SLID holds second successful Board Leadership Programme
The Sri Lanka Institute of Directors (SLID) recently organised a two-day programme supported by the Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka to sustain and support corporate governance in Sri Lanka.
"This is through reinforcing the board member's function as an agent of change and providing a refresher course on the structures and processes required by legislation. Based on material developed by the International Finance Corporation but adapted to meet local requirements, the programme held at Cinnamon Grand played host to professionals and leaders from a variety of fields, whoshared their insights with expert facilitation from the trainers, creating a synergistic learning environment which blended theory with involvement and experience," SLID said in a media release.
"It was really useful as we gained a lot of practical insights," said Sitari Jayasundara, Head of Legal Affairs - HNB Assurance, when asked about the impact the programme had had. Suran WIjesinghe, Director- Nations Trust Bank, speaking of his experience said, "It was a very stimulating programme with lots of interactive sessions and practical experience and enhanced the knowledge and awareness of the duties and responsibilities of being a director."
The sessions created opportunities for networking and lively discussion ensued with delegates debating whether it was necessary to intentionally create diversity in gender and ethnicity amongst members, or if merit as a sole deciding factor would automatically ensure diversity as well as facilitating an exchange of ideas from different industries. Interestingly, studies show that companies with diversified teams gain over 53 per cent more returns on equity, SLID said.
Dilemmas that a board could face were the subject of animated discus- sion too, such as the differences made by how insulated or involved in the business board members are, choices between sources of information, how vision could reach equilibrium with mitigation of risk, and why women are less likely to join Sri Lankan Boards.
"I thought that corporate governance was simply behaving as a corporate citizen in a manner fully compliant with the laws of the land. Here I learnt that it is more than that, and has a larger ambit. I gathered a lot of information from the role-play and the panel discussion," said Chandima Athukorala, Director - A.Baurs.
The concluding panel discussion featured Reyaz Mihular - Managing Partner/ Country Head, KPMG, AritthaWickramanayake - Precedent Partner, Nithya Partners and Vijaya Malalasekera - Chairman, Bogala Graphite Lanka PLC and was moderated by Ranjit Fernando, former Chairman of United Motors Lanka.