McKinsey mantra for Sri Lanka

McKinsey Global Institute Senior Partner and Chairman Sven Smit - Pic by Lasantha Kumara 

• McKinsey Senior Partner Chair of Insights and Ecosystems Sven Smit moots likely Indian century ahead and says strategically located Sri Lanka stands to gain 
• Describes Sri Lanka’s potential as solid and this could be realised with right strategies, competence and competitiveness and make Sri Lanka grows better and bigger than it had in the past
• Stresses Sri Lanka must find its own positioning in the region and globally

By Nisthar Cassim

Renowned global management consulting firm McKinsey is urging Sri Lanka to use the strategic geographic location effectively and benefit from India’s rise whilst following best practices of successful emerging economies.

“If the Indian century comes through, whoever is related to that will have benefits,” emphasises McKinsey Senior Partner Chair of Insights and Ecosystems Sven Smit who is also the Chair of the McKinsey Global Institute, the firm’s business and economics research arm.

“Are you close to something that grows?” queried Smit in an interview with the Daily FT during a recent visit to Sri Lanka. “One of the endowments of Sri Lanka is location. I come from the Netherlands, where the port of Rotterdam is. To what degree can Sri Lanka be the port of India or a port? Even if you’re a port to India, that will make a big difference,” he added, reinforcing that Sri Lanka stands to benefit from India’s rise.

Smit stressed when something as big as India starts to move at a different pace, it pulls its surroundings and Sri Lanka with right strategies, competence and competitiveness, can grow better and bigger than it had in the past.

He stresses Sri Lanka needs to ask itself whether the country is making what India needs or be the logistics hub for what it needs or ships out. McKinsey executive said that at the potential level Sri Lanka is solid and this could be realised by the right strategies. “The more you have the best business policies and practices the better it is,” said Smit and listed among them were fiscal discipline and currency stability along with a dynamic agriculture, manufacturing and services sector including tourism and logistics.

“Sri Lanka has a natural endowment to do agriculture and better agriculture is needed in the world, including productivity. Sri Lanka could be one of the more productive locations,” said Smit who is a member of McKinsey’s global leadership team, overseeing the firm’s knowledge development.

He added that being an island nation, Sri Lanka also has a natural attraction to tourism which has great potential.

He stressed that “Every country will need to find its position.” According to Smit, a country can only get one or two words in the mind of the world.  “From a brand perspective of New York it is Wall Street and the Big Apple. Singapore has its financial centre. Sri Lanka can put one or two words. Is it the port, is it tourism, or is it a manufacturing place? This doesn’t mean that you should do all four, but one or two of those should be the things that the world will think or remember when it is comes to Sri Lanka.”

 “What always works is if you have one or two strong winners, it will pull everything up. If you have an industry that’s big and strong ‒ be it manufacturing, tourism or ICT, and for that you need basic services, and then when that engine runs on the platform of that, another engine can run. Countries are going to be known for what works the best,” Smit added.