Sri Lankan businesses hungry to expand beyond country: BNI
Business Network International (BNI) is the world’s largest business referral organisation for business owners, having a presence in over 70 countries with over 230,000 members within over 8,300 chapters.
Through weekly meetings and exclusive resources, BNI helps businesses build a strong network that fuels professional growth. During last year, there were 13.9 million referrals passed within BNI members, generating US$13.9 billion worth of business for its members.
Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, the Us-based organisation is headed by Graham Weihmiller, who is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of BNI, as well as a Director for BNI Foundation, which helps underprivileged children access life-changing educational opportunities throughout the world. Asia Pacific operations are headed by Asia Pacific President Mahesh ‘Mac’ Srinivasan, while BNI’S Sri Lankan chapter is headed by Anjana Gunatillake.
“BNI has been in Sri Lanka for about four years, but has been dormant since,” stated BNI Asia Pacific President Mahesh ‘Mac’ Srinivasan who recently visited Sri Lanka.
“We are restarting in Sri Lanka now, since I took on the operations at the beginning of last year, and eight months ago is when we started deploying our training and additional resources into Sri Lanka to be able to support the system. This year alone we saw a growth from 21 members to close to 140 members in Sri Lanka.”
“What we offer is for a Sri Lankan business owner who is really hungry to grow their business within, for example, Colombo if it’s a local business, or if they really want to reach out to the rest of the world, doing business in Cambodia, Laos or Singapore, we have a network called BNI Connect once they become a member, and through that we are able to make connections across the world and serve the purpose,” Srinivasan added.
“It is going to be very key for a business owner in Sri Lanka to be able to participate in a forum that is actually encouraging them to grow business and practically giving them referrals and things like that,” he stressed.
According to Srinivasan, BNI is launching operations in Sri Lanka to help local entrepreneurs. He aims to have a member band of around 300 this year and about 1,000 entrepreneurs by end of 2020.
“We want to make sure that what we started in Sri Lanka has fostered and nurtured correctly, and what I have seen among my limited experience here in Sri Lanka is members over here are hungry to expand to the outside world, beyond Sri Lanka, and what BMI is offering provides them with a trusted network, so they can transact business much faster,” Srinivasan further opined.
Explaining his role in the Sri Lankan chapter, BNI Sri Lanka Chapter Head Anjana Gunatillake said: “What I do is basically advice members on how to operate within the chapter as members with the proper guidelines of BNI, so we give them the guidelines, teach and train them on how to keep within the BNI policies and also on how to run a chapter meeting properly without deviating from the 20 point agenda which is a worldwide agenda that is for any country.”
Also newly introduced is BNI U (BNI University), BNI’S global online learning platform, where members will have access to a range of training content including videos, podcasts, webinars and other resources. BNI U can be accessed through a desktop or even by downloading the mobile application, and it functions as a catalyst where members can find courses and content to support their entire BNI journey, whether they’re a BNI member, on a leadership team, or even a BNI Director. BNI’S Core Value ‘Lifelong Learning’ encourages members to continue to be committed and record their Chapter Education Units (CEUS) after completing items on BNI U.
The mission of BNI is to help members increase their business through a structured, positive and professional referral marketing programme that enables them to develop long-term, meaningful relationships with quality business professionals.