Rohantha AthukoralaStrange things Whitney Houston taught business
Even though Whitney Houston has won 415 awards in her career with two Emmys, six Grammys, 30 Billboard Music Awards and 22 American Music Awards, which made her the most awarded female of all time, be it in music or in sports, the funny thing is that the world was not shocked when the announcement came that Whitney had died.
Australian Open 2012 and Lanka’s economy
I have a
ways found that the world of sports teaches us the best lessons in life. The 2012 edition of the Australian Open Tennis Championships was memorable, not because of the Men’s Singles finals that went on till two in the morning, but for key moments that gave some amazing lessons to the world. Let me capture these moments and link it to the Sri Lankan economy.
Do people prefer coffee over tea?
When I was preparing for the few thoughts that I wanted to share at the launch of the FAO-IGG Global Forum on Tea, I realised how divergent the ground reality was based on the template that we have set for tea globally.
Whilst intellectually it may be stimulating, at the end of the day the private sector looks at return on investment and Sri Lanka is at crunch time as we are in a catch-22 situation. Most Regional Plantation Companies in Sri Lanka are in the red with some segments reporting that the cost of production is higher than the net sales average.
This news, coming in the backdrop of the Eurozone splitting, the double dip recession in play in UK and the sanctions in Iran, sure pulls down business confidence.
Hidden secrets of top professionals
Last year when I got the opportunity of attending the summer programme at Harvard, one of the sessions that really got my attention was a session titled ‘Corporate Athleticism’. Coming back to Sri Lanka I was eager to bring to life this new theory called ‘Corporate Athleticism,’ which in actual fact was practiced by many without their knowledge.
Vavuniya: Sri Lanka’s best on poverty at 2.3%
It’s
true that there are many ways in which poverty can be calculated and each one has its own merits and disadvantages.
However, going by the last Department of Census and Statistics Household Income and Expenditure survey report released on 3 August 2011 on poverty, the best performing District is Vavuniya at 2.3% on head count and 2% on the attribute poor households.
The data amazed me as it beat the performance of Colombo, which is reporting a head count number of 3.6% and Gampaha at 3.9%. Let me delve into the details.
The ‘real’ problem with brand Sri Lanka
The latest data coming out predicts Sri Lanka’s economy to be 59 billion dollars with overall external trade recording a strong 51.6% of GDP as against the 44.4% the year before, which indicates the expansion of the economy. This data is reflective of Sri Lanka’s jump of 17 places to number 52 in the Global Competitiveness of Nations ranking by Work Economic Forum.
2011: Power achievements for Sri Lanka, but…
A survey conducted last week on the health of the Sri Lankan economy revealed that almost 64% said that the Government had done its task but only 43% had said that there had been growth in the economy. Whilst some can say that this data is strange, a similar set of information was shared at the at the FT budget seminar staged on 24 November 2011.
What Christmas means to Sri Lanka
Christmas celebrations today are not confined to a particular religion. It is a time of cheer to many homes and on 25 December when I met some of my cousins who had come from overseas, one question I asked was: “Do you see a difference in Sri Lanka?”
The day Colombo felt ‘peace’
Given that I come from a marketing background, maybe my thinking is skewed to consumer orientation, but last Saturday’s ‘Night Races’ garnered so much of excitement from a particular strata of the AB SEC groups of Sri Lanka together with an electric culture that it just reminded me of being on the sidetrack of Monte Carlo.
Gampaha as a prototype district in Sri Lanka
Last week I was invited by a MBA alumni group of a top university in Sri Lanka to share some thoughts on the changing landscape of Sri Lanka. Given that we see many reports of the most visible aspects of the development agenda, be it the Southern Highway, the first new hotel brand in the country Avani or the Hambantota sea port, I thought of sharing some new insights that many have not got exposed to.
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