excerpt from the interview:
"The important point is that we never took short cuts. We never focused on only increasing our profits. Instead we focused our energies on improving quality. Whatever we have earned in the initial two decades was reinvested in this organization, in the form of people, infrastructure, equipment, etc. " bmd
Published on October 2018 BMD | Interviewed by Ranmini Vidanagama | Visit www.bmdlk.com for the full story JANUARY 2023
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MARKETING
SIX TRENDS IN TV
ADVERTISING TV audiences are fragmenting as the number of streaming channels grows. Meanwhile, the recession makes it more important than ever for brands to understand viewing habits to maximise the effectiveness of their spend.
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TV has a strong history of building brand awareness and boosting sales, but brands’ ability to find their audience in this fragmented market continues to present a very real challenge. With 2023 ushering in further economic uncertainty and a continuation of the cost-of-living crisis, short-term performance metrics are similarly growing in importance.
Six Trends In TV Advertising Marketers
Local broadcasters are also maximising their IP to open up new revenue streams, for example ITV has agreed deals with Fortnite and Virtual Brand Group to bring popular shows such as I’m a Celebrity and The Voice into the metaverse.
Here are six top TV advertising trends for 2023 that brands must be aware of, to make best use of their marketing budgets next year.
1.
The fragmentation of viewing will continue, and brands must follow where audiences go
The TV audience has become increasingly fragmented over time, and the proliferation of devices and platforms in the average household has made things more difficult for brands. Advertisers will need to keep adapting to the fragmentation challenge in 2023 as new adsupported streaming services enter the market. Addressable TV helps brands reach viewers wherever they are and target them more precisely, all through a single access point for planning, buying and reporting of campaigns. Having this bird’s eye view of a campaign is also key to maximising reach across the
supply mix and measuring overall effectiveness.
2.
The entertainment juggernauts will continue their rise – but the content will evolve
The likes of Amazon, Netflix, Disney and Apple will continue to grow their global dominance across TV, cinema and also gaming. As well as rolling out its new ad-funded subscription tier, Netflix, for example, is in the early stages of moving into the gaming space. The success of TV shows based on gaming titles, like The Witcher and the League of Legends-inspired Arcane, demonstrate that these types of cross-entertainment formats are a rich seam to tap into loyal audiences. Local broadcasters are also maximising their IP to open up new revenue streams, for example ITV has agreed deals with Fortnite and Virtual Brand Group to bring popular shows such as I’m a Celebrity and The Voice into the
metaverse. It’s clear that consumers are broadening their definition of TV to include new platforms and formats. Advertisers need to respond to this by investing in different types of premium video content advertising, to ensure they achieve relevance and engagement in these new spaces.
3.
Breaking media silos to focus on omnichannel performance
TV is still the most trusted medium, and it has proven to be able to cut through the digital noise. Despite addressable TV historically often being treated slightly separately, it will begin to integrate into and form a key part of cross-channel programmatic solutions. In 2023, we’ll see that omnichannel marketing strategies will grow in importance. Advertisers will increasingly
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Six Trends In TV Advertising Marketers
Advertisers will react to this trend by using multiple data sources to hone in on their most valuable audience segments and minimise media wastage. New-economy (often direct-to-consumer) brands will accelerate TV investments to win market share, whilst still delivering against the performance KPIs that are embedded in their businesses.
want to bring all addressable media closer together to create consistent and impactful brand experiences, and to improve campaign effectiveness. This addressable-first mindset will also fundamentally and irreversibly change the way all brands approach and plan campaigns.
4.
Expect new audience targeting protocols
The shift from cookies, device IDs and IP addresses to new ways of targeting will continue in 2023, fuelled by stricter privacy controls and regulation. New targeting methods will emerge, with commerce data increasingly being used for marketing intelligence, campaign targeting and as a means for closed-loop measurement on TV. Lifestyle, transactional and geolocation-based data can help advertisers to strike the balance of scale versus granularity and can be activated consistently within
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omnichannel solutions, giving addressable TV the opportunity to demonstrate its impact on performance directly against other digital media channels. For example, when B&Q wanted to drive kitchen sales and raise awareness of a specific offer to increase footfall during the key January retail period, it chose addressable TV. Because the retailer was able to deliver its campaign creative to a specific segment who were most likely to engage and relate to the offer, B&Q saw a 5% uplift in actual store visits and a 23% increase in store visit conversion for those homes exposed to their creative through Finecast targeting.
on TV. They’ll need their campaigns to deliver quickly, as marketers feel increased pressure to demonstrate returns. Advertisers will react to this trend by using multiple data sources to hone in on their most valuable audience segments and minimise media wastage. New-economy (often direct-to-consumer) brands will accelerate TV investments to win market share, whilst still delivering against the performance KPIs that are embedded in their businesses.
5.
Likewise, established blue-chip brands will be conscious of the power of TV in maintaining share of market during a recession, but will also look for improved methodologies to show the shortterm return.
The likely continuation of the economic downturn into 2023 will force advertisers to look for short-term wins when advertising
One brand already achieving this is TalkTalk. It needed an audience-first marketing strategy to improve perceptions of its broadband services and to drive
A growing requirement to measure short-term performance effectively
Six Trends In TV Advertising Marketers
Addressable TV is underpinned by relevance, and this also applies to the creative. Finecast’s ‘Thinking Inside the Box’ research found that people who deem an ad to be relevant are 18 times more likely to think that the brand is worth paying for, and 20 times more likely to find the creative asset appealing.
demand for its Future Fibre product. Finecast created bespoke audiences using a combination of third-party data from companies such as YouGov, Experian and Acxiom, and supplemented this with interest-based aggregated and anonymised transactional data. The addressable TV campaign maximised attention and drove engagement across agreed KPIs. Finecast partnered with Audience Project, which used a firstto-market web uplift solution enabled by Google Analytics data, to test the impact that addressable TV was having in driving demand and boosting website visits. The results revealed that 12% of site visits could be attributed to the addressable TV campaign, with a cost per incremental visit of just 15p.
6.
There will be more focus on using the creative to drive outcomes
The last few years have been
spent optimising technology and data, but 2023 will be the year when the spotlight turns on creative. The biggest opportunity now is to adapt TV creative by employing some of the tactics already commonplace in the digital space. Brands want to use creative to drive outcomes. An example of this is the increased use of commerce-driving formats such as QR codes and interactive voice activations. Innovations to improve creative and measurement will emerge, so advertisers can vary and tailor their messaging for different audience segments (whether that is pre-optimised creative or dynamic) and see the performance uplifts that those changes have driven. Addressable TV is underpinned by relevance, and this also applies to the creative. Finecast’s ‘Thinking Inside the Box’ research found that people who deem an ad
to be relevant are 18 times more likely to think that the brand is worth paying for, and 20 times more likely to find the creative asset appealing. For example, when one travel brand used addressable TV to target three distinct audiences with three tailored ads to drive greater resonance, it saw a sales uplift of between 4% and 6% across all three audiences. There’s no doubt 2023 will be a challenging year, with more focus than ever on the returns brands achieve on their advertising investments. When planning and executing their TV campaigns in the year ahead, the key is for marketers to ensure that advanced audience targeting capabilities and new creative opportunities flourish hand-in-hand, so that they remain as connected to their customers as possible. BMD Courtesy: Marketing Week
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MANAGEMENT
WHY PRIORITIZING PROFIT IS BAD FOR BUSINESS TODAY’S MOST SUCCESSFUL GLOBAL COMPANIES AREN’T JUST FOCUSED ON HOW MUCH COLD, HARD CASH THEY CAN MAKE. INVESTORS AND CONSUMERS ARE INCREASINGLY DEMANDING THAT THEY BEHAVE MORE ETHICALLY AND GIVE BACK TO THEIR COMMUNITIES. SO WHICH FIRMS ARE THRIVING BECAUSE THEY’VE FOUND A HIGHER PURPOSE? WORDS PAUL MERRILL • 10-MIN READ According to Jim Barksdale, former CEO of Netscape, “Saying that the purpose of a company is to make money is like saying the purpose of being alive is to breathe”. It’s a sentiment that’s gained significant traction globally, propelled by declining trust in corporations, widening pay gaps, pressure to reduce emissions and the unstoppable rise of people power through social media. At its heart is the existential question of why exactly a business operates. Articulating what, where and how is a whole lot easier. But companies are increasingly switching their focus from bottom line success to establishing a clearly defined, singular purpose that becomes a north star that they religiously follow.
