Use Citizens’ journalists –urges PR specialist
Many Lankan companies not prepared for crises
By Jagdish Hathiramani
Many Sri Lankan companies appear unprepared for crisis situations, according to Marion McDonald, Managing Director for Strategy and Planning, Asia Pacific Region, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide. This is because there is no preparedness plan already existing which can take effect once a disaster, man made or otherwise, strikes.
The same also applies for the practice of reputation management. Ms. McDonald, who spoke to the Business Times during an official visit to Sri Lanka recently where she held a workshop on "The New Age of PR" for local affiliate, advertising heavyweight Phoenix Ogilvy, also suggested there was a shift, particularly in developing markets, from information being published to regular readers self-reporting stories to which they had access, a phenomenon she termed ‘reader generated’ content. In keeping with this, also emerging were citizen journalists who would offer up stories, reviews, video demonstrations, etc. of products even before companies send out press releases announcing products. "Smart companies," advised Ms. McDonald, "get involved with citizen journalists instead of ignoring them."
She also noted that, in the wider marketing communications field, there was an increasing movement away from advertising being seen as the "hero" of marketing efforts. Public relations is now being elevated from the practice of just issuing press releases to being seen as a way to influence what consumers say about brands; far more relevant than advertising, which is what the brand says about itself. Further, consumers are making themselves more aware of a company’s point of view about everything, from corporate responsibility to the environment to even women’s rights, before they decide to buying its products. As an example, she highlighted a global survey where consumers in China were revealed to be more concerned with environmental sustainability and were willing to pay a premium for it than their western counterparts.
Ms. McDonald also indicated that "The New Age of PR" was more about the digital influence in communicating to create a dialogue with various publics, highlighting the statistic that more searches are done for YouTube content than any other medium. As such, she noted that there was a "re-thinking" and "re-skilling" needed in the field as it was moving away from the written word only to more video content oriented, the purview of younger consumers who do not want speeches by Chief Executives of companies but rather prefer product demonstrations.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100919/BusinessTimes/bt24.html
Most IT personnel are so used to “firefighting” problems that they do not accomplish the real objectives of IT budgets which are allocated to make their organisations more efficient; according to Peter Peiris, Group Manager – Enterprise Solutions & Team Apple, DMS Electronics.
A Rs. 1 billion turnover company, DMS’s main business is its sale of enterprise software to corporates, most (90%) on Microsoft platforms. This is on HP hardware with it being a “Tier 1” partner of HP’s. The company also sells point of sale computers to supermarkets, is the equipment supplier for the 160 terabyte Dialog call centre facility and provides outsourced IT servicing locally for clients such as Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsch Bank and apparel manufacturer Brandix.
More recently, DMS has also entered the highly competitive Personal Computer market, a business it intends to grow in the future. One unique aspect of its sales to end consumer is its sole stake in the local Apple computers niche market with sales of just 15-20 units a month where products are priced at Rs. 110,000 upwards, which is for the Mac Mini that is sold without a monitor, a keyboard or a mouse.
Says Mr. Peiris, in relations to demand for his company’s services, “our hands are full”. A situation in part achieved because of a pre- global financial crisis decision taken by DMS management to only take on business where customers were willing to make a 50% down payment. This in conjunction with greater austerity measures including becoming more frugal with expenses, etc. As such, he notes that the company had not felt the recession, even breaking even, with its performance also facilitating an ongoing renovation of the company’s Dharmapala Mawatha (Colombo 7) headquarters as well as ramping up staff in anticipation of more opportunities in 2010.
Having recently been recognised with one of Microsoft’s Best Managed Partner awards, DMS’s future plans include further leveraging this highly successful segment of its business by exporting its Microsoft expertise to Bangladesh, Brunei and the Maldives. It plans to do this with its existing resources, including its present staff strength of 200 which encompasses 80% IT services professionals; and “be smarter with one engineer handling two to three customers”, according to Mr. Peiris. The company also plans to further expand in the more high-end enterprise and servers segments of the local computer industry. It has also revealed its intention to go further a field in the retail segment, specifically targetting Colombo as a first step.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100815/BusinessTimes/bt36.html
No real alternatives to oil: Chairman Chevron SL
By Jagdish Hathiramani
There are no existing real alternatives to the world’s dependence on fossil fuels that account for 87% of the world’s current energy needs, according to Dr. Kishu Gomes, the Chairman of the local operation of USA-based oil company Chevron. He also added world energy demands by 2030 will be 40% higher than today. This is in addition to an oil crisis looming and ever-shortening intervals between recessions. Further, over the last three years, commodity prices increased by 100% while natural disasters, like those recently in Bangladesh and China, which cost these countries 5.2% and 2% of GDP respectively, would only grow to become more and more frequent with greater magnitudes.
