Understand behaviour and own the market: Pethiyagoda tells CA annual forum

By Darshana Abayasingha 

Dr. Rohan Pethiyagoda

Eminent Sri Lankan biodiversity scientist Dr. Rohan Pethiyagoda on Wednesday at the 43rd National Conference of the Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, shared key insights to human behaviour and corporate success. Delivering the keynote, Pethiyagoda said whilst it is almost impossible to control human behaviour to suit corporate needs, scientists have found that people who experience stress together tend to bond and work better as teams.  Delivering a difference from the usual motivational speech, he said it can be productive for companies to get their teams to undergo stress together to enhance performance. “This could be in the form of outbound training or even taking them out on an evening and forcing them to sing,” he averred. 

However, Pethiyagoda noted scientists have observed men and women behave differently and this is even apparent in how men and women behave to each other and competitors at the end of a sporting event due to their physiological changes.

“Saying men and women are not the same is not the most woke thing to say in modern society. They need to be presented with same opportunities but men and women have different characteristics and corporates must identify means to extract the best from their diverse behaviours. If you visit any prison in the world 95% of inmates are men. 

“That is also because there are very clear differences between the two. Companies must first strive to understand human behaviour. If you understand behaviour, you will own the market,” Pethiyagoda said.

The Chief Guest at the event was Supreme Court of Sri Lanka Justice Yasantha Kodagoda,. Also addressing the gathering, CA Sri Lanka President Sanjaya Bandara, stressed the accounting profession can do much more for the nation to enhance transparency and accountability which are cornerstones to effective development. “Without these fundamentals in place, transformation is will not be successful,” he said. 

During his speech, Pethiyagda noted the influence of marketing memes on human behaviour, consumption and actions. He said, effective communication will result in better coordination amongst all stakeholder groups and linked them to attributes since early human behaviour.