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It’s a seismic shift in priorities, and often stressful for CEOs with impatient shareholders and boards demanding short-term gains. But help is at hand in the form of the so-called ‘purpose paradox’: if a company just pursues profit, it won’t be very profitable. DOING GOOD = DOING WELL Deloitte research has shown that purpose-driven businesses grow three times faster than their competitors, and boast higher employee and customer satisfaction. EY’s global CEO Mark Weinberger went even further in 2020, pointing out that companies with a social impact purpose have outperformed the S&P 500 by 10 times.
But he added a caveat: “The hard part is figuring out how to make it more than just words in a memo.” PwC echoes the warning, arguing that a ‘say–do gap’ still exists where good intentions aren’t backed up by actions. Its 2022 survey of CEO sentiment found that surprisingly few chief executives had targets relating to ESG in their annual bonus criteria. PURPOSE-BUILT FOR SUCCESS So which global companies have proven they have strength of purpose? Here are 10 that are thriving precisely because they have a higher calling than the pursuit of profit.
Why Prioritizing Profit Is Badfor Business
AIRBNB When a multinational company scraps its human resources department, it might be safe to assume its run by a tyrannical founder who thinks diversity means a wide selection of single malts in his office’s antique globe bar cabinet. But that certainly wasn’t the case when Airbnb did just that in 2015, replacing it with an Employee Experience Group (EEG). For EEG head Mark Levy it was an important shift as the company’s primary purpose had always been to create a global sense of community. “The shift from HR to EX was all about co-creation,” Levy, now an adviser to multiple companies, tells The CEO Magazine. “Doing things with and for and not to your employees. It gave all employees a voice, and brought a lot more humanity and connections to work. “We defined the mission to create a world where anyone can belong anywhere, and it was why people joined and how they approached their work.” Lesson: The always purposeful Richard Branson has always prioritized staff over customers and, given Airbnb’s business model, happy hosts are a prerequisite for happy holidayers.
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Why Prioritizing Profit Is Badfor Business
IKEA
PATAGONIA The outdoor adventure firm is a great example of the purpose paradox. In fact, Patagonia actively set out to reduce its profits by telling customers not to buy its products! ‘Common Threads’ encouraged them to repair damaged clothing instead of replacing it, even giving self-help classes on how to do it and adopting a stated purpose ‘to save our home planet’. “They’ve never deviated from the purpose of protecting the planet,” Levy explains. “Whether it’s the way they approached thoughtful growth so as not to expand beyond their means, all the way through to leaving the company to nonprofits rather than going public or selling.” Its apparent efforts at self-harm resulted in a sales increase of 30 percent. Lesson: Telling people you’re a responsible corporate citizen is no longer enough. They need to see that transparent sustainability is at the heart of your strategy.
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The Swedish home furnishings giant exists to ‘create a better everyday life for the many people’ by manufacturing functional products that ‘the many’ can afford. But its purpose goes way beyond bargain beds and meatballs, with a proven commitment to staff welfare that’s clearly paying off – on the website Comparably.com, where employees anonymously rate their employers, 100 percent of IKEA workers say they are proud and motivated by its values. That pride partly stems from its famous sustainability practices and a pledge that by 2030 it’ll be a ‘circular company’ with all its 9,500 products able to be reused, repaired and recycled. Lesson: To its customers, IKEA is more than a store, it’s part of the community and inspires such cult-like loyalty and advocacy that not even the prospect of a Sunday morning spent brandishing an Allen key following minimalist instructions puts people off.
Why Prioritizing Profit Is Badfor Business
TESLA
THE CHEEKY PANDA In 2014, when Bill Gates famously projected how a global pandemic might play out, he failed to predict one key factor: that toilet paper would become more valuable than crude oil. Ironically, one UK startup had spent the previous three years pioneering ways to manufacture the tissues by using a lot less oil – and a lot fewer trees, as The Cheeky Panda makes all its paper-based products using sustainable bamboo that requires no fertilizers, bleach or chlorine.
Elon Musk didn’t set out to become the richest man in the world, he set out to change the world by accelerating the transition to sustainable energy, nearly going broke in the process as Tesla teetered a month away from bankruptcy during much of 2017 and 2018. It singlehandedly rewrote the automotive playbook by sticking rigidly to its principles of high-quality electric vehicles through an immense investment in developing new technologies, including driverless cars that Musk claims will “save millions of lives”. Lesson: Both Tesla and SpaceX are thriving because they spotted markets that didn’t yet exist and conquered them with an extraordinary singleminded determination to be the first and the best.
“We want to bring sustainability to the mass market in our own cheeky way,” its website declares. The business has been growing faster than any bamboo plant and has been eyeing a US$300 million initial public offering.
Lesson: Customers will increasingly pay over the odds for well-marketed, planet-friendly products.
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Why Prioritizing Profit Is Badfor Business
STARBUCKS
THE BODY SHOP Founded in the UK in 1976 with a vow to only sell natural, cruelty-free beauty products, The Body Shop has had something of a bumpy ride when it comes to purpose. After years as the poster girl for ethical practices, an expose in 1994 accused it of greenwashing, while its sale to L’Oréal in 2006 provoked controversy due to the firm’s animal testing in China. By the time it was bought out again a decade later, it had long since lost its mojo. When David Boynton took over as CEO in 2017 he began a transformational pivot back to the company’s maverick roots with a new company purpose: ‘to fight for a fairer, more beautiful world’. Online sales doubled in four years and it achieved B Corp certification. Lesson: The Body Shop’s pioneering, feminist beginnings had become so diluted it lost its raison d’être. No brand can coast on reputation alone.
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The ubiquitous American coffee chain’s stated purpose has very little to do with coffee: ‘to inspire and nurture the human spirit, one person, one cup and one neighborhood at a time’. It also has very little to do with maximizing profit as its commitments to reducing carbon, sourcing fair-trade beans, providing affordable health care and education, and supporting farmers don’t come cheap. However, it endeared itself to the public and inspired the idea of a ‘third refuge’ for enjoying your caffeine hit beyond the home and office. Lesson: By redefining hospitality, Starbucks proved that you don’t need the best-tasting coffee, you need the most satisfying experience.
Why Prioritizing Profit Is Badfor Business
AUDEN GROUP
EGO For nearly 50 years, Shell gas stations in 26 countries sold LEGO sets so kids could build their very own Shell-branded petrol trucks and forecourt pumps. By 2014, the partnership was worth more than US$68 million to the toy maker, but there was a problem. It had recently set out its stall as a responsible corporation, committed to sustainability, something Shell wasn’t exactly renowned for. The deal was duly ditched as LEGO reframed its purpose as ‘inspiring the builders of tomorrow’, a back-to-basic-bricks policy that jettisoned any products that strayed too far from its core appeal. Its bean counters needn’t have been too concerned about losing the Shell dollar as the following year, it was named the world’s most powerful brand by Brand Finance.
In the arena of financial services, few sectors are more stigmatized than payday loans where desperate, vulnerable individuals are sucked into a spiral of debt by the promise of easy money. British Fintech company Auden was formed a decade ago to give them a new way to get back on their feet through socially responsible and affordable loans. “We know many people don’t have a choice,” it declares. “Our mission is to change that.” The customers’ best interests are put above the company’s so it won’t loan to those who can’t afford it. Lesson: Auden carved out a new purpose-led niche and its impressive growth shows that brand integrity matters.
