The direction of Sri Lanka’s post-civil war socio-political and economic development took a pivotal turn in 2015 with the election of a new President in January and, seven months later, a new government to parliament.

Last week we spoke about the advanced procedure which uses a strategy-driven approach to selecting a market segment. The technique, we said, consists of classifying markets as: natural, leading edge, key, linked, central, challenging, difficult, and

?Sri Lanka is a country with a discreetly ageing population because of an increase in life expectancy and a decrease in birth rates. The demographic transition that is taking place is expected to result in the old and young representing a lopsided sh

Around 10 years ago, I interviewed the founder of an Australian non-profit organisation that was established to provide housing to the intellectually disabled children.

For over three decades Sri Lanka was not able to carry out a consistent plan of action for promotion of meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE) tourism due to the unsatisfactory security situation in the country. 

?As the world deals with the “new normal” of a slowing China, regional financial and economic integration is more important than ever, and South Asia is strategically poised to play an influential part.

?Sri Lanka was featured in the recently released annual Global Entrepreneurship Index (GEI) by the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute (GEDI). The country appeared in the index for the second consecutive year, however, dropped 16 places

?An efficient information processing system is necessarily vital to establish a fair trading platform for share market investors. Information comes mainly in three forms. That is old or past information, publicly available new information and informa

?Last week, I marched from Vihara Maha Devi Park to Independence Square behind a 0 percent Tolerance for Corruption banner.  

?The economic policies of the newly elected government are said to be based on the concept of “social market economy” built on social justice principles. Social market economy, which combines market economy and social security, became the

?In the world of technology nothing stands still. The rapid pace of innovation we’ve seen across all IT in 2015 will continue into 2016 without a doubt and usher us all into an era of seamless computing. 

During the last weeks, we reviewed the conventional ways of market segmenting. If you recollect, those were geographic, demographic, psychographic, product attributes. 

The Paris Agreement focusing on climate change and ways to address its adverse impacts was adopted on December 12, 2015. It provides both binding and...

Maithripala Sirisena, with the support of Ranil Wickremesinghe’s UNP, the country’s largest political party, won the election on the promise of ‘Yaha Palanaya’ or good governance. 

There are many things in life that shape us as we go along – some are lessons that will have a long-lasting impact on us and some will change us for always and others will give us insights into many aspects.

Incentive payments to attract low-skilled migrants are rare. But in the case of Sri Lankan female domestic workers, employers of several Middle Eastern (ME) countries such as Saudi Arabia (SA),...

On December 14, 1954, the United Nations General Assembly recommended that all countries institute a Universal Children’s Day, to be observed as a day of worldwide fraternity and understanding between children. 

With the increasing competition, each and every employee is expected to make a unique contribution, so that the business organisations will beat competitors in the industry, creating values and satisfaction for consumers.

?It’s nearly ‘that time’ of the year again. So what are the key things to consider if you’re tracking the already laid-out campaign effectiveness of your digital marketing strategy for the holiday shopping season?

The government in its budget proposals for 2016 has indicated that a financial centre will be established in Colombo called the “Colombo International Financial Centre”. 

?Only 49 percent of working age women in developing Asia participates in the labour force in contrast to 80 percent of men. And this number has in fact reduced from 56 percent in 1990. 

During the life of any small business, it will go through five stages of the life cycle and encounter different challenges. For example, the business will require a different strategy when it comes to market penetration,....

Education and skills attainment in Sri Lanka, which in the early 60s was better than that of countries like Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea, has in the last 20 years fallen behind, undermining the country’s growth prospects.

Many turnaround histories register six common observations from the two strategic reorientations outlined above – (1) profit maximization, (2) quality of service, (3) focused leadership, (4) staff development and communication, (5) alliance net

Everyone knows how fashion shows work – the apparel on display, usually on near perfect lithe bodies of men and women, has a magnetic sense to pull others in the wish that somehow, they too could like the models on the catwalk. 

Since its inception, employee engagement is seen as a local (read team level) phenomenon and is believed to be largely driven by the ‘work group level’ dynamics.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had clearly enunciated in his economic policy framework that all state-owned enterprises (SOEs) would be brought under a State Holding Corporation (SHCL) and operated as a trust.

?The EU is based on the principles of democracy, the rule of law and human rights and it strives to respect the highest standards. The EU not only has a principled incentive to uphold human rights through its policies, but it also has a legal obligat

Today’s globalization trends have forced many companies to pick members of project teams from diverse ethnic groups, around the globe and have them communicate virtually–by phone, ...

Last week, many unions and politicians were protesting against the proposed Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF)-Employees’ Trust Fund (ETF) reforms covering the private sector employees.