University-industry R&D services for local industries by BDO

BDO Partners has launched a unique service offering to develop local industries, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) by assisting them to engage in research and development practices through a strong collaboration with the university system of Sri Lanka. This will enable SMEs to reach out to academia through BDO Partners; in order to transform their products, processes, systems and people via business nurtured research and development processes in manufacturing, agriculture and service sectors. 

As Sri Lanka is not in the sub-set of countries experiencing endogenous growth with extensive scientific breakthroughs, and intellectual properties, adaptation of latest theories that are taught in universities should be implemented with much required localisation. Historically, Sri Lankan companies especially SMEs have not invested much in any type of R&D to transform and innovate products, processes, systems and people. 

If Sri Lanka is to achieve a sustainable development, strengthening of SMEs by increasing their productivity and competitiveness is a strategic priority of the country. Nevertheless, large companies do have a process of collaborating with universities in terms of getting R&D facilities and even absorbing high-flyers of universities.   BDO aims to assist companies that do not possess the capacity to align their business strategies with the required R&D and technical inputs from universities. BDO, by being a trusted business advisor could help SMEs in devising their business strategies that entails growth strategies, marketing strategy, product strategies, manufacturing strategy, finance and human resource strategies. R&D is a critical requirement for market development strategies, product, manufacturing processes and even finance and human resource aspects in terms of finance digital transformation, health and safety, ergonomics, etc. 

 Since starting as a local firm 60 years ago, we are now a member of BDO, one of the top 5 audit and advisory firms in the world. BDO has clients ranging from multinationals to local SMEs, which operate in different industry segments. BDO is committed to develop local industries, especially SMEs, which accounts for more than 50% of the National Economy. BDO recognise challenges and growth inhibitors faced by SMEs well due to BDO’s leadership team’s approach in supporting SMEs through an exceptional dedication of their time and energy.  

It is considerably easier for SMEs to reach out to BDO than universities, as the primary focus of universities is teaching and producing of graduates, thus reducing the attention given to industry needs. BDO bridges this gap of collaborating with universities by introducing a novel mechanism to gain beneficial inputs from academic intellectuals.  

Whilst BDO supports local industries, the holistic advisory approach of BDO has helped multinationals and large conglomerates in transforming their businesses by strengthening the value chain and support service activities of companies. These include: supply chain transformations and cost optimisations, sales and marketing strategy developments, product design optimisations through marketing collaboration, manufacturing process optimisation through industrial engineering and production management, accounting, human resource consulting, risk management, tax compliance, and providing ERP implementation support, etc.