Entrepreneurship lessons & dollars

They have gone their different ways, 20 years after triggering a new business revolution but there are many lessons learnt from that experience.

This section features the ‘exploits’ of the trio that launched the solar power revolution that was later heralded as a model in many countries when Shell took over the project.

Pradip Jayawardene, Lalith Gunaratne and Viren Perera – three friends -- who met in Toronto more than 20 years ago with different backgrounds in marketing, engineering and economics nurtured an idea to provide solar power to rural homes. In 1986 there were just a few panels in homes. Today its 100,000 units and growing.

It was hard going at the beginning as our story says but the three persisted with the idea, persuaded the consultancy team to rework an original proposal and proved beyond doubt that solar power panels are a good and financially viable business.

If not for the courage of their convictions, Pradip, Lalith and Viren, would have probably continued in Canada and the country would have been poorer by their entrepreneurship and vision. They didn’t take no for an answer and faced the biggest challenge a business entrepreneur would face – launching a product and then finding the country sliding into anarchy due to the JVP insurrection. What more disaster can a new venture ask? They learnt many lessons – how to face adversity; taking on challenges and resorting to a never-say-die approach. They also adopted a common-sense approach to problems.

Lalith and Viren have moved on to do other things while Pradip still continues to carry the vision forward, aptly described in Lalith’s own words: : “villagers thought we gave light from the sun and performed a miracle.” Lessons indeed for Sri Lanka’s budding entrepreneurs

Dollar vs rupee
The US dollar has seen some wild fluctuations in recent weeks. The dollar was pegged at Rs 103 on October 2, then moved up to Rs 108 on October 17 and eased to Rs 104 last Friday after the Central Bank warned banks against speculation and brought in controls.

While economists said the sharp rise in rates could be attributed to a fall in foreign reserves and poor fundamentals, the Central Bank rejects this claim. “We always have three months’ reserves – our fundamentals are quite sound,” Dr. H.M. Thenuwara, Economic Research Director says.

The fluctuating dollar has been worrying government economists and forcing the Central Bank to stem the unnecessary flow of dollars.

While a combination of factors have been attributed to a fast depreciating rupee, one of the key reason for the fluctuations is political uncertainty, fate of the peace talks and worries over rising violence.

“These sharp currency movements can be pegged to speculative trading based on uncertainty,” one dealer said. Other reasons given are some big oil bills in the market, money for the import of defence hardware, seasonal imports and the ending of the donor moratorium on debt payments.

Some economists argue that the government is strapped for cash but this is strongly denied by government and Central Bank officials. Inflation has also been blamed on the crisis with the new 2,000 rupee note in circulation likely to add to inflation trends.

Last year the country had enough and more dollars as tsunami money flowed in so much so it led to a revaluation of the rupee.

That trend continued this year with an increase in Middle East remittances making up for a slowdown in tsunami dollars but the latest situation appears to have been triggered by some huge oil bills and uncertainty.There is widespread belief that the Central Bank may resort to a credit squeeze if things get out of hand – though last week’s warning has already put banks on guard.