Lesson: No revenue stream is worth it if it tarnishes the brand.
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Why Prioritizing Profit Is Badfor Business
SACRIFICING THE YEEZY MONEY
BEN & JERRY’S The ultimate example of how to put purpose first and a byword for corporate responsibility, Ben & Jerry’s fights for marginalized communities and challenges injustice. All through the medium of ice cream. Founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were activists right from the start, and became cultural icons of authenticity, compassion and very tasty frozen desserts. Not even the sale to Unilever in 2000 could tarnish the brand, which continues to campaign on everything from farm emissions and LGBTQIA+ rights to the occupation of Palestinian territories. Lesson: Ben & Jerry’s is a perfect storm of charismatic founders, PR mastery and communicating brand values. There are other delicious ice creams, but none with such a feelgood factor.
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Tech giants such as Facebook, Google, Amazon, Uber, Apple, SpaceX, Netflix, Dell and many others have all put purpose front and center of their operations. Most struggled in their early days before they figured out their ‘why’ and soared into the stratosphere. Meanwhile, nearly all the high-profile corporate failures came about through a muddled vision or lack of direction. In short, they were at cross purposes. More recently, Adidas put its money where its Yeezy sneakers were by ending its relationship with Kanye West over his anti-Semitic tweets. The move will cost the company a reputed US$650 million annually, but saves it from reputational damage that could have cost much more. So it’s not just wise men who follow a north star, but also wise CEOs. And if they get it right, they won’t even need to take gold with them – there’ll be plenty lying in wait. BMD Courtesy: CEO
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MANAGEMENT
PRIORITIES FOR CEOs IN TURBULENT TIMES With economic troubles mounting, it’s a time to tighten belts and put on hard hats. But don’t forget the jet pack, to accelerate into the next phase of growth. If an executive had fallen asleep in 2019 and just woke up, she wouldn’t recognize the business world of November 2022. The COVID-19 pandemic rewrote the rules, and now a new and potent disruption seems to arrive every other day. You know the list of issues; we won’t go through them here. Suffice to say that managing complex organizations is much harder today than it was just a few years ago. And the hardest task of all for CEOs is to decide what needs to be done now and what can wait. In short, what matters most today? Just as we did last year, we’ve spoken with hundreds of leaders this year and found six priorities that feature prominently on CEO agendas worldwide. They’re the moves leaders are taking to shore up defenses and gain ground on rivals— which is very different from the purely defensive agenda that many companies are following.
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In short, what matters most today? Just as we did last year, we’ve spoken with hundreds of leaders this year and found six priorities that feature prominently on CEO agendas worldwide.
Six Priorities For CEOs In Turbulent Times
Our flagship article explains how to achieve the best of both worlds; our collection offers a range of ideas on how to play offense and defense in many sectors.
founded in the depths of a downturn. Right now, the most promising field is in green technologies, where trillions of dollars will be invested in the coming years. Read on for two perspectives on what the CEOs of incumbent companies must do to successfully launch new businesses. Technology: The basis of growth
Resilience: fall back, spring ahead Why is it some companies can do it and others cannot? In a word: resilience. But what is resilience, and how can leaders build it? Read our handbook on resilience in the face of the most urgent disruption, inflation, as well as US and European perspectives on what resilience means today.
TAKE COURAGE Life at the top calls for ambidexterity— leadership that is both prudent and bold. Our flagship article explains how to achieve the best of both worlds; our collection offers a range of ideas on how to play offense and defense in many sectors.
HATCH NEW BUSINESSES Hatch new businesses. Many of the world’s greatest companies were
The basis of growth. Mastering tech trends is essential to find growth in software, build new businesses, and transform old ones. See our articles for more, and check out our interactive to understand the trends.
NET ZERO: STAY THE COURSE Net zero: Stay the course. The war in Ukraine has left many countries looking like a sailor with one foot in the boat and one foot on the dock. It’s clear that the dependence on fossil fuels is far from over. And it’s equally clear that the net-zero transition is taking off. Our articles explain the state of play. Rebuild the employee experience It’s a brave new work-from-home world. What does that mean for the office? Can the office be rethought to give employees what they’re not getting from video calls? Read these two articles for ideas and examples and see our collection for more. BMD Courtesy: McKinsey & Company
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JIM COLLINS ON
‘THRIVING IN CHAOS’
By Dan Bigman
What does it take to create a truly great, lasting company amid historic uncertainty and volatility? Based on decades of research, Jim Collins, best-selling author of the business classics Good to Great, Built to Last and Great by Choice, has some answers. A challenging guide for challenging times.
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Jim Collins on ‘Thriving In Chaos’
That’s because—as you likely know already— Collins did a staggering amount of research to discover what really separated middling companies from those with decades-long outperformance. Who makes the jump? And how? It’s part of what’s become a pantheon of classic Collins tackling one fundamental question after another:
Ask a few hundred CEOs from nearly every industry in nearly every part of the country for the name of the most useful business book they’ve ever read— as we recently did—and one title tops the list, and overwhelmingly so: Good to Great by Jim Collins. That’s because—as you likely know already— Collins did a staggering amount of research to discover what really separated middling companies from those with decades-long outperformance. Who makes the jump? And
how? It’s part of what’s become a pantheon of classic Collins tackling one fundamental question after another: Why do great companies fail? (How the Mighty Fall); How do some companies persist in being great over very long periods of time? (Built to Last, with Jerry Porras); Why do some companies seem to survive in chaos, while others falter? (Great by Choice, with Morten T. Hansen). Throughout these works, he’s created some of the most widely quoted
strategy ideas in a century: the Hedgehog Concept, the Flywheel, getting the right people on the bus, Level 5 leaders, the Stockdale Paradox, unlocking, along the way, some fundamental secrets about what works and what doesn’t—and why— when it comes to nurturing a successful organization over the long haul. (See Jim Collins 101, below.)
