CMI, UK Sri Lanka Branch holds its 15th AGM
The Chartered Management Institute UK Sri Lanka Branch held its 15th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Thursday 23th June, 2016 at the Kingsbury Hotel amidst a large gathering of their members.
His Excellency James Dauris, the High Commissioner for UK in Sri Lanka, who is also the Patron of CMI Sri Lanka Branch graced this occasion as the Chief Guest.
Delivering an interesting speech at the AGM, His Excellency James Dauris stressed that good management becomes very important in many things we do including politics. He mentioned that just like politics starts with a “P”, so does CMI’s core values - Professional, Progressive, Passionate and Practical.
He described that the ‘Ps’ are pretty popular and well liked by everyone and they can be categorized into several groups. He indicated that there are 3 P’s of presenting: preparation, practice and performance and another 3 P’s for career success: passion, patience and perseverance.
Having said that there used to be 4 P’s in marketing which has now increased to 7 : Place, Price, Product, Promotion, People, Processes, Physical evidence, he indicated that it may be good for your ego to have more P’s if you are involved in marketing.
H E Dauris also spoke about the importance of being Professional and Progressive if you are running a country or a government or even a government department or a regional government and added that it is impossible to achieve today’s goals without being Passionate about your work and Practical in your approach. He also indicated “Politicians like company directors need to be focused on making progress, though it’s a word that means many things to many men”
H E Dauris also spoke about Paul Hawken’s Natural Capitalism Book, “good management is the art of making problems so interesting and their solutions so constructive that everyone wants to get to work and deal with them”.
Quoting Thomas Watson’s premise H E Indicated that the difference between success and failure in a corporation can be very often traced to the question on how well the organization brings out the energies and talents of its people, so too in a country, the difference, he said, can often be traced to how well a country engages its people and bring out the great energies and talents of its citizens, how well it can get them to aim for the remarkable without settling for the routine.
He concluded his speech posing a question to the members of CMI to ponder on whether they are bringing all the skills as chartered managers in helping Sri Lanka aim for the remarkable
The outgoing President of CMI Sri Lanka Branch Mr. Varuna Ratnaweera thanked all the past presidents and the ex co members who helped him in carrying out his duties. He indicated that the Ex Co has already decided to conduct the CMI Quiz for the third time on 7th August following its huge success during the past two years.
Drawing an example from the Sri Lanka England one day cricket match that ended in a tie, two days before, Mr. Ratnaweera indicated that the lesson from that experience is that we should never relax
and become complacent until we achieve our final goal, in any task that we undertake. He indicated that if we collectively work towards a goal, we can be like the mighty ocean, though we may individually be like little drops of water. “
The newly elected President of CMI Sri Lanka Branch, Mr. Malraj Kiriella in his speech indicated that he hopes to continue with the good work that the branch has been performing and aims at achieving four main goals this year. He described these four goals as working on developing the membership strength, introducing a recognition scheme for management excellence in the country to encourage greater professionalism of our managers, developing and promoting the CMI Chartered Manager Programme locally and introducing programmers that can develop knowledge and skills of managers.
He said Membership Development is pretty significant for the long term success of the Sri Lanka branch. “We have currently only 6 Chartered Managers in our branch and in the past we could not introduce this program to locals.” Mr. Kiriella further stated that CMI Membership is available to qualified managers where they can attain Chartered Manager status – the ultimate managerial accolade , thus easily enhancing their employability and earnings potential.
He also reminded why the CMI stands out among many other insti- tutions. Having infrastructure and experience to deliver Custom Programmes to meet training requirements, having professional consultants to meet the highest standards, acting as a unique body to tackle today’s key HR issues and being the only institution offering Chartered Manager status as well as recognition for CPD.
The Sri Lanka Branch traditionally felicitates members who complete 25 years of membership with the award of special recognition certificates at the Annual General Meetings every year. This year the recipients of such recognition certificates were Mr. Stuart Chapman FCMI, Mr. Dharshan John FCMI and Mr. Wajjiya Hettiarachchi MCMI.
The new Executive Committee of CMI Sri Lanka Branch for 2015 / 16, that was elected unanimously at this 15th AGM comprises of Mr. Malraj Kiriella FCMI as President, Mr. K. Dharmasena FCMI and Mr. Murali Prakash FCMI as 1st Vice President and 2nd Vice President respectively. Mr. Sanjeeva Jayasinghe MCMI was elected as Honorary Secretary while Mr. M.M.S. Quvylidh FCMI was reappointed as the new Treasurer. The other office bearers elected at this meeting were Eur Ing Lakmal Senanayake C Mgr MCMI (Assistant Secretary) and Mr. Nimal Mamaduwa FCMI (Assistant Treasurer).