SLIM dons double crowns with prestigious awards

Gains Silver at the CA Annual Report Awards 2017 Runner up at the NBEA Awards 2017 Awards highlight SLIM’s emphasis on governance and business excellence Both awards signify SLIM’s long strategies in building an entity that aims towards performance and op

For the very first time in its history, the Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing competed in the 53rd Annual Report Awards conducted by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka and emerged with a silver award in the Not for Profit Organizations in the NonGovernmental Organizations category. Also for the first time, SLIM clinched the Runner Up Award in the Associations and Societies Category at the 14th National Business Excellence Awards 2017 organised by the Nat i o n a l C h a m b e r of Commerce of Sri Lanka.

Both awards signify SLIM’s long strategies in building an entity that aims towards performance and operational excellence, where stringent adherence to compliance and standards lie paramount in its ethos. SLIM has been producing comprehensive annual reports according to the accounting standards by CA Sri Lanka for many years now, which emphasize this focus. However, this is the first time that it submitted a report to be scrutinised and evaluated against those guidelines, resulting in the reward of silver at this prestigious event.

Over 140 organisations ranging from blue chip companies and conglomerates to small and medium businesses to community groups vie for laurels at the Annual Report competition, where an eminent panel of judges work on evaluation criteria that has best practices in governance and stringent appraisals of the entities’ transparency, accountability and social responsibility in financial reporting. At the NBEA Awards, SLIM was among 92 award winners across 29 business sectors, which has become the symbol of excellence for the crème de la crème of business in Sri Lanka. The evaluation criteria is embedded on a platform of seven ‘ excel- lence’ criteria based on leadership, corporate governance, capacity building, performance management, local and global market reach, CSR and environmental sustainability and business and financial results.

Assessing the unprecedented wins for SLIM, President Karthik Elangovan opines that these awards further augment the stability, strength and sustainability that the organization espouses in the way it conducts its business. “For one, a credible annual report entails a great deal of clarity in the presentation of financial and nonfinancial information and that is what SLIM has striven to do by conforming to the highest reporting standards and we have been suitably rewarded for it too. In being recognised for excellence, the best practices we infuse, our value creation on governance, deeper insights and remarkable growth, and our contribution as the national marketing body to the country’s ambitious development goals are all highlighted. These not only spur us to augment what we have achieved but also paves the way for others to emulate these best practices and strive for excellence.”

This year’s Annual Report Awards, which revolved on the theme ‘ Quintessence of Eminence’ highlighted entities that have gone beyond the norms of mere financial performance, which makes this win even more significant.

“These awards,” says CEO and Executive Director of SLIM, Sanath Senanayake, “are a solid demonstration of our transparency and accountability, not only in delivering maximum financial stability, but also in being compliant with regulations and standards, striving for excellence and setting benchmarks for the corporate sector as a whole. This is an unequivocal honour for the national body for marketing and one that we will continue to build upon to ensure that our decisions and impacts on our stakeholders will always be positive and for the betterment of the nation as a whole.”