Sharp focus on customer needed during economic crisis: Rohantha

Top marketing and business professional, Dr. Rohantha Athukorala recently told National Print Conference 2022, that the only focus a company must have been to ‘ruthlessly focus on the customer’ given that the Sri Lankan economy is in shambles.

“People are moving away from using shampoos and going back to soaps, females are lapsing from face lotions, body sprays etc. as they simply cannot afford to purchase them and this is the reality and it will affect your business very harshly in the near future,” said Dr. Athukorala who heads Clootrack for Software Labs and overlooks Sri Lanka, Maldives and Pakistan for a top 50 emerging Indian company who specialises in Artificial Intelligence (AI) based consumer tracking.

“Hence the only way out is to pick the consumer insights early and then creatively under and how to hold on to them, which includes delivering your profit and loss,” he added during his speech at the event where leading print and packaging experts met to discuss the way forward for business in the current challenging experience.

According to Dr. Athukorala, some confectionery companies have taken six consumer price increases in the last eight months which normally would have happened during a three-year time period. 

The money printing initiated by the Central Bank has contributed to this reality, he said.

Given the speaker’s in-depth experience of engaging the Sri Lanka economy such as heading the key policy making body, National Council for Economic Development in the Finance Ministry and Sri Lanka – Export, Tourism and the Rs. 30 billion retail chain, Lanka Sathosa, he said “let’s accept that the Sri Lankan economy is in shambles and the pressure to the housewife is unimaginable and it is sad that the policy makers are oblivion to the reality”.

“The agricultural sector decision on moving to organic fertiliser was a mistake that cost the country Rs. 40 billion as compensation, as per the experts at Peradeniya University when the cost of the imports of chemical fertiliser was only Rs. 35 billion. We call in business the cost which could have been avoided if we practiced simple techniques like ‘test marketing’ before launching. Sadly, the knowledge gap among policy makers has been revealed on a daily basis.

“In this environment the only way out is to focus on customers and understand the deep insights and be fearless in changing strategy. You actually do not have an alternative,” said Athukorala.