Five years ago, in the wake of the bruising presidential election, I spent some time with Collins at his offices in Boulder, Colorado, asking him some fundamental questions about the nature of leadership in America. To my surprise, he was deeply optimistic—based on what he’d seen working with West Point cadets, hospital staffers, teachers and businesspeople, thousands of whom he said embodied his concept of Level 5 Leadership—people with a blend of “personal humility” and “indomitable will” who are ambitious for “the cause and the organization…not themselves.” (That interview is available here.) We were a nation full of Level 5 leaders, he argued, and that was our great, under-considered strength. Now, as the world faces yet another round of volatile, unpredictable challenges, from inflation to war to climate change to poisonous politics to a reshuffling of the post–World War II global order, I decided to talk with Collins again, this time to ask him about the nature of resilience. What do great companies do right in the face of severe challenges? What do others get wrong? For him, there’s no more timely question in business. “The primary reality of history is uncertainty, turbulence, chaos,” says Collins. “As Edward T. O’Donnell, a history professor, puts it, ‘history is the study of surprises.So, I actually feel we’re heading into what is more normal, rather than what is less normal. In some various form, this level of uncertainty is
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Jim Collins on ‘Thriving In Chaos’
more likely—nobody can say with certainty—to characterize the rest of our lives than not. But once again, that doesn’t mean Collins is pessimistic. Far from it. As he reminds us, even if most of our post–World War II stability was, in his words, “aberrant” compared with the rest of human history, that only means that most of the critical facets of our civilization were developed in chaotic rather than stable times. “Look at what people did,” he says. “Look at the kinds of companies people built, look at what people accomplished through all the uncertainties, turbulence, chaos, change, technology, that came before. They did it. So, we can do it.” The question, of course, is how: How do great companies make their way through tough times? How do the best leadership teams approach uncertainty and volatility? And how can we do it, too? The following conversation is edited for length and clarity. What have you learned about what great leadership teams do—and what the not-great do—during volatile times and what happens as a result? The wonderful thing is, we have research we can draw upon. The work that Morten [Hansen] and I did in Great by Choice was really,
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ultimately, about thriving in chaos. Number one, we observed that you learn how to exert self-control and self-discipline in a world that is out of control. We found this marvelous matched pair, Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott, the first two to try to go to the South Pole in 1911. It was like an entrepreneurial startup heading off into the most uncertain and unforgiving environment. It wasn’t just, “Hey, let’s go to the South Pole, hunker down and survive.” It was to try to be the first in history to reach the South Pole. What we found is that the way Roald Amundsen led—he’s the one who got there first and got back alive and safe—was different than the way Robert Falcon Scott led. Scott got there second, and then he and his entire team died on the way back that same year. The environment was completely out of control. It’s the South Pole. It’s 1911. It can easily kill you. You think it’s hard building a company in California? Try going to the South Pole in 1911. It was the moon mission of 1911. Amundsen was very, very disciplined in his march across the plateau, and Scott was very erratic. Amundsen stayed on this consistent march. He never wanted to get exposed to a terrible storm when he was depleted and exhausted. But
even on really uncertain days, he would still make progress towards their goal, they were 20-mile marching across the plateau. Scott was much more erratic. He had big days and not big days, and the weather determining his pace rather than himself. When we looked inside companies that did really well in times of uncertainty, they had the same pattern. They had something they would focus on that was like a heartbeat march that kept them exerting a sense of self-control in a world that was out of control. A historical business example of this is the rise of Intel from startup company into the 2000s. In that case, their march was to stay on Moore’s law. Imagine all the chaos, uncertainty, technology change and disruptions. In fact, their entire business got obliterated, essentially, when the memory chip business went into [depression] in the 1980s. But they had this march, which was doubling components at affordable cost every 18 to 24 months, no matter what, like clockwork. They never, ever missed it. Moore’s Law wasn’t a law, it was a decision. It speaks to figuring out what that one key metric is that moves your business, and committing to it over and over. Right. It’s not a random choice.
Jim Collins on ‘Thriving In Chaos’
When we looked inside companies that did really well in times of uncertainty, they had the same pattern. They had something they would focus on that was like a heartbeat march that kept them exerting a sense of self-control in a world that was out of control.
You could have a technology march, a profitability march, a growth march, a cost march or whatever. It just has to be an intelligent march for you. Having that heartbeat allows you to exert self-control in a world that is out of control. When people are feeling frozen, feeling, “What do we do next? Oh my god, inflation might happen, and it might be 9 percent. What happens with interest rates? What’s going to happen with the geopolitical situation?” If you basically say, we’re going to set out and commit ourselves to achieving this march for 25 consecutive years, you manage yourself differently than if it’s just
reacting to the environment. Amundsen led his team across the plateau that way, and Scott didn’t. The second thing that we also saw in our companies is that in an uncertain world, there’s this very weird paradox of, on the one hand, placing really big bets, and, on the other, protecting your flanks against downside events, and putting both of those together. Amundsen and Scott both had to come up with a strategy for navigating an uncertain environment. Amundsen said, “I’ve got to bet my strategy on something that’s empirically proven because if it fails, we might not just fail in our quest,
we might die.” So he goes and lives with people in the Arctic, who have navigated these environments for thousands of years. They say, “You want to use dogs and sleds. That’s what we’ve tested. That’s what works. That’s what you need to master. If you’re going to bet your life on a strategy, bet on dogs and sleds.”
Scott bet on an untested technology, to drive motor sledges across the Antarctic Plateau. They didn’t do well in that environment, and the engine blocks cracked. So they ended up man-hauling sleds across the plateau. It didn’t work very well.
In a tough environment, you have to place a bet on your strategy. When you bet on an unempirically validated strategy—this is where that idea of “fire bullets to get calibration and then fire your cannonballs” tends to do well. Then, when you bet on an empirically validated approach, you bet very, very big. Companies that get in trouble tend to often place big bets because they’re uncertain, but they’re big bets that are uncalibrated, and then uncertainty intersects with a big uncalibrated bet. And that can kill. You described this in How the Mighty Fall— that increasingly desperate hunt for a “one-off” to save yourself. It’s the stage of grasping for salvation. In good times, everybody’s rising up; they’ve got the hubris and the undisciplined pursuit of more—we’re not 20-mile marching, we’re just going for more and growth and big and more and growth, until it starts to catch up with you. You’re not 20-mile marching, you’re just more growth big, more growth big.
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It’s hard to tell what’s leadership prowess and what’s luck when you’re in a rising market. These days you need a little more craft than that. This is what can get lost in a rising tide. Top leaders have great productive paranoia. They always assume everything will go bad and manage accordingly. Part of what enables them to survive spates of bad luck, catastrophic downturns and unexpected shocks is they just build more shock absorbers into their whole system. We went back and ran an analysis on the cash-to-assets ratio of companies that did really well in these kinds of environments, even when they were small. We found that the discipline to have a very high cash-to-assets ratio showed up early in their history. It wasn’t a luxury of their success. It preceded their success. I go back to Amundsen and Scott. Both calculated the amount of supply depots they needed. It is highly inefficient to multiply your potential supply depots by three. But it’s not highly inefficient if you’re coming back, winter’s gathering on you, and you run out of supplies and die. Tell me what efficient is. We found that great companies are kind of irrational in their “efficiency.” They’re not the most efficient use of capital; they’re not the most efficient use of buffers. What they are is enormously resilient by design.
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You see people who maintain highly conservative balance sheets and enormously prudent financial positions. They’re willing to place really big, calibrated bets—but they also protect the flanks. They always assume there’s something coming around the corner they can’t see but that will be disruptive, they know it could be really bad. It’s not a matter of if that will happen. It’s only a matter of when, what form it will take and how fast and ferocious it will be. They further understand that that’s an advantage for them. If you study economic history, you find that in good times it’s very hard to see the difference between the great and the mediocre. They both look pretty good. But when turbulent times come, the great tend to navigate it reasonably well. And the mediocre tend to get slammed, and a gap opens between the great and the mediocre. And then that gap is never given back. We systematically studied luck events and studied the role of luck: good luck, bad luck. Covid was bad luck for the whole world, right? But when you understand what luck is and that you can actually define it, quantify it and study it, there was no evidence that our big winners were luckier than our comparisons. What they got was a higher return on the luck events, the good luck or the bad luck, than their comparison. It’s the return on the luck that
separates, not the luck itself. But there’s one really key caveat, and this is something people have to grasp about luck. For building a great company, luck is not a causal variable. Good luck never, ever causes a great company. Bad luck, if it’s big enough, can kill a company. That’s why you have to manage yourself such that you can absorb tremendous hits of bad luck, so you never hit the death line. For you, the ultimate resiliency starts at the very beginning, with finding the right people. Getting those purposeful, driven-for-thecompany, not themselves, “Level 5 leaders,” as you call them, in the bus, in the right seats. Can you talk about achieving that in a time when it’s hard to hire people? You can’t do everything I just talked about if you don’t have the right people. There’s a wonderful Edward T. O’Donnell quote, “Your ultimate hedge against uncertainty is your people, people who can adapt to whatever the world throws at you.” Here are a few things I would pass along to any CEO right now. Sit down and make a list of all the people in your company who surprised you on the upside with their leadership through Covid. Because Covid exposed the leadership capabilities of people. I’ve had conversations with numerous CEOs who realized that Covid brought some people to the fore whose Level 5 leadership
Jim Collins on ‘Thriving In Chaos’
A CEO of a privately held second-generation family company, enormously successful, wrote me a letter recently that says simply, “My life’s work is to build an iconic company that can last 100 years, driven by Level 5 leaders driving a fleet of sparkling minibuses.
wasn’t necessarily so visible before under the stress of Covid. Take that as a gift, and say, “It’s hard to find enough of the right Level 5 leaders, but Covid just gave me a bunch of Level 5 leaders that I hadn’t seen before.” How can you make those people a bigger part of leading your company today? One of the most effective ways is to say, “There’s Jane, Suzy and George. And those three leaders showed a Level 5 leadership through Covid that is extraordinary. I’m gonna make them 10 times more important in this company than they were before.” That’s like getting 10 new Level 5 leaders.
