By Shiran Illanperuma

The IT industry has undergone a revolution in the last 20 years due to minimal Government regulation, says TWCorp Chairman Thilan Wijesinghe. 

“While many industries like apparel or exports or construction have gone through booms and busts, one particular industry in our country has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 20% per annum over the last 20 years and that’s the IT industry,” said Wijesinghe

In a decisive and impassioned speech delivered at the Association of Accounting Technicians (AAT) Sri Lanka Annual Conference, Wijesinghe claimed that such exponential growth was due to the Government having little understanding of how to regulate the fast paced sector.

The distinguished entrepreneur, musician and former cricketer went on to say that the IT sector is, “Where most of the innovation in this country has happened and that’s because the government did not understand how to regulate or interfere with that business.”

Wijesinghe remarked that education plays a key role in the upkeep of growth and innovation associated with the country’s IT sector. He elaborated, “Around 63% of the 100,000 or so workforce in the IT industry has a graduate or a postgraduate degree and over 85% have bachelor’s degrees.”

Commenting on the side-effects of digitising economies Wijesinghe said that there will be “winners and losers” in the form of redundancies. Pointing out the labour shortages in construction, nursing and IT Wijesinghe said, “If you’re still engaged in work that is not in demand then you deserve to be left behind.”

Wijesinghe also slammed socialist government policies and what he termed as a “culture of dependency”. “We can go back to socialism where everybody gets an equal amount and all will suffer. If you start thinking that some people are going to be left out then you are thinking like a politician and a bureaucrat. Subsidies make people non-innovative and non-productive,” he said.

Further critiquing the state, Wijesinghe bashed policies favouring the development of ‘hubs’ saying that the safest way forward for the island’s economy would be investment in services. “Hubs are gimmicks and not the way to go. For this country to prosper we must concentrate on our services and exports,” he said.

Sage advice for upstart innovators

Kicking off proceedings at the first session of the AAT conference titled “Business Model Innovation”, Wijesinghe spoke broadly on innovation and entrepreneurship to a packed audience of young accounting professionals. Boiling down the essence of the thing, Wijesinghe said that, “innovation is the successful exploitation of new ideas” and that anyone could be an innovator.

Critiquing the country’s educational system he encouraged professionals to think strategically and laterally. Master communication skills are absolutely important insisted Wijesinghe. “About 75% of succeeding is convincing your superiors, your subordinates and yourself of what you believe in,” he said.

He urged young professionals to take risks and go against conventional wisdom. Saying that one did not have to be an entrepreneur to be an innovator Wijesinghe argued that “innovation equals disruption by challenging conventional boundaries, continually thinking of doing things differently.”

Managerial staff should strive to do new things to grow a business remarked Wijesinghe. “If you’re a manager or a corporate leader, unless you continually make yourself redundant in the particular things you did few years ago, you will never grow the business and you will never grow yourself.”

Dropping further pearls of wisdom, Wijesinghe stressed the importance of “engaging in competitive behaviour to be a catalyst for innovation.” He further recommended young professionals to take a small share in their business. “Always align yourself with your stakeholder,” he said.

On a more personal note Wijesinghe cautioned young professionals to be true to themselves. “Stick to your convictions and take calculated. Know when to walk away and stay ethical. This is absolutely important as reputation is everything,” he said.

His final piece of advice was for your professionals, entrepreneurs and innovators to have foresight for long term goals. “Always plan your life and your business five years ahead,” he said. In conclusion he urged professionals to, “Strive to be a pocket of excellence in a sea of mediocrity.”

Combating cultural barriers to innovation

Nepotism, oligarchy and other cultural barriers were tagged by Wijesinghe as inhibitors to innovation and economic growth. 

Said Wijesinghe, “There will be barriers in any field whether it is in politics where seniority is what matters. Or in the public sector where it’s about who you know and are related to. Or even in the private sector where the old boy’s networks are alive and well, dictated by what school you went to or what language you speak.”

Wijesinghe insisted that young innovators had to strive to overcome these cultural barriers including those relating to language. “I made it a point how to teach myself proper Sinhalese - and not ‘Singlish’ - when I took over as chairman of the board.”

Family run businesses were also singled out by Wijesinghe as a culturally bias business model that was non-meritocratic and ultimately stifled innovation. 

Responding to a question from an audience member about the perceptions and stigmas attached to the figure of the ‘Mudalali’, Wijesinghe remarked, “I personally believe that the concept of the Mudalali arose in this country as a consequence of price control in the 1970s - that’s when the Mudalali held the goods and engaged in price fixing.” But the concept has disappeared since liberalisation in the past 20 years he argued.

Social media matters

Praising the role of social media in levelling the playing field, Wijesinghe said that new media had further democratised innovation. “Today universities and employers check your LinkedIn profile, your Facebook page to ascertain what kind of individual you are,” he noted.

“Age, education and capital are no longer barriers. Social media tools now exist to raise capital - commonly called crowd funding – and entrepreneurs can now borrow money from lenders all via the internet,” he marvelled.

Remarking on social media’s impact on the economic landscape he said that the medium “Further dissipates the need for economic clusters, you can now do your business from anywhere in the country from Galle to Colombo or even in another country,” he said.

While praising the utility of new media he also cautioned that communication skills were needed to fully exploit the medium. “Business opportunities and. market awareness can be created through social media. But there’s a language of social media that you need to understand.” he said. Said Wijesinghe, “The emergence of social media in marketing a person, an idea, a business, an industry and even a nation is something that you cannot ignore. Social media now holds a place alongside print, broadcast as a major and an essential marketing channel.”

Picking up on the unique processes involved in social media he said, “Traditional marketing is a one way river of communication as we know but social media is different. It is about interaction and it is about forming relationships and that’s very important.”

“In our last presidential elections, there were around 4000 people working full time on social media assisting in the election of our current president. Social media is powerful because we can see and measure the success or the failure and return on investment,” he concluded.

Pix by Upul Abayasekera

Mobile penetration boon to IT

The increasing proliferation of mobile phones and smart phone technology in Sri Lanka is a good sign for business and innovation says Softlogic Director and CEO Roshan Rasool.

Rasool estimated that 25% of the population had access to smartphones and 20% had access to the internet. “Everyone from the businessman to the farmer has a smartphone to conduct business,” he said.

Mobile phones and the internet help to ease business transactions between stakeholders and reduce the barriers of geographic location. With looming projects like the Google Loon set to envelop the island with an internet connection the penetration of smart phones will set the stage for a new digitised economy.