CIMA CEO Forum – Thriving in the digital economy
View(s):The annual CXO Forum of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in Sri Lanka was held recently at the Hilton Colombo Residences.
This year’s theme was “Thriving in a Digital Economy” which focused on how the inevitable transformation towards a digital economy will compel CXOs to revamp the strategies they intend to pursue, as the business landscape they operate in, will experience a paradigm shift, according to CIMA officials.
Shyam Govindan and Mayank Rausaria, partners of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India LLP, were the two keynote speakers at this event. Kiththi Perera – CEO of Sri Lanka Telecom, Prof. Chandrika Wijeratne – Vice Chancellor of University of Colombo, Shiran Fernando – Chief Economist, Chamber of Commerce and Bhanuka Harischandra – Founder/ Chief Growth Officer of Surge Global were the panellists at the panel discussion that followed, which was moderated by Peter D’ Almeida – CEO of N*Able.
“The keynote speakers spoke on how one can win with digital. They spoke about how most fail to grasp the full impact of the digital era and deliver transformational initiatives. Some of the stats presented were that only 1 in 3 business leaders agree that digital priorities are fully aligned within their organisation’s strategy and that just 26 per cent of the executives felt that their company understood the full potential for digital to change value creation,” according to a CIMA media release.
There was a lot of pertinent discussions around skills needed for the present as well as the future which were responded to mainly by Prof. Wijeratne. Mr. Harischandra whilst sharing his story of using digital to create value, commented on the connected economy stating how he had received many requests to connect even whilst being seated at the panel session, showcasing one aspect of how the current digital economy works. He emphasised that upskilling ones’ self was extremely important before analysing all buzzwords floating around the digital space.
Mr. Fernando spoke about enabling SMEs to get the full benefits of digital and that the chamber had several plans in place to promote same. Mr. Perera spoke of how the Adhaar card in India was useful to the people. He stated that in Sri Lanka there was the Samurdhi, pension, fertilizer subsidy etc and that there surely were leakages taking place in these areas, whereas for 1/10th of the current cost one could establish a digital card.