If every single one of your readers did that right now, they’ve got a resource they can build upon. It’s great, too because there’s nothing more exciting than to recognize somebody, to suddenly realize, “Wow, I never saw that in them before.” That’s very exciting to identify and work with.
Another thing I encourage is literally thinking: How many key leadership seats do we have? It’s more than just your executive team. And how many of them have Level 5 leaders? A CEO of a privately held second-generation family
company, enormously successful, wrote me a letter recently that says simply, “My life’s work is to build an iconic company that can last 100 years, driven by Level 5 leaders driving a fleet of sparkling minibuses. I intend to fulfill this before I’m done.” Then there is this marvelous sentence. “Of 450 leaders, we have 42 Level 5 leaders. There is work to be done.” What I love about that is he’s systematically saying, “It’s not just about me being a Level 5 leader, I need 450 Level 5 leaders. And if I have Level 5 leaders in all these different leadership roles…” It’s a matter of building them; it’s not necessarily finding them, it’s building them. Then we can do great things, and we can absorb all kinds of shocks, and we have an inherent resiliency. One part of your work that’s always resonated is the idea of “confronting the brutal facts” and the Stockdale Paradox, or not giving up hope but also not giving in to Pollyanna optimism. Why is this so hard for leadership teams? Part of what happens is that leaders are afraid, sometimes, that if you dwell on and confront the brutal facts, it will somehow be demotivating. The truth is exactly the opposite. Your best people know the brutal facts. And as soon as you begin to confront them—simply by asking, “What are the brutal facts?”—the very best people tend to get really inspired, because they would like nothing more than to confront them and to overcome them. There’s very little that’s more demotivating than feeling that your leaders are failing to confront the facts that you see so clearly. I was at a storied American company facing new challenges from competitors around the world and watching the CEO present. I could see everybody in the room. The first part of the presentation had to do with a vision.
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And, as you know, having a great vision is a great thing. But I noticed a lot of people checking their phones and kind of distracted. It was a pretty good vision but didn’t really magnetize people. Then the CEO put up a “brutal facts” slide. He said, “We really need to confront the brutal facts that are in the way of accomplishing our vision.” He put out some things related to some scary stuff, about the threat of the international competition, about the cost structure, about a number of things. Everyone put down their phones. The room went silent. People were riveted. One of the most engaging things you can do is present the brutal facts. And yet people fear that, “oh, the brutal facts will demoralize people.” No, exactly the opposite. Part of it is just not asking the question. When an executive team comes to our management lab, I ask everyone to take out a blank sheet of paper and write down the top five brutal facts that the company faces today literally seven seconds into the session.
That’s how you start? That’s where it begins, every time. That explodes all the conversations open. It’s not just what’s wrong. It’s what are the facts? I find that building in the discipline to ask about the brutal facts is really powerful. And all you have to do is ask. A second thing is you have to be able
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to conduct autopsies without blame. Things go wrong, mistakes get made. You want a culture where the question is not, “Who do we blame?” but “How do we autopsy and learn from this?” If it ever devolves into trying to figure out who to blame, you will shut down the confronting of the brutal facts. That’s part of the secret sauce of doing this. Now, the other side—unwavering faith has to do with timeframe. Why am I an optimist, for example, about our country? Well, in any given news cycle, you can feel, mmmmm, right? Unwavering faith is about “we will work through this, we will come out the other side. It might take a long time.” What’s hard about the unwavering faith is that it’s a bit like delayed gratification. You have to retain that faith with the idea that that’s a long-term outcome, not a tomorrow outcome. If I could pick the one thing that I would change in how executives lead companies by magically waving a wand, it would be the timeframe in which they operate— that you manage for the quarter century, not the quarter. The central point to a lot of your work in my mind is the “Flywheel,” finding that operating system inside your company where you can attain repeatable success and grow it over time. How do you get clear on what your flywheel is? The essence of the flywheel is momentum. Usually over time, across multiple businesses, as you evolve from one phase to another phase to another phase as a company.
Think about two ways you can feel the world coming at you. One is like you’re on your heels. You’re getting buffeted about. Or, you can feel that, yeah, maybe there’s a hurricane in your face, but the fundamental feel you have is forward momentum. You never want to underestimate the power of feeling momentum in what you’re doing. It’s this building effect even if it’s in a particularly challenging time, the sense that you are creating momentum. The flywheel is about that. It’s also about the idea that building anything great is a cumulative process. The turning point for me in understanding the power of the flywheel when you’re facing difficulty came in 2001, when I presented the Good to Great ideas to Amazon and met with the executive team, the board and Jeff Bezos. It was the dot-com crash. Whatever we’re facing now, it may not be as hard as being a dot-com company in 2001. I taught the Good to Great ideas, but I put special emphasis on the flywheel principle. I’m not a consultant, I don’t tell people what to do, so as I left Seattle I simply said, “Don’t respond to this as a crisis. Respond as a flywheel.” Amazon took the flywheel principle, and they asked, “What is our flywheel?” Then they captured the architecture of momentum. They sketched out how that architecture of momentum of their flywheel worked, and they built upon that, turning the flywheel coming out of the dot-com crash. In a disruptive world, you don’t do
Jim Collins on ‘Thriving In Chaos’
I was at a storied American company facing new challenges from competitors around the world and watching the CEO present. I could see everybody in the room. The first part of the presentation had to do with a vision. And, as you know, having a great vision is a great thing. But I noticed a lot of people checking their phones and kind of distracted. It was a pretty good vision but didn’t really magnetize people well by blowing up your own flywheel. That’s not how you respond to a disruptive world. You disrupt the world by turning your flywheel. The disruptors are a flywheel. The disruptees are those who react to a crisis.
flywheel, but when I look at their flywheels, I realize they’re not flywheels. A flywheel is not a series of steps drawn as a circle, then you go, “We have a flywheel, because it’s drawn as a circle.” That’s not a flywheel.
Once you understand your flywheel, you can build on it systematically. It’s kind of like the 20-mile march, except it’s all about the momentum. If we do A, it’ll drive B, if we do B, it’ll drive C, if we do C, it’ll drive D, and so forth, around and around the flywheel.
