37th CA Sri Lanka National Conference to focus on entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship potential

National Conference Technical Committee 2016 Chairman Anoji de Silva, CA Sri Lanka Vice President Jagath Perera, CA Sri Lanka President Lasantha Wickremasinghe, National Conference Committee 2016 Chairman Tishan Subasinghe and CA Sri Lanka CEO Aruna Alwis at the head table – Pic by Upul Abayasekara

By Shannine Daniel

The Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) will be holding the 37th National Conference under the theme ‘Unleashed Thinking’ from 19 to 21 October.

This year’s conference will focus on the potential of entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship, specifically on how it can benefit Sri Lanka and take it to the next level, boosting its standing as a global player in the international business arena. 

Reputed as a business summit, the conference is expected to bring together over 1500 business leaders including chartered accountants and leaders of other professions. With the inauguration being held on 19 October, the technical sessions of the conference will be held on 20 and 21 October.

The main aims behind the conference are to encourage innovative entrepreneurs and intraprenuers and establish market leading companies to be ready for the new challenges that they will have to face as a result of disruptive technology and the millennial workforce. 

“These actions are not going to be possible without a proper government policy to support them. Therefore we want to encourage Government policymakers to establish an environment that enables an innovation driven economy,” CA Sri Lanka National Conference Technical Committee Chairperson Anoji De Silva stated. 

CA Sri Lanka President Lasantha Wickremasinghe noted that if Sri Lanka is to reach its maximum capabilities, it needs to become an innovation driven global player. 

“With Asia being an engine of growth, and as a nation belonging to this region we can great momentum from this growth. Therefore our corporates need to take an advantage from this growth which will ultimately reflect greatly on our economy,” Wickremasinghe stated. 

Echoing his thoughts De Silva stated; “according to the World Economic Forum, we are ranked as an efficiency driven economy along with other nations such as China, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Our aim now should to be to transition to an innovation driven economy like Singapore and USA which will help us to become a true global player.”  

“In this context we came up with the theme for this year’s conference because we believe that we need to think big, think differently and think of becoming a nation that will draw up a plan that is unique to our country and our economy, not just an imitation of other countries, which will preserve our culture and our environment,” she added. 

She went on to say that entrepreneurship is considered as the driving force of a nation and Sri Lanka needs more innovative entrepreneurs who will disrupt entire markets and bring about true changes in a market. 

In terms of the fresh concept of intrapreneurship, De Silva said that an intrapreneur is a considered as a corporate entrepreneur who works as an employee of a company and turns ideas into profitable products and services, thus bringing in many changes into the organisation by behaving more like an entrepreneur. 

“This is a concept that is not very popular in Sri Lanka and we could not find an entity which fully promotes a culture of intrapreneurship. We believe that is a concept which will help mature companies to really get onto the global platform,” she stated. 

She went on to highlight the technical sessions which will be centred on seven different areas namely, ‘Extreme Entrepreneur’, ‘Breaking Stereotypes - Age is just a number’, ‘Unleashing Corporate Intrapreneurship’, ‘Harnessing the power of Millenials’, ‘Digitalisation – your next competitive play’, ‘No dream is too big’ and ‘Funding Entrepreneurship’. 

The Keynote Address will be delivered by eminent Indian entrepreneur Professor K. Kumar, and other speakers at the technical sessions include Globally recognised speaker Peter Sage, Dominic McVey, one of the youngest millionaires in the world, prominent intrapreneur Marcello Schemer, Nadastra Founder and CEO Thushara Canekeratne, MillenniumIT Software CFO Narresh Abeyasekera and well-known Sri Lankan entrepreneurs Dhammika Perera and Sev Vettipillai.

Pic by Upul Abayasekara