Sri Lanka’s largest business summit, the National Conference of Chartered Accountants was inaugurated today, 25th October 2017 in the presence of the country’s corporate glitterati comprising of top business leaders, decision makers, renowned accounting and finance professionals as well as diplomats.
The annual conference organised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka (CA Sri Lanka) was inaugurated by Chief Guest Dr. Harsha de Silva, Deputy Minister of National Policy and Economic Affairs and Keynote Speaker Dr. Binod K. Chaudhary, Chairman of CG Corp Global, who is the only Forbes listed billionaire from Nepal.
This year too the conference received overwhelming response with over 1800 delegates registering for the flagship event at BMICH, setting an all-time new record of the annual event. The three day conference which will revolve around ‘Dynamism: Agility in Leadership’ will conclude on 27th October 2017 after two days of technical sessions featuring local and international speakers.
Delivering the keynote speech on agile leadership, Dr. Chaudhary, a well-known businessman, industrialist and philanthropist shared his personal experience to the top. He also noted that despite the many uncertainties both business and life brings, one can always manage them by anticipating change and adapting oneself accordingly. He also urged the high profile audience to embrace agility when doing business. “The more swiftly you act, the more likely you are to survive and prosper. We need to be agile enough - both to grab the opportunity and pre-empt any possibility of damage. We have to remember that time is very powerful and it is always in favor of change,” Dr. Chaudhary said.
President of CA Sri Lanka Mr. Lasantha Wickremasinghe speaking at the event said that everyone must understand that without embracing change, Sri Lanka can’t move forward as a country. “To survive in this ever evolving world, we need to embrace change, and for that we need leaders who are willing to be agile and also dynamic,” he said.
Mr. Wickremasinghe said that even though Sri Lanka is a small nation, it has great potential to become a global player due to its strategic location in the world map. But, he pointed out that this will not happen just by rhetoric pledges. “We need leadership with proper vision to reach this goal. Moreover, we cannot also only expect our government and policy makers to drive our country forward. As professionals, we too have a collective responsibility to help achieve this target,” he said.
He also urged business leaders and professionals to move away from traditional and archaic methods of doing business, because businesses that didn’t evolve over time no longer can stake claim of being successful. “We all know success can never be permanent, and success can be short lived if the vision of the leadership is short. This is why it’s important to encourage agility across the broader spectrum, be it at a national level or corporate level and across both the public and private sectors,” he added.
The technical sessions of the conference on 26th and 27th October 2016 will bring a host of speakers and panelists who are renowned for their dynamism and agility and have successfully steered their way to success. On 26th October, the morning session will feature award winning educator, CEO, advisor and leadership coach Prof. Sudhanshu Palsule who will speak on ‘Agility - The differentiator’, this session will be followed by ‘Engage, Accelerate, Outshine’ by Tom Hood, CEO of the Maryland Association Of CPAs. The afternoon session will bring Carmen Niethammer, IFC Programme Manager of the Women in Work Programme who will speak on ‘Crafting an agile talent strategy with leadership diversity.’ This presentation will be followed with a panel discussion featuring Niethammer, Aruni Rajakarier and Jonathan Alles. The evening session will bring Reyaz Mihular, Managing Partner of KPMG Sri Lanka who will speak on ‘Around the profession in 60 minutes.’ His presentation will be followed by a panel discussion featuring him, Naomal Goonewardena and Hasitha Premaratne.
On 27th October, Conrad Dias, CIO of LOLC Group will speak on ‘Beyond intelligent technology,’ and this presentation will be followed with a panel discussion featuring Dias and Sriyan de Silva Wijeyeratne. Following the panel discussion, Managing Director of DSI Samson Group (Pvt) Ltd, Kulatunga Rajapaksa will speak on ‘Reflections of an agile leader’ and his presentation will be followed by the final session of the conference on ‘Leadership archetypes’ by Michel Nugawela, CEO of MND/Interbrand Sri Lanka.
