5th Hameedia Leadership Summit 2018: Engage, Energise & Ignite

Hameedia, Sri Lanka’s leading menswear specialist, held its eagerly-anticipated 5th Leadership Summit 2018 ‘Engage, Energise, Ignite’ on 7 May. The event was addressed by eminent corporate personalities who delivered motivational speeches on the occasion. 

Hameedia’s success, as it enters its 70th anniversary, is led by its professional and cutting-edge team of employees. They are empowered by the company’s senior management, who encouraged visionary human resource management practices. The call to action for its employees to Engage, Energise, Ignite’ at this year’s Summit reflects how Hameedia is moving with the times, encouraging employees to grow and innovate, while also ensuring sustainable use of the planet’s resources by inculcating the practice of reuse, reduce and recycle. 

The Chief Guest at Hameedia’s 5th leadership Summit was Dialog Axiata CEO Supun Weerasinghe, who spoke on the ‘Leading change, individual contribution to a common goal and to work as a team’. His speech urged Hameedia employees to change through innovation, which not only builds their careers but also at the same time takes the company closer to achieving its vision. 

Hameedia MD Fouzul Hameed also held forth at the event about ‘Focus on individual strengths and be passionate to work hard and achieve common goals’. His inspiring speech beckoned employees to ignite their passion, engage with the company and deliver energised performances.  

Hussain Sadique, Deputy Managing Director of Hameedia and Founder President of Sri Lanka Retailers Association, spoke about the ‘Hameedia journey and beyond’, outlining how the company should move forward and take leadership and employees working together as a homogenous unit. He addressed managers directly by urging them to take responsibility to Ignite, Engage and Energise employees. 

This spirit of ‘Ignite, Engage and Energize’ has underscored Hameedia’s growth story for over 69 years so far. The company has always powered innovation to stay relevant to changing times. The revolution and focus on total men’s clothing occurred through the entry of Fouzul Hameed, who introduced a new high fashion paradigm to menswear. His dynamism has steered the company to expand into different sectors such as, Manufacturing, Retail and Shared Services, growing from less than 50 employees in 1949 to over 1200 in 2018. 

More significantly, the company has instilled a socially responsible mindset amongst its employees. Hameedia has founded two main CSR foundations – My Friend Foundation, which provides assistance for school students in form of financial assistance and in extending English classes etc, and the ‘We Are Family’ Foundation, which focuses on uplifting the standards of living, especially of persons with disabilities and other marginalised individuals. Presently, 3-5% of employees at Hameedia are differently abled people. This strong social responsibility mind-set is also extended to conserving natural resources by deploying reducing, reusing and recycling practices across the organisation.

Hameedia is an equal opportunity employer and strives to provide all employees with a fair and comfortable working environment. Employee welfare is a key endeavour at Hameedia, which has been conducting various welfare actives for the staff for more than 30 years, including festival celebrations, staff annual trips, gift vouchers on employee birthdays, death donations for family members and financial assistance. Hameedia is helping to build a new generation of future leaders to build a great nation in the future. A team of over 1200 visionary professionals form the backbone of Hameedia’s dynamic operation and they are trained to deliver a seamless and customer-centric sales experience. The Hameedia Group is genuinely committed towards the welfare of all communities and is committed to engage in numerous other social endeavours that will bring about positive change across all levels of society.

Hameedia was established in 1949 and has now grown to become a household brand in Sri Lanka. Renowned for high quality custom tailoring and ready-made clothes for gentlemen, the Hameedia multi-brand retail stores house a collection of quality menswear brands including Le Bond, Envoy, Signature, Raymond, Lee and Adidas to name a few. Hameedia also prides itself on offering exceptional standards of service to ensure that clients enjoy a positive and personalised experience at each store. With a network of over 30 outlets across Sri Lanka, Hameedia has a strong local presence and has also expanded globally with outlets in the Maldives and Australia.