IIT campus promotes Sustainable Business through elite master course

With increased attention being paid to sustainability and promoting sustainable business practices, the Informatics Institute of Technology recently came forward to cater to this need by organising Sri Lanka’s only session focussing on the concepts of “Embedding UN Sustainable Development Goals in Corporate Strategy”. The One- day Master Course was held on the 21st of March at the Ramada Hotel with the participation of professionals of wellknown corporates.

The programme, conducted by Dr. Ravi Fernando, a Blue Ocean Strategist, Chairman and CEO of Strategic Corporate Sustainability (Pty) Ltd, and Executive in Residence - INSEAD Business School France was the perfect opportunity for top corporate leaders and professionals to gain an understanding of how they could embed these concepts into their organisations to make way for more profitable and responsible business.

This year’s master class, exclusive with IIT, was held for the second time. Dr. Ravi Fernando who conducted this session is a Senior Fellow of the Green Ocean Institute HCM, Vietnam, has a Masters of Studies from the University of Cambridge and a Doctor of Business Administration from the European University, Switzerland with years of gathered knowledge and experience on the subject areas.

The concept of Blue Ocean Strategy is a comprehensive set of analytic tools and framework created by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne. Rather than the conventional idea of attempting to out-perform the industry, the Blue Ocean Strategy provides a systematic approach to make competition irrelevant by creating uncontested market spaces and avoiding falling into ‘Red Ocean Commodity traps.’ The idea of ‘Red Ocean’ traps refers to the fierce competition amongst rivals to gain a place of the market share which could lead to the destruction of mar- ket players and thereby the ‘shedding of blood turns the ocean red.’

The session on ‘ Strate gic Corporate Sustainability’ made participants aware of vital concepts such as the Triple Bottom Line – how to create greater business value by incorporating social and ecological factors in your accounting framework. The master class also discussed the importance of prioritising the need, as a business, to work towards achieving at least three of the seventeen UN sustainable development goals while assisting participants to develop a company specific strategy to embed these goals into their corporate strategies.

Speaking about the event, Gowrie N Indraratne, COO of Tequila Sri Lanka said, “It was indeed a very insightful session and I learnt a lot especially on the world’s environment threats and how we as corporates can re-draw our corporate strategy through sustainability. It was a pleasure to get exposed to IIT’s sessions. All what I learnt will be put into practice and shared with others for a better tomorrow.”

“This was an immensely productive workshop. This is an area which adds value to a long term corporate strategy,” GishanIllangakoon, Regional Head – Corporate Banking for MCB Bank also said.

I n f o rmat i c s Institute of Technology (IIT) is a pioneer in conducting globally renowned internal British undergraduate and postgraduate degrees since the year 1990. IIT has dominated the private sector led information technology and business degree space in Sri Lanka, having produced several generations of ‘ technopreneuers’, many of whom are now leaders in the IT sector. Boasting 100% employability and some of the highest salary grades for its students, IIT has produced over 3000 students now working in over 25 countries worldwide, proving the international reputation of their undergraduate and post graduate degrees.