He further noted that the recent BP crisis amounting to over a billion barrels of oil spilled was not atypical as the equivalent of 4.7 million barrels of oil leaks annually while a further 4.2 million barrels is added to this mix due to natural seepage. Dr. Gomes also suggested that for energy sustainability to become a reality substantial investments were needed in this area, which was not happening. Instead he noted that more and more money was being used to fight terrorism internationally and, in the case of Sri Lanka, the government’s continued spending of Rs. 170-180 billion on security.
Dr. Gomes made these comments at the recently concluded “CEO Forum on Innovation and Sustainability” organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Association of Software and Service Companies. Also speaking at the forum, Sri Lanka Institute of Nanotechnology Chief Executive Ravi Fernando noted that being sustainable for Sri Lankan businesses had more to do with value addition as opposed to their traditional leanings towards commoditisation.
He also noted that there was a significant cause and effect relationship between a country’s investment in sciences and technology and its prosperity. To illustrate this point, he highlighted the examples of Korea and Singapore; countries that spent 2.5% and 2.2% respectively on science and technology research resulting in 75% and 60%, respectively, of exports of a technological nature. He further noted that Korea had over 5,000 patent s filed per year while Singapore had 446, compared to Sri Lanka’s 1.8.
Mr. Fernando also revealed that over the past year, SLINTEC’s first year of science, it had already filed five patents in the USA. He elaborated on one such process that related to sustainable nano fertiliser and its ability to address the problem that, of the Rs. 30 billion in fertiliser bought in Sri Lanka annually, one half or 50% was lost or washed away due to leeching. He further added that this could be exported since other countries faced similar problems.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100725/BusinessTimes/bt21.html
A company circular sent out recently to shareholders of crisis-stricken Dankotuwa Porcelain this week informed shareholders of its intention to issue a private placement of 48 million ordinary shares to a consortium consisting of Environmental Resources Investments and Ceylon Leather Products.
This placement has been proposed at Rs. 9 per share amounting to a total infusion of almost Rs. 433.5 million, a move that was earlier announced in a statement issued by the company to bail it out from debts and working capital.
An amount which has already been earmarked to help with liquidity issues including Rs. 400 million needed for restructuring and replacing old, inefficient machinery as well as expansion of capacity to improve competitiveness, the circular to shareholders said this week.
The private placement will result in the public shareholding of the company being diluted from 56.87% for 13,694,849 ordinary shares to 18.96% for the same number. In addition, the company’s equity will shift from Rs. 246.2 million approximately represented by 24,081,914 fully paid ordinary shares to Rs. 649.6 million approximately represented by 72,245,742 fully paid ordinary shares. Control of the company will also follow in favour of the 48 million plus shares to be held by new investors, with new investors given the majority of board seats and four existing directors tipped to resign. It is also indicated that this undertaking would activate “a mandatory offer in terms of the Takeovers and Mergers code of the SEC Act”.
The circular further stated that the “new investors have identified that profitability could be achieved by a substantial restructuring which includes replacement of energy inefficient kilns, and expanding capacity among many other initiatives”. This comes after the board of Dankotuwa had recently re-negotiated a 3-year deal with the Jathika Sevaka Sangamaya and Sri lanka Nidahas Sevaka Sangamaya labour unions, also a condition set forth by the new investors.
Also indicated in the circular is the board’s assertion that this was the sole option available to existing shareholders and that the new investors would not go above Rs. 9/- per share even though a previous professional valuation had identified the value of a share at between Rs. 4.95 and Rs. 11.31.
Also revealed was that two previous rights issues at a price of Rs. 10/- per share in 2006 and 2008 were unsuccessful, with only Rs. 14.6 million or 6.2% raised from the required Rs. 226 million in 2008.
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100418/BusinessTimes/bt09.html
tomorrowHOME: A return to basics
By Jagdish Hathiramani
Continuing the Business Times’ tomorrowSERIES features, we take a look at the” Home of the Future”, or tomorrowHOME. While future homes have been explored widely for many decades, albeit in the context of television shows and architecture and design forums or even as it pertains to living on different planets or the more recent novelties conceptualised by consumer electronics companies, primarily to excite their target demographics and ultimately sell products; one key notion which kept popping up was that our very definition of what a home or an office or even a doctor’s office or hospital, etc. would likely not stand into the future, especially with the concepts of office and home already blurring thanks to telecommuting and freelancing.
