Shared Services Forum India recognises Brandix Chairman
Brandix Chairman Priyan Fernando has been felicitated with the prestigious Leadership Award by Shared Services Forum India (SSF) for his contribution as a pioneering business leader to global Shared Services during his tenure as Executive Vice President, Global Business Services of American Express.
The honour was bestowed on Fernando at the 2017 Global Shared Services Conclave held in New Delhi recently.
In its felicitation, Shared Services Forum stated that Fernando was recognised for pioneering financial shared servicing in India and for his creativity in leading global Shared Services and enterprise-wide transformation, delivering value and impact to business, industry and society. The forum noted that “in his most recent position as Executive Vice President of Global Business Services (GBS) at American Express, he was responsible for all internal servicing of this US$ 32 billion Payments and Services Company with a presence in over 130 markets.”
“This organisation, which he built from the ground up, today delivers all financial, procurement, real estate, human resources and business transformation support across the entire American Express enterprise. His pioneering work has sown the seeds of innovation and excellence for many Shared Services organisations,” SSF said.
In his acceptance message, Fernando said that setting up of Shared Services in an organisation can be done only with uncompromising grit and integrity. He recognised the footprints of all those professionals and leaders who have shaped the Shared Services Industry to what it is today, and declared that “Shared Services are pivotal to transformation and winning in the market place.”
Priyan Fernando was appointed a non-executive Director of the Brandix Group in 2011, and succeeded Deshamanya Ken Balendra as Chairman of the Group in May 2013, upon the latter’s retirement.
Three leading retail companies have successfully completed the Green Belt in Retail programme initiated by 3W Consulting, Sri Lanka’s leading Enterprise Renewal and Management Consultants.
Hameedia, Whittall Boustead (Pvt.) Ltd and Super Colloid Lanka (Pvt.) Ltd successfully achieved the international Green Belt in Retail after participating in the introductory Retail Mastery Programme followed by the completion of a written assignment with practical solutions to implement inside their own organisation.
The programme is part of the lead up to the Black Belt in Retail accreditation offered by 3W Consulting and the Global Retail Academy (GRA). It was initially introduced to Sri Lanka in February 2017, conducted by the founders of the GRA Prakash Menon and Andrew Cavangh, with the aim of driving thought leadership and top retail talent in Sri Lanka. It served as an initiative to encourage and advance knowledge, skills, practices and innovation among the professionals of the retail industry, thereby leading to a prominent boost in the entire retail sector.
The Black Belt in Retail qualification adopts a strategic and systematic flow in terms of teaching retailers bets practice kills and expert knowledge to master the complex retail process in the 21st century. The topics covered under the Green Belt in Retail level included retail strategy, planning and metrics, resource productivity in stock space and staff, merchandise planning, financial analysis and contextualising data.
The programme was recognised by top leading Sri Lanka retailers in the country where they participated at the introductory launch session. These organisations included Jaykay Marketing (Keells Super), Dialog Axiata PLC, Singer Sri Lanka, Hemas Holdings, Phoenix Industries, Dilmah, Dipped Products, Avirate, Richard Peiris and Cool Planet.
Commenting on the success of the programme, 3W Consulting Managing Director and Founder Stefan Moraes stated: “The affiliation with the Global Retail Academy was an initiative we are honoured to be a part of as it set the course for upgrading and upskilling the standards of the retail industry in the country. We hope that the rest of the organisations too will reach the Green Belt stage and thereby work towards achieving the Global Black Belt in Retail accreditation.”