Smart Media goes virtual
Smart Media is bucking current trends, where some private sector firms are recalling their staff to work from January onwards (after working from home), and having a totally virtual workplace.
“Well, we seized the moment whose time had come,” noted Vijith Kannangara, Chairman, Smart Media The Annual Report Company. “Our decision to go virtual has been in the air for years, a natural evolution of a company rooted on a digital- first mindset that also rubbed off on our clients.”
From its origins in 1994 Smart Media has challenged the conventional and pioneered many breakthroughs, he told the Business Times.
Examples in the digital space abound: the first end- to- end online HTML annual report for Sri Lanka Telecom ( SLT) in 1999; the first video annual report for Hayleys PLC in 2012; winning the Grand Award for the best on-line HTML annual report for DIMO at the International ARC Awards held in New York City in 2013 (while competing with the likes of Volkswagen AG, Daimler AG and Prudential PLC for the coveted award!); a purpose-developed annual report for mobile devices for the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority in 2015; a digital-first integrated report for the International Integrated Reporting Council, UK in 2018.
And now, the move to a virtual office. “No, no, we are not disappearing into the cloud,” says Ajit Chittambalam, Chief Officer – Content Development at Smart Media. “We will still have a presence on terra firma at 23/2, Independence Avenue, Colombo 7, which will also be the company’s new registered address. Clients will always be welcome by prior appointment for a discussion over coffee, or even better, premium Ceylon Tea.”
Smart Media developed a hybrid remote- working business model more than a decade ago when the company ventured into overseas markets. Tested and refined over the years, it provided the required resilience and agility to maintain business continuity with the onset of the pandemic. “Our teams have long been comfortable and successful using the work-from-anywhere concept. And now, it has become the prefer red mode,” says Dr. Kannangara, adding “It has been transformative to our productivity, flexibility and creativity. We have eliminated the time, effort and money wasted on commuting to work. Not only that, we have simultaneously reduced our third party or indirect greenhouse gas emissions.”
Smart Media recently celebrated its 10th year as a ‘net-zero’ emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG), or, in common parlance, being ‘carbon-neutral’. Using in- house technical expertise Smart Media also assists clients through on-the-job consultancy to measure and report their own GHG emissions and, in line with global climate action, guides them on their transition to net-zero.
“Going virtual is a way of practising what we preach,” concludes Dr. Kannangara. “Many of them have become prophetic – the need to innovate, to build resilience and to prepare for the future of work. Our move to a virtual office on 1st January 2022 is a pragmatic step in that direction.”