UGC Chairman Sampath Amaratunga

The FMSC, as the Centre of Excellence in Management education in Sri Lanka, earnestly believes that the key focus of the recovery efforts of the crisis should be equitable, where finance plays a central role in the recovery process

The International Conference on Business Management (ICBM) 2022 was convened for the 19th consecutive year by the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce (FMSC) of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura on December 8 and 9. 

The FMSC hosts the ICBM annually as the apex event of the Faculty calendar to create a forum for the academia, the practitioners, and the industry to deliberate on contemporary challenges facing the economy. 

Thus, ICBM 2022, in keeping with its forerunners, selected a perfectly fitting theme for the critical times of the present era: Equitable Recovery Amidst Economic Crisis: Post-Pandemic Challenges and the Way Forward. Exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the present economic crisis is the worst economic crisis faced by countries around the world in more than a century. 

The FMSC, as the Centre of Excellence in Management education in Sri Lanka, earnestly believes that the key focus of the recovery efforts of the crisis should be equitable, where finance plays a central role in the recovery process. Hence, the ICBM 2022 brought together scholars and practitioners around the world to exchange and share their experiences and research findings on all aspects of recovery from the present economic crisis. 

The ICBM 2022 encouraged that research articles are invited from both local and foreign academics in order to ensure that timely research discoveries from the global arena be published at ICBM 2022, notwithstanding the difficult economic situation of the nation. ICBM 2022 included 52 research papers of high academic standard from both local and foreign authors.  

In addition to the main conference, ICBM 2022 featured two other events: the PhD Colloquium and the Business Forum. As a sub-arm of ICBM 2022, the PhD Colloquium offered the next generation of national/international academic researchers an opportunity to further hone their research skills by presenting their PhD study-in-progress to an international scholarly audience. 

A cross section of the special guests and invitees

On the other side, the Business Forum managed to acquire industry representation. The majority of firms are now faced with a hyperinflationary situation brought on by a severe economic crisis, although some businesses were able to survive the worldwide pandemic while others completely failed since they were unable to implement timely survival tactics. As a result, the Business Forum sparked an appropriate conversation between academics and practitioners on the topical issue for this year in order to get a head start on the difficulties brought on by the economy’s ebbs and flows. The ICBM 2022 team, therefore, investigated and made public the tactics used by local corporations to get through the present economic crisis while also looking at the difficulties after the pandemic and the road forward.

Thereby, six main business organizations were selected to develop case studies, in exploring their equitable recovery strategies in facing a severe economic crisis at the offset of a post-pandemic condition. In addition, the strategies adopted by the FMSC during the pandemic were included in the case study series.

The Vice-Chancellor and Senior Professor of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sudantha Liyanage, speaking at the ICBM, said that although a considerable number of professionals are leaving the country, Sri Lanka still has the capacity to regain its strengths and rise higher. “The so-called brain drain has been a hot topic for decades now as we saw professionals leaving the country even during the 1987–1989 JVP insurrection and also during the Sri Lankan Civil war. Anyhow people like us remained in the country, and we are still serving the country and doing our best for future generations. Therefore we should not unnecessarily dread that people are leaving the country”, he added. 

Chairman of the University Grants Commission, Senior Professor Sampath Amaratunge, also delivering the keynote address at the ICBM, said that the President’s vision of restructuring many government bodies is the need of the hour. “ The President has also initiated a National Policy Making Body with the collaboration of the academia is a much-needed move, and President Wickremesinghe prompted that which would help to overcome the current crisis. A repository of research findings of State Universities for the past ten years was made accessible to the Parliament to enable the UGC to present the latest findings every 06 months to Parliament and table it as public information and for the Parliament Research Unit to act as the cording entity which will seek academic guidance from an identified pool of academic resources upon the requirements of Parliament. The amalgamation of the academia and government bodies is a farsighted move taken by President Wickremesinghe, which can lead to the recovery of the coutry”, he added. 

Nimal Pulukkuttige Don, the Dean of the Faculty of Management Studies and  Commerce at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, also speaking at the ICBM, said that research is an integral part in order to manage any system and the FMSC practically utilised research to face the challenges posed by COVID-19. “ICBM aims for ‘Equitable Recovery’ with the intention of not leaving anyone behind with the usage of sustainable development. “ We, as a faculty, also addressed COVID-19 and its challenges systematically and scientifically. We did not leave any students behind,” he said. 

Most importantly, the research study “The Impact of Learning Management System on Academic Performance of Undergraduates in Government-Owned Higher Educational Institutions in Sri Lanka” was presented at the ICBM by FMSC, highlighting the importance of research findings for post -covid equitable recovery. 
Pictures by Nimalsiri Edirisinghe