However, for the purpose of this feature story, we will attempt to lay out homes in their most recognisable parts and put forward the ideas that futurists think will most likely impact these spaces the most.
Design / Decor
Considering the growing popularity of the ‘reduce, re-use and recycle’ movement, tomorrowHOME will probably count cardboard, wood, glass, etc. as important building block. In fact, the homes of the future may look suspiciously like relics of a wasteful past with functionality replacing sleek lines.
Some ideas that are already being touted include using old shipping containers as frames for future homes while still-to-be-introduced materials such as the so-called bendable concrete, which is 500 times stronger and half the weight than its namesake, will be used to coat these frames for a more workable and familiar outcome.
Meanwhile, thanks to health and sustainability factors highlighting the value of natural light, future homes will probably have fewer walls and more windows and skylights, while if there are walls these would most likely be completely covered with interactive or display wallpaper. This leads to the incorporation of concepts like constantly changing decor and shape shifting furniture so that tomorrowHOME will change daily or even minute-by-minute instead of being redecorated every few years. This will also finally kill the notion of a family television room as all rooms will essentially have wallpaper displays.
Further, the occupants of tomorrowHOME will need neither key nor alarm. Pre-approved people will be allowed into or will be allowed to invite strangers into the house. This will be thanks to the house’s Operating System (OS) and the various sensors embedded throughout the house which will constantly track the biometrics or maybe even chips related to every visitor.
However, although today’s tomorrowHOME was from the start designed for convenience and comfort, it is interesting to note that many consider this to be a health risk which aids bad behaviours, such as obesity, in affluent societies.
As such, more emphasis may be given in future designs to try and embed exercise into the essential workings of the house such as exercise based access to entertainment system and the kitchen.
Kitchen
The kitchen of the future will likely also be very different from the present model. It is believed that all appliances will gradually migrate into one combined appliance or even a machine chef which will replace microwaves, juicers, toasters, stoves, etc.
In fact, the ultimate vision of the tomorrowKITCHEN is best suggested by the television show Star Trek where a replicator transforms stored matter into any programmed dish, a scenario admittedly some distance off.
For the immediate future, kitchens may recommend and fast cook recipes based on what groceries you have presently on your shelves, probably identified via reading the products’ barcodes or Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags, which will likely take the place of barcodes in the future. This will also allow the kitchen to automatically grocery shop online. Kitchens may eventually also count your calories and, in conjunction with the orders/network of approved doctors regarding what you can and can not eat, they may be in charge of the personalised diet for each occupant.
Most interesting of all will be the composition and look of the kitchen of the future, from all accounts a complete change from what we are familiar with today. These will be characterised by adjustable sinks and countertops as well as easy-to-clean or even self-cleaning and self-disinfecting surfaces. In fact, many future appliances are said to be focused on getting rid of the need for housework, particularly mopping, vacuuming and scrubbing; all tasks that have been carried out in the same way for decades. Or at the very least, make these tasks easier and more ergonomic in nature by way of positioning the furnishings in the kitchen and even through the home.
Bathrooms
The most startling thing about the bathroom of tomorrow is that it may also be uniquely qualified to double as tomorrowHOME’s in-house medical analytics. Thanks to sensors in toilet seats and room-wide which are able to gauge all the human body’s signals, from weight to fat content to heartbeat to waste, etc.; the future bathroom will monitor various biometrics and automatically update your heath record day-by-day.
Importantly, this may also allow doctors, or maybe just their computers, to monitor you 24/7 and treat you at home using telepresence technology or even just act in a timely fashion during a medical crisis.
Connectivity
It is also widely believed that tomorrowHOME will comprise a central computer and network and maybe even an Artificial Intelligence (AI) which will control every facet of the house, from lighting to unlocking and locking doors to tinting windows to turning off lights in unoccupied rooms, etc. Further, a central network will act as a bridge between your office and your home while also facilitating the ability of your current work projects travelling with you everywhere you go, from your bedroom to bathroom to anywhere else within the house perimeter. Additionally, appliances which are preset and networked to start working when you are on your way home will also be alerted via computer. Connectivity also extends to facilitating wire-free charging of portable electronics using either power pads situated across the house, which may even be activated by the house, or even just wirelessly no matter where these electronics are placed within the house.