You need five checks to know that your flywheel is really a great flywheel. First, it has an inexorable chain of momentum. In the case of Amazon, you can offer lower prices, more stuff for customers. Next is an inevitable consequence of that. If we do A, then we can’t help but bring more customers to the site. And if we bring more customers to the site, then we can’t help but attract more third-party sellers. And if we do that, then we can’t help but expand the store and
So, how do I identify our flywheel? How do I know I’ve got it right? A lot of people use the word
extend distribution. And if we do that, we can’t help but grow revenues per fixed cost. And if we do that, we can’t help but be able to lower prices on more stuff. Every step in the chain follows such that it throws you into the next step. That has to be the case along every single line in the flywheel, because that’s what creates the momentum. The second test is that the starting point at the top of the flywheel captures something essential about you. In the Amazon case, it’s about lower prices or more for our customers, because they’re a customer-obsessed flywheel. But for my friends at Giro Sport Design, who started out making great bicycle helmets, it was always about the next great innovative bike products that will help people bike faster. Or 3M’s flywheel in the 1930s was cultivating a culture of creative ferment to create an innovation machine, right? My flywheel starts with what’s the next question I want to answer, because that’s my animating force. Pick the top of the flywheel to reflect something essential, then begin creating change. Number three, there’s a right side and a left side of the flywheel. Your right side is about actualizing your purpose in the world. It’s what you do, what you contribute, how you make your customers or other people’s lives better. It’s what you do that is of value in some way and of use. The left side of the flywheel is fuel. It’s high profitability based on your brand at Giro Sport Design that we could reinvest. It’s economies of scale at Vanguard and Amazon. It’s fuel. Then, here’s the key: The fuel is not to be siphoned off to make a bunch of people rich; the purpose of the fuel is to go
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Jim Collins on ‘Thriving In Chaos’
back to the top of the flywheel and drive it around even faster. Number four is it’s got empirical validation. The way you start working on your flywheel is you make a list of your big successes and your big disappointments. You look at those and say, “If we have a flywheel, it is already evident in what our big, replicable successes are.” Our disappointments should be things that wouldn’t fit on the flywheel, that’s why they’re disappointments. So, when you go back, you back-test your flywheel against where you’ve actually been incredibly successful and map that your actual replicable successes can be explained by the flywheel. Number five is that it’s an architecture, not a business. It allows you to move, say, in the case of Apple, from personal computers to smart handhelds to an entire ecosystem on one flywheel. Or restaurants to hotels on one flywheel. Or chemicals to pharmaceuticals on one flywheel, right? From Amazon website to Amazon Web Services on one flywheel. That ability to see that the flywheel is not constrained to one specific little narrow business, but it’s an architecture, and you can renew your company over time into exciting new businesses that fit on that flywheel. If your flywheel meets those five tests, you’ve got a really good flywheel.
decades. 1.
2.
First Who, Then What. Get the right people in the bus and in the right seats before you decide where to drive the bus.
3.
Embrace the Genius of the “And.” In the research for Built to Last, Collins found builders of greatness are able to embrace extremes at the same time, i.e.: purpose AND profit, continuity AND change.
4.
5.
"Bonus: Jim Collins 101" There’s no substitute for reading the books, but here, distilled from all of Collins’ work and arranged in order, are his key principles to building a Great company that can take a punch and thrive for
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Cultivate Level 5 Leadership. Tough people who are ambitious for the cause and for the organization, not themselves.
6.
Confront the Brutal Facts. “Every good-to-great company embraced what we came to call the ‘Stockdale Paradox.’ You must maintain unwavering faith that you can and will prevail in the end, regardless of the difficulties, and at the same time, have the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.” Develop Your Hedgehog Concept. “A simple, crystalline concept that flows from deep understanding about the intersection of three circles: 1) what you are deeply passionate about, 2) what you can be the best in the world at and 3) what best drives your economic or resource engine.” Build Your Flywheel. In Collins’ research, he found building a great company “has no single defining action” but rather “resembles relentlessly
pushing a giant, heavy flywheel, turn upon turn, building momentum until a point of breakthrough, and beyond.” 7.
20-Mile March. “Enterprises that prevail in turbulence selfimpose a rigorous performance mark to hit with great consistency—like hiking across the United States by marching at least 20 miles a day, every day.”
8.
Fire Bullets, Then Cannonballs. Don’t use up all your dry powder firing your big gun at a problem without first firing a series of smaller, calibrating shots. Once you’ve hit your mark, then you can open up.
9.
Practice Productive Paranoia. “Leaders who stave off decline and navigate turbulence assume that conditions can unexpectedly change, violently and fast. They obsessively ask, “What if?” And they prepare accordingly.
10
Clock Building, Not Time Telling. “Leading as a charismatic visionary…is time telling; shaping a culture that can thrive far beyond any single leader is clock building.”
11 Preserve the Core/Stimulate Progress. “Great organizations keep clear the difference between their core values (which never change) and their operating strategies and cultural practices (which endlessly adapt to a changing world).” BMD
ESSENCE Key points on Leadership , Banking, Management and Marketing from the main articles published in the BMD issues of 2022 BOC Makes
Record Breaking The Performance Rules Despite Pandemic
Of Leadership
64
Leaders Priority Thinking in a Crisis
20
Is Four Day Work Week On The Way?
34
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150 YEARS
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ENERGY SECTOR FOR
2022 FEBRUARY
POWERING
THE COUNTRY’S
8 Rules To Build A Champion Brand
56
Key Trends To Drive Your Payments Strategy
32
SKY IS THE LIMIT 20
five essential skills FOR INTELLIGENT LEADERS
28
70
POLYCROME LIGHTS UP THE DARKNESS
WORLD'S
Most Valuable AND
Strongest BRANDS
15
ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE ARTTHEOF BRIDGING UNEA GAP BETWEEN RTHIN DISSEMIN G ATION AND CREATION OF KNOWLED GE OPPORTUN ITIES
64
QD/108/NEWS/2021
ISBN 2448-9395 QD/88/NEWS/2022
ISBN 2448-9395
October 2021 RS. 500/=
FEBRUARY 2022 RS. 500/=
JANUARY
In an interview with BMD's Ruvini Jayasinghe, Chandra Wickramasinghe, founder, Eco-Cultural Resorts Chain of Hotels said that leaders are the "Dealers of Hope" of the future wellbeing of social, cultural and environment standards of individuals, groups and their countries. Excerpts from the interview:
Q:
What is your perspective of good leadership?
A: Leaders are the ‘Dealers of Hope’ of the future wellbeing of social, cultural and environment standards of individuals, groups and their countries. Leaders should always foster inner peace of their people and should be not guilty of causing unrest.
Q:
How do you motivate your staff?
A: Motivating staff happened with me sharing my life journey and showing them first-hand how innovation and calculated risks could pay back. We demonstrated the passion for the business we are involved in, without setting unrealistic expectations. I was accessible to my staff 24 hours, to resolve not only issues related to clientele, but also those of a personal nature. I believe in the open-door management style, which makes it easy for everyone
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LEADERS ARE THE DEALERS OF HOPE in my organization to solve their issues. We always work towards making the team understand that we are dealing with people who pay us to make their dream holidays a reality. After all we are dream sellers. I show them my commitment towards achieving common goals.
Q:
What is your advice to our youth on entrepreneurship and leadership?
If you have the talent & the knowhow of what you are going to venture into, then you should do so yourself. You should never enter partnerships, just for the sake of infusing funds to your ventures. If you need funds go to banks or financial institutions. Always think out of the box & be innovative. Don’t be satisfied with just the turnovers. Plan your strategies on the bottom lines to make it sustainable. BMD
FEBRUARY
In an interview with BMD's Ruvini Jayasinghe, Ranjith Rubasinghe, founder/ CEO of Sri Lanka Technological Campus, defined a good leader as one who can understand people's motivations. Excerpts from the interview:
DREAM BIG, BELIEVE IN IT! Q:
What is your perspective of good leadership?
I would say a good leader is one who can understand people’s motivations and enlist stakeholder participation in a way that marries individual needs and interests to the group’s purpose. do you motivate your staff and Q:How students?
achievements and ensuring that they all have a voice. We treat our staff, students and parents as partners, all vital in keeping the wheels turning. is your advice to our youth on Q:What entrepreneurship and leadership? Dream big, believe in it before anyone else does and know that no dream is too big. Commit to the vision you see and work hard and work smart to achieve it.
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MARCH In an interview with BMD's Ruvini Jayasinghe, Manoja Jayawardena, CEO/director Automated Barcode Solutions Pvt. Ltd., defined leadership as taking responsibility for his/hers actions. Excerpts from the interview:
LEADERS SHOULD CLEAR THE PATH FOR EMPLOYEES! Q:
What is your perspective on leadership?
