He excelled as a multi-faceted leader

Rajan Yatawara’s first death anniversary fell a few weeks ago -born on 16.06.1946, he departed from this world on 07.11.2017. I was a close associate and key subordinate when he was Managing Director / CEO of Haycarb Limited of the blue chip Hayleys Group.

What comes to my mind first, is Rajan’s exemplary leadership. He was an ‘action centered leader’, who had the ability to extract ‘extraordinary’ performances from ‘ordinary’ subordinates. He was also a ‘persuasive leader’ who, like Dwight Eisenhower, would smile and get a thing done. In this way he was a great motivator. Rajan never failed to recognize and compliment his subordinates’ good work. Often, this was not confined to mere ‘lip service’, but there were tangible financial responses for good work, at the annual or semi-annual incremental times.

Another facet of his personality was his avowed simplicity. Calling him ‘Sir’ was prohibited -we were required to address him only as ‘RY’. This trend became part of ‘Haycarb culture’. At many a formal occasion while introducing his senior subordinates, stating their academic and professional qualifications, he would humbly say that he held only a science Advanced Level.

The success of his career was marked by his firm determination to learn. ‘The difference between the impossible and possible lies in one’s determination’, they say. This was true of Rajan. He was not only a great listener but a great learner. Using as a base, the fragments of information he had gathered about activated carbon manufacturing technology, he read voraciously on this subject, thus acquiring a vast knowledge on the manufacturing technology, which coupled with his own research, made him an authority on the subject. He started an Activated Carbon Manufacturing Factory at Madampe, in the North Western Province which blossomed into the largest activated carbon manufacturing facility in Sri Lanka and perhaps in the world, using an unmatched technology of revolving horizontal activation kilns. With Haycarb’s resounding profit base, Rajan moved in to acquire by purchase, other rather unsuccessful smaller activated carbon manufacturing outfits in the North Western Provinces.

Haycarb’s activated carbon manufacturing facility grew into a huge empire running on its own steam, with a reasonably large team of competent and dedicated technocrats. The company acquired inter- national stature, exporting activated carbon to various countries, for innumerable purification processes, and largely for gold extraction in South Africa. Haycarb at this stage had subsidiaries in Britain, USA & Thailand.

Rajan’s innovative industrial mindset did not stop at that. The province being the hub of the Coconut Triangle had a multitude of coir fibre manufacturing outfits, in all of which there were coir dust mountains occupying acres of land. Coinciding with this phenomenon, was the acute demand in Western countries, for suitable substitutes for peat (a semi-decomposed water absorbing and retaining medium - widely used in horticulture and floriculture). Rajan’s innovative mind quickly recognized a substitute for peat, in the coir dust mountains. Coir dust had to be dried to required levels of dryness, sifted, and then compressed under high pressure into coir dust ‘brickets’ (bricks), which were hard, waterless, of uniform size, which were easy to pack for export to sophisticated markets. ‘Bricket’ making machinery was developed using in-house expertise and thus was born, another profit making export oriented subsidiary company called LIGNOCELL in Madampe, with a staff of its own.

By interaction, Rajan not only listened and learnt from his knowledgeable subordinates, but used their expertise to the optimum.

Rajan is also remembered as a meticulous time manager, who conformed to a rigid daily routine in office. He devoted his high energy times in the morning till lunch time for strategic thinking and actions. After lunch for an hour or more he was free to meet staff and engage in routine administrative and financial matters. During his second high energy time, after evening tea, he would recommence his strategic involvements till late into the night, often carrying work home to complete.

Rajan was a devout Catholic, and an absolute democrat with his family and children. He was an Old Thomian who took great pride in his alma mater.

Haycarb from its very foundation to its eventual state as a giant industrial empire, is stamped with the hallmark of Rajan’s commendable and multi-faceted leadership - as a thinker, planner, innovator and also an admirable friend. His good name will live forever in our minds. ‘May he rest in peace’.

Linton Jayaweera