INSEE Cement launches INSEE Academy

Siam City Cement (Lanka) Ltd. (SCCCL) – the manufacturers and marketers of Sri Lanka’s most popular brands of cement including ‘Sanstha Cement’ and ‘Mahaweli Marine Cement’ launched the INSEE Academy on 23 March in Colombo. SCCCL CEO Nandana Ekanayake was the Chief Guest at the launch which was attended by employees, management, members of the Board of Directors and special invitees. The INSEE Academy was launched with the objectives of accelerating the growth of ‘home grown talent’ in order to take senior roles within Sri Lanka and other group companies. This will be delivered through a best in class people development strategy including creating mindsets to learn and grow, providing the best environments and opportunities as well as focusing on blended learning with a long term focus.

The INSEE Academy, whose tagline is ‘Inspire. Instill. Ignite’, aims to ‘Inspire’ their employees to be better, ‘Instill’ values and ‘Ignite’ a passion for excellence, is a virtual training academy with a strategic focus on five key areas. These key areas include embedding INSEE DNA, building business leaders, improving functional capabilities, focus continuously on health and safety and enhancing commercial capabilities.

At the outset of the launch, INSEE Cement Training Manager Anuruddhika Jayasundera presented the objectives of the INSEE Academy to the audience describing its strategic focus, deliverables and enablers. This was followed by the handing over of the training catalogue for 2017/18, the blueprint of the INSEE people development strategy, to Chief Guest and SCCCL CEO Nandana Ekanayake by Talent Manager Thushara Balasooriya.

“We have ambitious plans for growth in Sri Lanka and we are committed to invest further for the future. Our aspirations will be brought to reality by our people and we need to accelerate developing them to do so. Hence people development will always be an integral part of our strategy,” said Nandana Ekanayake addressing the gathering.

“We are delighted to launch the INSEE Academy today to accelerate the development of all our employees. We will do so by building partnerships with leading local and international institutions as well as promoting blended learning and self-learning. And we believe that those will enable us to position INSEE cement Sri Lanka to become an exporter of talent to the group,” said SCCCL Organisation and Human Resources Director Prasad Piyadigama.

Talent Manager Thushara Balasooriya will take the overall responsibility for the INSEE Academy. The Academy will provide an average of 50 training hours per employee per year investing 50 million rupees. Programs focusing on long term development of employees such as signature programs, certifications, blended learning and continuous assessment will be delivered, affiliating with leading local and global institutes. Some of those are Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM), Franklin Covey SL, Indian School of Business (ISB), National University of Singapore (NUS). 

Opportunities have been provided by INSEE Academy, Thailand to associate with global players in executive education such as International Institute for Management Development (IMD), Switzerland and DUKE University, USA. Further a competent set of internal trainers also have been developed, giving them the opportunity to share their knowledge effectively while improving them as individuals.

Founded in 1969, in Thailand, INSEE is a supplier of cement, aggregates and construction solutions. Today, INSEE is present in five countries across Asia including Cambodia, Bangladesh, Vietnam and Sri Lanka. When INSEE entered the Sri Lankan market, it established itself as the only fully integrated cement manufacturer in the country. In Sri Lanka, INSEE operates two plants – one in Galle and the other in Puttalam offering fresh cement, consistent in quality, to the market.