A: I believe the most important expectation from a leader is responsibility for his/her own actions. Leaders often clear the path of obstacles for their employees and focus on developing personalities. Leaders place more focus on the personal development of their staff with improving communication across the board in an organization and in encouraging innovation and thinking beyond limits. Prioritizing objectives and working on short term and longterm goals are also characteristics of great leaders, I believe.
Q:
How do you set organizational goals?
A: As a company in the field of
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technology, the main focus is on human capital which are skilled and trained. It is very important to have trained and competent staff, to execute our projects which are complex in nature anyway. So, the first thing is having long term work force in setting goals for the organization. Planning for short term and long term goals is another priority. Short term goals would be fast income generating projects and while long term goals focus on the company’s image building, complex solutions, which would take more time to commission, but add value to the goodwill of the company.
Q:
How do you motivate employees?
A: I believe employees are the biggest asset of an organization. Keeping the
staff motivated is a key ingredient of success. AS their leader I would first endeavour to find out what motivates them. Many expect recognition, praise and compliments. Also getting them actively involved in work, getting new ideas, listening to them and sharing knowledge are important in motivating staff. Personal development, training, directing and mentoring staff is something I do continuously. Many who join as just school leavers are persuaded and directed to learn and qualify in their respective areas. In the past eighteen years I have been a mentor, teacher and a motivator to many youngsters.
APRIL
In an interview with BMD's Ruvini Jayasinghe, Piyum Perera, the then Chairman of the National Lotteries Board, identified leaders as those who could see the world and its people with a view to reducing their struggles with uncertainty. Excerpts from the interview:
EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP GIVES PEOPLE WINGS! Q:
What is your perspective on leadership?
A: Leaders are individuals who are able to develop a large enough view of their world, and the people in it, to see a way of reducing the struggle with uncertainty they are experiencing in it. By effectively communicating this vision to the community, the leader will inspire certain members to cooperate and collaborate amongst themselves in an effort to make it a reality. Effective leadership gives people wings! Good leadership places people first. Responsible leadership makes the world a better place, i.e. lasting, peaceful and with happy people.
Q:
How do you set organizational goals?
Goal setting is one of the more
challenging tasks that leaders face. There are short- and long-term goals, plus overall business objectives to consider in addition to the individual team and employee goals. They must be relevant and timely to motivate people to reach them, but also can’t be so fine-tuned that team members feel micromanaged. It’s a tricky balance to strike. To avoid all those, I simply follow these four steps I used many times in my life: establish realistic expectations, set long-term & short-term goals, track progress and avoid micromanaging.
Q:
How do you motivate employees?
There is a lot of good advice included here, so I’ll answer this question on a deeper level—why do you want to motivate them? If it’s to get them to produce more quality and/or quantity,
then follow all of the "exchange" advice offered here, to "do this for that." But if you want to motivate them to realize their full potential because you care about them AND your business, then that will come from an entirely different place… and they will know it…if you let them. People are not like machines…they can be a lot more demanding, but they can far exceed your expectations too. So, hiring the "right" employees must come first, ones that match your company’s culture…and if that does not include higher-than-average wages, then what does it include…to generate higherthan-average performance? You offer a product to your consumer, you also have to offer more than just money to your employees, if you don’t have more money to offer.
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JUNE
In an interview with BMD's Ruvini Jayasinghe, Bradley Emerson, Executive Director/CEO, Imperial Institute of Higher Education (IIHE) viewed leadeship has been the singular ingredient for progress and success. Excerpts from the interview:
NEED OF THE HOUR IS A STRATEGIC TASK FORCE What is your perspective on leadership? There has never been a better time for leadership. Ever since human civilization leadership has probably been the singular ingredient for progress and success be it national, societal or business history. Theoretically, there are many description and definitions but in history I have seen these models demonstrated. At national level, we have the likes of Gandhi, Lee Kuan Yew, Nelson Mandela and Barack Obama, Golda Meir, Margaret Thatcher. In the corporate world the Tatas, Steve Jobs, the Amaleen Brothers, Hans Wijayasuriya and few people I admire. On the social front St Mother Theresa, Chevan Daniel ( Gammadda) Rev.Metta Vihari ( a Danish business man turned Monk) to name a few. I admire. There is a common thread that cuts across all these
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people : Vision, the unshaken belief in the vision, a plan to achieve the vision and most importantly the genuine intent and courage to execute the plan to realize the vision. Recent literature is moving toward empathy based leadership. Coaching is increasingly becoming the most effective transformational tool.
Q:
How should a leader handle their organizational crisis?
Crisis has come, is currently present and will come in the future. I have been in crisis positions a couple of times in my career. I joined Pan Asia Bank from Nations Trust Bank when every one thought Pan Asia Bank would follow
Pramuka Bank to a collapse. I initiated the turnaround and the Bank is in profits. When the CIMA Sri Lanka Council was stood down in 2010 there was huge adversity and a brand crisis, which was not only withstood, but the CIMA brand regained greater glory. What I have learnt, be it an organizational crisis or a national crisis, there are three stages: Firstly to survive, then to revive and finally thrive. Each of these stages have different strategies. Leaders need to understand this and craft different strategies. If you take the current national situation, In my view what the state need is not an all-party government, but an STF – Strategic Task Force made up of battle tested corporate leaders.
JULY
In an interview with BMD's Sabrina Zavahir, Kasturi Chellaraja Wilson Group Chief Executive Officer Hemas Holdings PLC said that The current difficulties and volatility in terms of economic and political instability have an impact to every business, especially the businesses which cater to the domestic market. Excerpts from the interview:
A KEY TO SUSTAIN A SMOOTH BUSINESS OPERATION Q
: Despite the current difficulties due to a volatile economic crisis, how does this assist a leading conglomerate to sustain a smooth business operation.
The current difficulties and volatility in terms of economic and political instability have an impact to every business, especially the businesses which cater to the domestic market. In this context Hemas being a diversified conglomerate in consumer and healthcare sectors there are few things
which helped us to navigate better. i.e we are in the businesses of essentials and near essentials , where we import and manufacturer products for local consumers. In a conglomerate the corporate set up leads to access of many resources and initiatives centrally. Ability to centralize the resources to focus on key critical aspects while rest of the business focuses on business operations has been a key to sustain a smooth business operation.
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JULY
In an interview with BMD's Sabrina Zavahir, Suren Fernando, CEO MAS Holdings (Pvt.) Ltd., said that the current political and economic crisis in Sri Lanka poses numerous challenges to Sri Lanka’s apparel industry. Excerpts from the interview:
PROMPT ACTIONS ARE NEEDED TO PROTECT THE GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS Q
: Sri Lanka has earned a reputation internationally for ethical high-quality manufacturing whilst being a significant and dynamic contributor to the economy, how do you think the current situation has affected it?
Over the years, Sri Lanka’s apparel industry has earned a reputation as a high quality, innovative apparel sourcing destination that offers ‘Garments without Guilt,’ a nod to our commitment to ethical manufacturing. This has led to our emergence as a key player in the global apparel manufacturing landscape, whilst contributing to over 45% of our country’s total merchandize exports and providing employment to nearly 400,000 people directly and twice that number indirectly here in in Sri Lanka.
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The current political and economic crisis in Sri Lanka poses numerous challenges to Sri Lanka’s apparel industry including. • Disruptions to plant operations on account of fuel and electricity shortages • Inflationary pressures driving increases in wages & other operational costs (which could outweigh any exchange gains in the mid-longer term, if not managed appropriately) • Increasing migration of talent • Reductions in foreign exchange funding lines, etc. All of the above, coupled with the continuing political uncertainty, if prolonged, can lead to a decrease in Sri
Lanka’s global competitiveness and customer / investor confidence over time. We are pleased to note that the government has however classified exports as an essential service and are therefore prioritizing the need to ensure minimal disruptions, so that the export sector can continue to bring in much needed dollar inflow to the Sri Lankan economy, at this crucial time. Whilst larger organizations like MAS have put in place a robust plan of action to mitigate the foreseeable implications of the ongoing economic situation in Sri Lanka as much as possible, it is crucial that SMEs are supported so that they are able to maintain business continuity, enabling Sri Lanka to deliver on our customer commitments overall.
