Global workplace in 2015

Friday, 7 October 2011 01:03 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

In collaboration with the Wijeya Newspapers Ltd., The Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce (WCIC) organised a seminar titled ‘Global Workplace in 2015’ at Hotel Ceylon Continental recently with the objective of educating and creating awareness on how to respond to the challenges in the workplace. The seminar was targeted at imparting new knowledge to executives, managers, departmental heads and owners of small and medium enterprises. The participants included representatives from a cross section of businesses representing various sectors, who were keen to learn and meet the future challenges to succeed in their own fields.

The full day programme included a set of prominent speakers presenting what the participants should be aware of in moving forward towards the new workplace, what the key trends are and some of the revolutionary changes that we might see happening in the future.

The speakers included Professor Uditha Liyanage – Director, Postgraduate Institute of Marketing; Thilak Pushpakumara – CEO, Institute of Lean Management (Pvt) Ltd.; Marsh Dodanwela, Director Arc Worldwide Sri Lanka (Associate Company of Leo Burnett); and Lewie Diasz , Chief Manager Amex Cards & Consumer Assets, Nations Trust Bank & Director, Strategy.

Interesting topics such as Lean Management a business philosophy to challenge zero waste by Thilak Pushpakumara was discussed at length while the role of social media in business was presented by Marsh Dodanwela strongly supporting his case through worldwide case study examples of the power of people in commercial brand building. Lewie Diasz stressed the importance of envisioning the future in business by paying more attention to the key characteristics of the new generation of customers. Professor Uditha Liyanage’s presentation took the participants to a different perspective of the changing Marketplace in the new Workplace creating awareness on psychological needs of the new customer.

The seminar was successfully organised by the members of the WCIC, Charmaine de Alwis, Charmarie Maalge and Illanga Karunaratne. The organising committee said that they were very happy of the outcome of the seminar and stated “There is such a lot of new trends and shifts taking place constantly in the business environment in Sri Lanka and rapidly so in the international arena. The key areas presented by the eminent panel of speakers were mostly new knowledge to the participants. The seminar provided various novel tools and interesting new ideas in order to be more conscious of the emerging workplace in the future.”