‘Zero to Billionaire’ against all odds: Success stories of Sri Lankan business heroes

The Chamber of Young Lankan Entrepreneurs (COYLE), the vibrant forum of the new generation entrepreneurs of Sri Lanka plans to conduct a highly interactive series of programmes named ‘Zero to Billionaire – The Story behind Sri Lankan Business Heroes of the 21st Century’ to bring to the surface the untold truths of success of the leading new generation entrepreneurs in the country.

This one-of-its-kind programme will reveal what these successful business leaders have done differently to reach the pinnacle of success amidst hostile and turbulent market conditions that prevailed in our country for over three decades.

The objective of the proposed programme is to share with new and prospective entrepreneurs, practicing managers, policy makers and academics the various constraints the leading entrepreneurs faced in building their enterprises at different phases and how they overcome issues to succeed.

This will help the budding entrepreneurs and others managing organizations to be more efficient and effective in the value creation process. The factual information reveal will also provide guidance for the Government and the regulators to develop more entrepreneur friendly policies in future.

The first event will take place on 13 October 2011 at the Colombo Hilton. Three highly successful and leading Sri Lankan entrepreneurs namely W.K.H. Wegapitiya, Chairman, LAUGFS Holdings; Sumal Perera, Chairman, Access Group; and Samantha Kumarasinghe, Chairman, Natures Beauty Creations would be featured at this event. Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya, Group CEO of Dialog Telekom PLC, will moderate this historical event as the Session Chairman.

“Entrepreneurs of our country had to undergo the highest level of uncertainties in turbulent and highly unfavourable market conditions due to the three-decade-long civil unrest which ended few years ago. However, despite the challenges some enterprises founded by the new generation entrepreneurs started making headline news with incomparable performance. They continued to grow and expand beyond the given boundaries. Obviously we have many things to learn from those successful entrepreneurs.

We being socially responsible entrepreneurs of this country, it is our duty to reveal the untold secrets of success for the betterment of the Sri Lankan entrepreneur community for sustaining higher rate of success,” said Nayana Dehigama, Chairman of COYLE.

“It is globally accepted that entrepreneurs are the people who create wealth for the society and drive innovations and change. Behind these nice words lies their huge responsibility toward the society and all other key stakeholders. Academics, researches and professional managers around the globe are keen in learning entrepreneurship proving its importance in building sustainable economies and societies, he added. We intend interviewing 10 successful entrepreneurs of the country where a high calibre group of panellists will probe and provoke the discussions to bring to the surface the untold stories together with strategies adopted to address vividly different and unique situations faced by them,” Dehigama explained.

Dehigama said that COYLE had made arrangements to document the findings with the help of a group of academics representing several leading universities and professional institutions so that Sri Lankan managers and students will have local case studies of high standards with adequate academic rigor.  

One day, we have to give up learning solely from case studies from the west and the time is right for us to bring to the surface the stories of world class local enterprises and leaders behind such empires. This way we are certain that local talents and achievements will be quoted in international publications, journals and forums. Our effort will also help researchers to contribute to the global public domain of knowledge with grounded theories emanating from Sri Lankan enterprises. In this post war era where accelerated economic growth is the common objective of all patriotic people, it is timely we address these lesser discussed areas which are also vital for us as a country in promoting our image globally,” he said.

Established in 1999, COYLE has a membership of over 125 active members who are young entrepreneurs from different parts of the country representing almost all the industry segments.

Nations Trust Bank PLC and Sampath Bank PLC are the co-sponsors of the event. Wijeya Newspapers Ltd. acts as the Print Media Sponsor and Rupavahini acts as the electronic media sponsor. A limited number of practicing managers, future entrepreneurs, researchers and academics will have the opportunity to witness the first ‘Zero to Billionaire’ programme.