Global Leadership Summit geared to deliver

All the puzzling issues surrounding the creation, communication and execution of strategic initiatives within the Sri Lankan business community will be dealt with via in-depth discussions at the Global Leadership Summit (GLS) this week.

GLS is set to kick off on 7 November for the sixth consecutive time. Unlike many other business summits, this particular event is a rather unconventional as it revolves around a theme where business and positive religious concepts stemming from the church are interconnected. Last year the summit attracted close to 240 participants and this year organisers are aiming to attract over 300 professionals. 

Business guru and best-selling author Jim Collins, Pixar Animation Co-Founder and Walt Disney Animation Studios President Ed Catmul, Ritz Carlton Hotel Founder President Horst Schulze and University of Houston Research Professor Brene Brown are among the elite panel of speakers for the day.

Adding to its unorthodox arrangement, the speakers will be featured via Videocast at the Galadari Hotel. However, GLS Sri Lanka will have two local facilitators for the event, namely, Janashakthi Insurance Executive Director Ramesh Schafter and Wesley College Leadership Consultant and Principal Ben Manickam. The two individuals will give a local perspective to the global scenario discussions that take place, creating a more relatable environment to the audience.

The Daily FT sat down with event host Chevron Lubricants Lanka Sales General Manager Bertram Paul to discuss the upcoming summit. Following are excerpts:

By Shehana Dain

Q: How is Christianity linked with business strategies?

A:There are various concepts now in leadership and management which are becoming buzz words. We talk about ‘Yahapalanaya’ here, at the end of the day it’s good governance. Concepts such as employer-employee relationships, ethics, participative management, corporate governance and even CSR are all deeply-rooted religious teachings which has transformed into business concepts. I don’t think there is any religion that teaches anything other than positive concepts.

The Bible showcases how a leader should really be a servant of your people. Today even though this concept is been called by many names, it’s being taught it different business schools with the generic name of leadership skills. There are lot of good concepts that come out of religion which can be applied to business matters and even day-to-day operations.

Q: How has the business community’s response been so far on the religious theme?

A:Originally this program started off mainly targeting the leaders in Christian ministries. Because of these contacts it was possible to bring some powerful corporates leaders to come and speak at this summit. For over 20 years participation has changed where over 50% of the individuals are from the business world, they are attracted to the big names in the world of business. Today it’s no longer a religious event, of course there are pastors who come and speak but more prominence is given to the business aspect.

In Sri Lanka we have done this for over five years. We are using it to target different segments and this year is exclusively for the business community. This year we have seven speakers and four of them are completely business-oriented people and three are from Christian ministries. It’s a mix and it’s open for everyone with different faiths. However, we are upfront saying this is the origin so they’re aware of the religious content. We have had many participants from different faiths and their feedback was very positive. It’s not a place where we tell people to convert; it’s just business principles that are being shared and even the pastors share good concepts which can be used for strategic decision making. A lot of people in the business world are very open, so as long as they can gain something from it, they do come.

Q: Has the video cast feature added value to the program?

A:At the start people were sceptical about this concept because people always prefer live programs. However what we found is there are practical difficulties as to why we can’t do this particular event live due to the time difference and also with technology as it’s a bit unreliable if you’re trying to do a live broadcast. So all other countries they run it via video cast. Every year the live program happens in August in and the organisers are very strict about the content; it takes a full year for them to upload it to their website. They only give access to authorised organisers in respective areas, so there is no way anyone could have seen the content if they were not at the live broadcast.

I have been to one of these programs in USA and it hit me that the program in Sri Lanka is at the same level when it comes to quality. The main reason for that is over here the interaction is much better. The program in USA has massive crowds and we always end up looking at the screen. The interaction is very minimal because there is no Q&A session. It’s the same experience here but with our local facilitators there is better involvement and more exposure.

We deliver the program in the best way possible. Someone coming for the first time might be a little sceptical but after the exposure they realise that they didn’t actually miss anything but gained more. Our surveys prove that this was very impactful.

Q: Is this program connected with the Sri Lankan Church?

A:No, it’s not. This year the program is clearly focused on the business community. We charge Rs. 7,500 and it’s in a luxury hotel. For the clergy in Sri Lanka it’s not something that’s affordable. Previously when we organised the summit we tried to have both but then we had this challenge because affordability becomes an issue. 

For the churches, there is a different program that takes place where previous year’s content is translated and communicated for the clergy. I think it happened in Kandy and Jaffna and their looking at having one in Galle as well but that’s a different format.