Message from Judging Panel Chairman

I was delighted to chair the judging panel of the Most Admired Companies of Sri Lanka 2022 Awards, for the fifth consecutive year to select the top 10 Sri Lankan companies that are worthy of admiration.

The top 10 were selected based on a public survey run by Dialog Axiata where stakeholders were asked to nominate companies. In the first round, companies were screened by a team of CIMA members based on eight financial performance criteria. In the final round, the Chairman/CEO of the companies were requested to make a presentation to the panel of judges. The eminent panel of judges comprised of myself, Rolf Blaser, Sunil Dissanayake, Senior Prof. Kennedy Gunawardana, Fadhil Jiffry, Santosh Menon, Bhavna Dadlani, and Dr. Sulochana Segera.

The qualitative judging process was revamped this year by judge, Santosh Menon. The framework called ‘the 6P path to admiration’ was introduced to all finalists as a guide with global benchmarks to pitch their case to the judges. The 6Ps are Product, People, Profit, Process, Planet and Public. Companies were requested to elaborate on why they think they deserve to be admired by succinctly presenting their inspiring stories around the 6Ps. The judges believed, this framework would help companies to build their story and to challenge themselves and be inspired to bring change into their thinking and ways of working. 

Product is about how their product or service is differentiated from others in the market place and why they believe it adds value to a consumer’s life. We wanted them to clearly state any inspiring vision statement that evokes admiration and creates inspiration.

People are at the centre of any enterprise. We wanted to be inspired by companies approach to ensuring diversity and inclusion as a policy in the work place. The specific steps taken to ensure gender balance and how during the pandemic and the current economic crisis the companies kept the interest of their employees first.

Profit is considered an important aspect of any company’s performance. We wanted to know more about their philosophy with regards to profit. Profits at any cost can be detrimental in the long run and a value-based profit creation philosophy engenders equitable growth that benefits all. 

Process – a rock solid corporate governance policy is critical to achieving a sustainable growth based on values. A process that upholds meritocracy above all else can foster excellence and promote healthy competition that can in turn fuel productivity and growth.

Planet is about devising sustainable practices to align a company to global climate change goals. No longer can companies work in isolation, every one bears a responsibility to our planet and we wanted to hear stories on measures they have actively taken to ensure they are in tune with climate change objectives.

Public ultimately all companies have a responsibility to the communities they operate in – not only in terms of quality of their product and service but also in terms of what they ‘give back’ to the society they operate in. We wanted to hear stories on their strategy for CSR. And how they choose the causes they were involved with and how their actions benefited the public.  There are many corporate awards, however, being the most admired is the highest accolade any corporate can aspire for. It is a definitive signal to the world about the companies standing in the country. We would like these awards and the process we follow in its judging to inspire companies to think deeper and harder about who they are, what they do and how they can make a difference to Sri Lanka.

Ravi Abeysuriya

FCMA (UK), CGMA, MBA, CFA