JULY
In an interview with BMD's Sabrina Zavahir, Sanath Manatunga, MD/CEO Commercial Bank of Ceylon PLC said that the biggest challenge facing banks is liquidity. Excerpts from the interview:
BANKING SECTOR NEEDS TO REEVALUATE ITS COST STRUCTURES
Q
: With a nation with serious solvency along with liquidity issues, what sort of business forecasting can be predicted while strategizing possibilities to strengthen the banking sector from your point of view?
Biggest challenges will be to maintain liquidity capital buffers and portfolio quality. The rating downgrades of the country has affected the ratings of the banks as well, making it that much tougher for banks to operate in financial markets. Therefore, the main requirement will be to obtain external funding and re structuring the Government debt in a sustainable manner and improve the country rating.
Containing non performing loans (NPLs) is a must for the stability of the sector. For this. Having empathy about the customers who are facing challenges and restructuring, rehabilitating of facilities is a must for them to sustain their business to revive. Internal cost escalation of banks are expected to rise exponentially especially in managing facilities, staff, recoveries, etc. and with lower income and lower profits. Banks will have a tough time in cost containment. The sector will need to reevaluate its cost structures and change its priorities in order to achieve this.
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AUGUST
In an interview with BMD's Sabrina Zavahir, Dian Gomes, former Chairman, Hela Clothing said never postpone for tomorrow, what could and needs to be done today. Excerpts from the interview:
IF YOU FAIL TO PLAN YOU PLAN TO FAIL Q
: Ensuring a positive re-launch of economic activities will certainly take different openings in different business sectors in multiple ways also at different speeds. What sort of a view point would you share in steering practical strategies during this difficult environment towards business raises?
I have always believed in getting things done today and never leaving anything for tomorrow. If the office has not been swept I won’t hesitate to do it myself. So my view is very simple; it is to get going and do whatever needs to be done to do so. We must face reality, there is no doubt that it has not been a roller coaster ride and will remain an uphill climb, but attitude is everything. So what lies ahead is not for the weak-hearted, but for the executors who are not afraid
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of making mistakes. They should only be afraid of tardiness, slow work, and sticking to job descriptions.
Q
: Is it a necessity to create strategies where it reinitiates a detailed based business map in a shattered economic surrounding for a solid business growth in a highly volatile environment??
Yes, because if you fail to plan- you plan to fail. In this context, it’s imperative that detailed plans are followed. Most importantly, having such comprehensive plans give clarity for execution. I believe I have already mentioned how crucial execution is. Calculated risks and timely action are the keys to growth in a highly volatile environment.
OCTOBER
BMD spoke with Sabrina Esufally – Managing Director, Hemas Consumer Brands on how brands should survive and thrive in the coming years. Excerpts from the interview:
BRANDS’ SUCCESS DOES NOT HAPPEN OVERNIGHT! Q.
Brands can make lives simpler and more rewarding since brands can make a rich meaning in adding value, therefore, what makes a positive quality in a brand ?
I think if a brand can transform something about a consumer’s life, that’s a really rewarding thing. For example, with Baby Cheramy – I have personally experienced how the islandwide mother clinics that the brand sponsors have helped young mothers navigate the uncertainty of motherhood. With Fems Aya, our value-engineered sanitary napkin brand, I have seen how education programmes in schools have taught young girls about the importance of menstrual health and hygiene. Similarly, with Clogard we do dental camps around the country, educating families about good oral hygiene. Initiatives like this, where brands can really become platforms for change, is what makes the business of brands meaningful.
Q.
The role of a brand preference earned by a consumer is certainly through the brand compatibility. Could you share the strategy behind this influence on how a consumer is satisfied with a brand ?
Achieving consumer satisfaction is an important part of a brand’s success. It definitely does not happen overnight and you have to be willing to fail multiple times before you get it right. For us, it all starts with ensuring that our products are loved by our consumers – even before they see the packaging or the advertisement. If you can get to a point where consumers love your products before they see any of the frills – you have a higher chance of success. BMD
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CORPORATE WORLD
N-ABLE’S PEOPLE-FOCUSED STRATEGY ENABLES RESOUNDING SUCCESS
N-able, one of Sri Lanka’s most resilient and innovative technology solutions companies, wraps up a very successful year by adding value to its people, customers and business stakeholders amidst challenging socioeconomic circumstances encountered in 2022. The Company’s efforts have enhanced the lives and skillsets of its people while ensuring that N-able’s overseas business operations gained steady momentum. As a direct result of its people-centric, customerdriven philosophy, the Company now looks forward to 2023 with a positive outlook. Despite a challenging year, the N-able team was granted increments and promotions recognizing merit and hard work. Moreover, considering the difficulties faced by its team during the economic crisis, N-able provided a 30% cost of living allowance to its staff during the most crucial months of the economic crisis. The Company also continued its investments in learning and development for its team, staying true to its committment to fostering a learning culture through regular knowledgesharing sessions conducted by both in-house resources and industry experts, focusing
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on more than just work, by including topics such as personal finance, emotional well-being at the workplace and public speaking. Founded in 2008, in Colombo, N-able is a technology solutions company that now operates out of Singapore with a global market presence in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, the Middle East and East Asia. The Company is now home to a team of 300+ skilled professionals, who have successfully delivered key technologically transformational projects in Asia, across industries such as Telecoms, Government, Banking and Finance and Enterprise sectors. The team has handled large infrastructure projects including tier III data centres and nationwide deployment of government finance and taxation systems and is also working on cutting-edge new and emerging technologies such as robotic process automation and data analytics. N-able is a global partner for many principal technology brands and brings value addition through the creation of highlevel partnerships to deliver integrated solutions to its global clientele.
YOUTH FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE GATHER IN NEGOMBO “You always talk about differences, but do you know what difference is? Interfaith exchanges and inter-religious dialogue to promote peace and coexistence were key aspects of the iDove in Sri Lanka programme. Over 300 youth across the country participated in this process, which encouraged youth leadership and creative means to promote harmony. “Only when we relate to one another beyond the differences of religion and ethnicity or race, do we embrace our humanity”, remarked an iDove Youth Ambassador, as she and 80 other youth and civil society stakeholders gathered in a Negombo hotel, for the iDove Hybrid International Conference from 15-17 November. Young people from across 23 districts in Sri Lanka as well as from Uganda, the Philippines and Kenya, who are part of the iDove global network came together over two days to learn from each other and raise awareness on this important issue. Creative arts, a strategy for mediating complex topics and finding common ground were also a primary feature at the conference, with guest performances from Power of Play, Ravibandhu Vidyapathi’s troupe and Naach Colombo. During the conference, the Guest of Honour, the Deputy Head of Mission of the German Embassy in Sri Lanka, Olaf Malchow, stressed the need for youth initiatives for change, especially as global conflicts were increasing around the world. He observed how youth are often undermined and neglected and iDove in that way offered them the potential to be informed, stay actively engaged and share lessons learned and best practices and amplify each other’s voice for change. What began with 25 “iDovers” in a Trainingof-Trainers programme on preventing violent extremism has grown to 300 iDove ambassadors. With new innovative ideas to prevent violent extremism in mind, the ambassadors designed creative interventions to foster community coexistence at the grassroots level such as charity drives, community mobilizing events, activities promoting intercultural understanding, intercultural exposure and creative and gamified activities in 15 districts. Their community efforts engaged more than 3,000 people and the social media campaigns have reached an audience of 30,000 online.