AmCham asks ‘Can you measure Innovation?’

The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) Sri Lanka hosted a luncheon meeting followed by a panel discussion entitled ‘Can you measure Innovation?’  

Technical Director of Asia for 3M, Tim Stagg was the guest speaker at the event. The panel featured leading business personalities in Sri Lanka comprising Managing Director of Bodyline, Dilan Gooneratne, Chief Executive Officer of Ceylon Biscuits Limited (CBL), Imal Fonseka, Chief Operating Officer of Hatton National Bank (HNB) Dilshan Rodrigo and Chairman, Board of Trustees, Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) UK, Matthew Nielsen. 

The session was moderated by Chartered Accountant and International Management Consultant Ranel Wijesinha. 

Stagg highlighted that in measuring innovation at 3M the key component was sustainability. In Stagg’s view sustainable solutions make money. For a company with more than 55,000 products, 3M’s innovation was planned, purposeful and global. 

Stagg also spoke about developing and sustaining an innovative culture amongst new recruits which included searching for people with the right mindset, ensuring that they fitted into the culture of 3M, teaching them that an individual was a team player at 3M since a team worked better than an individual and mentoring them. 

Commenting on Hatton National Bank’s strategy, Rodrigo explained that the three areas that HNB handled differently which were making a customer-friendly branch network, the removal of all back office operations and developing digital banking. 

Rodrigo further explained that banks were different when compared to other businesses as companies can have ups and downs whereas banks must avoid dips since they were financed by depositors. If depositors lose confidence they will withdraw their deposits leading to a run on the bank. 

Dilan Gooneratne spoke about Bodyline’s survival and success during the Global Financial Crisis. Gooneratne explained Bodyline’s fight against the decisions to downsize and walk away however Bodyline instead improved their quality system, adapted lean manufacturing techniques and diversified. Today Bodyline controls the majority of the female lingerie industry and are suppliers for large multinationals such as Nike. Bodyline has worked with Nike on its sports bra, the beach volleyball suits for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the French rugby jerseys for the 2011 Rugby World Cup and the Pro TurboSpeed suits for the London 2012 Olympic Games. 

Fonseka shared CBL’s success story. When CBL launched their biscuits in Sri Lanka it was because of the lack of nutrition in the country and their biscuits provided this necessary nutrition. When CBL entered the chocolate industry they initially had 4% of the market share. Today CBL has 62% of the market share in the biscuit industry. 

Nielson highlighted the importance of including innovation in education. 

Held at the Hilton Colombo Residences, the event was attended by the large cross-section of sectors forming the AmCham membership.