Financial Times

Climbing the eLadder
Making the Best of the Web Investment
By Nilooka Dissanayake
I’ve been speaking to many publishers lately, encouraging them to join us in making available First Chapters of Sri Lankan books online. Their experiences with the Internet, taken overall as an industry, reflect typically the experiences of many other Sri Lankan industries and businesses.

I am taking this industry as an example here for two reasons. Firstly, it’s a typical industry from a Sri Lankan perspective. It has very large and long established firms as well as new up and coming small firms and many in between. There are specialized firms, family businesses and not for profit organizations; quite a blend of the old and the new; of large, small and medium.

Secondly, through First Chapters, I have had opportunity to explore both the potential for the industry to promote itself through the web as well as the ‘web’ status quo.

Some Sri Lankan publishers have websites; others have not yet ventured online. A few have the capability to sell you books online. Others merely present a list of publications. But, taken as an industry, I do not believe any of the publishers are reaping benefits out of their investments in creating a website.

Some have openly admitted that their webs do not produce satisfactory results. Others are satisfied with the limited exposure; a web for the sake of having one. I am positive none is happy about the return from the investment of going online. Almost none actively market their webs, to draw traffic, to make their investment pay for itself. The exceptions are rare indeed.

I am not exaggerating. The Sri Lanka Book Publishers Association Directory for 2004 has 79 members in it. Only a dozen or so of these have their own websites. Almost all the large volume publishers have their own webs. And I also know at least one prominent publisher who’s not a member of the association, but has their own website. Tell me, dear reader, how many publisher or bookseller websites do you know in Sri Lanka? How many have you visited? Speaking for myself, until I got interested in this First Chapters project, I could only name two publisher/bookseller webs. So, can anyone say these webs are marketed, that you and I as members of the public have been asked to visit these webs? So, isn’t it a waste of all that money spent in creating beautiful webs, like flowers in a forest none can see and admire; except those who stumble upon them by chance?

Looking at both the positive and negative aspects, the monies invested on the web, the underutilized potential… I believe that the publishers of Sri Lanka can get a whole lot more out of the web than they are doing now. And often, it is not an issue of money.

And I believe that the industry is no different in how they use their webs than any other industry you’d like to name. Whatever the industry your business is engaged in, the situation is bound to be very much the same with just a handful of Sri Lankan webs being exceptions to the rule.
And the rule: Sri Lankan businesses do not market their websites as they should; not even as much as they bother with opening of a new branch. So, who can be blamed for not getting returns on investment?
Take the industry you are in, or take your own corporate web and ask yourself:

• Who has the best web in the industry?
• What use are they making of it?
• Can more use be made of that web than now?
• How does our web compare with the best?
• Can our web do more for us than it is doing now?
• How can it be done?

After that, think of who your customers and potential customers are. Can you reach them more effectively through the web? Will incorporating the web element into your marketing mix be worthwhile?

It will be easy to say no; to take a negative approach. But, how can you judge without giving it some thought? Would you be caught unawares like the ostrich with his head hidden in the sand?

Let us know your questions and concerns on this topic so that we can share these with our readers and seek solutions together. You can contact us on ft@sundaytimes.wnl.lk.

The writer is the Managing Editor of Athwela Vyaparika Sangarawa (Athwela Business Journal), the only Sinhala management monthly targeting the small and medium enterprises, the Ezine Athwela Email Magazine and www.smallbusiness.lk, the bilingual small business website.

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