Top Brandix official tell APIIT MBA’s ‘SL will weather this storm...stay focused’ NEW syllabi MBA of Staffordshire University
The strongest Industry l i n ked MBA in Sri Lanka – The Staffordshire University that has a 21 year partnership with the Asia Pacific Institute of Technology( APIIT) hosted the top Brandix official Hasitha Premaratne at last week’s APIIT MBA Diaries in the backdrop of the launch of the new syllabi of the Staffordshire University MBA.
The key message from the top business personality to the youngsters was ‘ Sri Lanka Will weather the storm. Believe in Sri Lanka and look at the future’. Staffordshire University believes in building the new skill set required to support the countries efforts weather the storm with their MBA programme of 2022 said APIIT in a communique.
Hasitha is the Finance Director of Brandix Group. He leads the overall Finance Function of the Group and is also responsible for Strategy and Long Range Planning.
He is the Managing Director of Brandix India Apparel City and overlooks all joint ventures and investments of the Brandix Group, including the listed company Teejay Lanka PLC.
He was formerly the Head of Research at HNB Stockbrokers (Pvt) Ltd and possesses plenty of experience in the fields of capital markets, economics, strategic finance, management and research.
His lecturing experience expands for 11 years, for CIMA (UK), ACCA (UK) examinations in Sri Lanka, India, Singapore and Philippines. He was a Board Member of CIMA Sri Lanka during 2016 and is presently a committee member of Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. Hasitha holds an MBA in International Finance and a B. Sc in Computer Science. He is a Fellow Member of The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants ( CIMA - UK), Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA-UK), and the Institute of Certified Management Accountants (CMA - SL). He is also a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA). Hasitha was the winner of the "Tutor of The Year Award" at CIMA Global Financial Management Awards 2009 held in London. He was the Winner and Gold Medalist of prestigious "CIMA Star of the Year" award in 2012 and the Winner of
"Young CIMA Star of the Year" award, in 2006.
Explaining the current economic landscape Mr. Premaratne emphasised that “staying fucussed to the future long term decisions is key in this turbulent environment. Interviewed by former Sri Lanka Export Development Chairman Dr Rohantha Athukorala at the APIIT MBA Diaries webinar, Premaratne went on to be very optimistic on Sri Lanka Business landscape stating that ‘we will rebound quicker than expected as Sri Lanka has a record of being very resilient- be it the tsunami, Easter attacks, the bombings during the war or the civil riots that was experienced. But I agree that the situation at hand is the toughest challenge that we have faced but we will recover.
McKinsey in a latest study has revealed that for some skill requirements the structures are universal. Every team member may need to be comfortable working with data, or solving problems in a structured way, for example. Beyond those basics, however, they will also want to develop a deeper understanding of topics that allow them to make a real difference in their job.
That could be the application of machine learning to optimize a specific industrial process, or how to design in sustainability into products and services.
McKinsey say that the result is a T- shaped skills profile, with a broad set of generally applicable skills, supplemented by a spike of specific expertise.
An effective capability programme must be able to deliver both sets of skills, and the business needs to keep track of where those spikes of specialist knowledge are within its workforce. Premaratne went on to cite this theory and said that at Brandix the motto is ‘ People are the most important asset in the company’. They must be trained continuously given the challenges in the market place and environment. We must understand the new skill set required for better decision making he said.
APIIT has staged top business personalities weekly in the year 2022 to address the country via the “APIIT MBA Diaries” which so far Included personalities such as Global branding guru Simon Anholt, Unilever Chairperson Hajar Alifafi, Ambassordor to China Palitha Kohonna, Nestle Managing Director Fabrice Cavallin and very recently the Sri Lankan Ambassordor to Belgium, Luxembourg and Head of the Mission to European Union Grace Asiriwathan, The former chairman of Sri Lanka Bar Council Presidents Counsel Geoff Alagaratnam Group CEO of Dialog Supun Weerasinghe and Ambassordor to United Kingdom Saroja Sirisena.
The new MBA of Staffordshire University that has been launched in 2022, which is offered for the February 2022 intake consist of subject areas - Marketing Innovation, Entrepreneurship and International Business. The logic for these subjects to be highlighted is because the consumer has gone through radical change and this has resulted in companies having to innovate/renovate their product range whilst the foreign currency issue has made it mandatory for companies having to go global.
On each of this criteria we need entrepreneurship which is the center of the new learning experience said Dr Rohantha Athukorala Board Director of Asia Pacific Institute of Technology( APIIT).
Commenting on the new virus Omricon, Dr Athukorala said we must think ‘ contemporary’. We cannot use old and outdated to be. Humanity has learned a lot about the coronavirus in the past two years. Masks, social distancing and, most of all, vaccines have proved effective in curbing its spread.
Yet one lesson has not sunk in: long-lasting travel restrictions are mostly futile. The behavior we must demonstrate in the new Sri Lanka is that Get vaccinated, learn to Test if we are having any symptoms and then get the treatment required. If we do not have this behaviour there is no point of all the education in the world. At APIIT awe took the high ground and became the 1st campus to be Covid-19 control certified. A new certification that was launched by SLSI in partnership with Rotary. We are ready to face the challenges of Omricon in 2022 he said.
This is the new attitude required in the world to drive business growth and economic revival. We Instill this in an MBA graduate at APIIT so that when they go back to the business entity, they are ready to be the new CEO a of the organization said Dr Athukorala.