SL firms should embrace technology
View(s):Corporates embracing technology are winning the race globally, but this phenomenon isn’t prevalent in Sri Lankan firms, according to a top CEO.
Eight of the top 10 global brands are in IT business, but the country’s recently elected top 100 companies (by a corporate magazine) in the country doesn’t have a single IT brand in it, Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne, the newly appointed MD/CEO of Textured Jersey, told a gathering of top management accountants recently to induct the new CIMA Chairman Rajendra Theagarajah. “By embracing technology we can build multibillion dollar brands,” he said, stressing that accounting oriented managers should allow their employees the access to technology. He also said that local firms may have missed building multi-billion dollar brands and called on companies to recognise the importance of technology. He added that company leaders lack urgency and fail to share a vision on how technology can change the business. Companies that succeed tend to have leaders who share their vision and define a road map, create cross-organisational authority for adoption and reward employees for working towards it.
Mr. Wijeyeratne said that technology’s promise is not simply to mechanize processes, but to open routes to new ways of doing business. He said that local firms have succeeded in creating change through technology, or they’ll face destruction at the hands of their competitors that do.
While Mr. Theagarajah was appointed the new CIMA chair, Aitken Spence Group CCO Vipula Gunatilleka was appointed as the Vice Chairman for the year 2014.
Mr. Theagarajah in his address highlighted that Sri Lanka is a nation with tremendous promise as to its north lies one of the most powerful BRIC nations – India, which could be to Sri Lanka what China is to Hong Kong or ASEAN region is to Singapore. “To our south lies a sea route that strategically positions our country to benefit from the Afro-Asian trade corridor. We have suffered from the destruction of a 26-year-old civil conflict, which was put to rest in 2009. Today, we have an unparalleled opportunity to drive economy growth and become a true breakout nation. Knowledge is a key ingredient to the success of post-conflict Sri Lanka, and management accounting as a profession has a pivotal role to play in nation-building whether in the private or public sector.”