Sustainability
While in past decades the ideas for the homes of the future have centred on convenience and gadgetry, in recent times there has been a major shift towards sustainability, even over convenience. So much so that ideas such as smart metering, solar ceilings, roof gardens, etc., have all become de rigueur for tomorrowHOME while energy savings and carbon neutrality have also become intrinsic in all the items which it will house.
Ideally, tomorrowHOME will also go so far as to produce its own energy, maybe from human-generated kinetic energy or more possibly the sun or even biomass, as well as being able to re-fuel tomorrowCAR using electricity or fuels.
In addition, kitchens and bathrooms will conserve or recycle every millilitre of water while also relying on rain or wells as key sources of water. Meanwhile, water may no longer be used to flush toilets and concepts like toilets directly linked to compost heaps masked by sawdust, etc. may eventually turn out to become the norm. Another area of concern is cooling, especially with the high cost and energy usage of air conditioners during increasingly warm months. As such, in the future cooling may not be dependent on electricity but rather on metal rods that are buried deep into the ground.
These allow radiated coldness from the depths of the earth which would be absorbed by the metal rods. Concepts such as cross ventilation, etc. could also be used to aid cooling while other concepts can be used for colder climates to retain heat, such as reflective windows, etc.
While we have attempted to explore a sufficiently wide number of ideas suggested for the most possible tomorrowHOME, there are innumerable more concepts being discussed today, hundreds in fact, in just one area such as sustainable architecture which we have not touched on in any way, shape or form.
No matter what ideas have be suggested, one thing we know for sure is that tomorrowHOME will likely surprise us all, just as ideas such as the McMansion and high-rise buildings and condos surprised our forefathers just a few decades ago. In fact, with the aforementioned inability to properly define spaces such as bedrooms, kitchens and bathrooms, especially due to merging functionality, tomorrowHOME may not just surprise but shock due to its total disregard for privacy or other such mores which we hold dear today.
(Comments are welcome to this ‘tomorrow’ series and can be sent to mobileoption@gmail.com)
http://www.sundaytimes.lk/100321/BusinessTimes/bt13.html
Young bankers lack basic skills – top industry official
By Jagdish Hathiramani
A lot of young bankers are not going for bankers qualifications and are instead sitting for the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants examinations. This means that many do not have the basic skills that generally come along with Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka (IBSL) qualifications, such as what it means when cheques are crossed, what payee only on cheques indicates, etc.
Further, since the global credit crisis was caused by a lack of credit principles being applied, there is now a shift back towards more traditional standards and, as such, intermediate banking qualifications are again increasingly being seen as essential for young bankers today.
These views were shared, with the Business Times, by Dimantha Seneviratne, the newly elected President of the Association of Professional Bankers (APB); a 22-year old local body that includes over 900 senior-level banking professionals who represent 22 banks operating locally, of which 11 are foreign banks, and encompasses, as per 2008, close to Rs. 2.8 trillion or 57% of all major financial institutions of the country.
Mr. Seneviratne, Chief Risk Officer for HSBC Sri Lanka and the Maldives and a 20-year banking veteran, also noted that foreign banks operating in Sri Lanka have an advantage over their counterparts as their staff are obliged to attend international conferences and so keep abreast of the latest trends in banking; a situation that APB intends to address somewhat with a number of local learning opportunities for all its members. These will include presentations on wealth management and credit card fraud, lectures by HSBC Senior Asian Economist Robert Prior- Wandesforde and the head of compliance of a foreign bank, and a joint seminar with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka on changes to accounting standards affecting banking.
Additionally, he indicated that APB’s annual convention slated for the beginning of September will also go a long way in updating members about the key issue in the banking field. For example, and in keeping with the country’s high literacy and growing numbers of CIMA qualified and IT professionals; Sri Lanka’s capability of becoming a hub for IT related financial services for banks in other countries as well as being a backup or disaster recovery clearing system for smaller SAARC countries, etc.
Mr. Seneviratne also noted that APB was already working on setting up a Continuous Professional Development (CPD) programme for associates and diploma holders of IBSL which would entail APB providing certificates for those participating at APB organised seminars, lectures and conventions as part requirement to obtain a CPD. Additionally, he highlighted APB’s role in promoting an industry-wide programme whereby fast tracked junior level promotions would be available based on banking qualifications as well as other APB efforts including those in research such as a proposed new research study on the impact and effectiveness of “Parate Execution”.
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