Success Stories

The three greatest traits that helped me excel in my career were integrity, logic and tireless dedication.

• I hold back none of my time and energy in completing the tasks with accuracy.
• I hold myself to a high standard and I hold everyone else who works with me to the same or above.
• I rarely make assumptions, and I prefer instead to analyze, check my facts and arrive at a logical course of action. This removes dogma and gives me space for clear unbiased thinking.

• Once I heard my father say, “Don’t expect too much if you are doing too little”. I’ve always believed that hard work and dedication would always pay off.
• I love what I do. I believe that it is unfair by the company if I take up responsibilities for which I wouldn’t give my 100%. I am genuinely interested in what I do and that helps me to focus.
• My weakness. The quickest way to get to my bad side would be laziness and dishonesty, to a point that their absence is far more important to me than emotional consideration. Sometimes this kind of ‘blunt’ approach by me has left people thinking that I am a ‘cold’ person. 

• I prioritize my work not purely on the basis of the person who wanted it done but how urgent it is in driving the results of our business.
• I have visibility to a lot of operational issues that are happening in the business when analyzing data. Instead of choosing to ignore those issues until they become severe threats, I have always brought transparency and immediate visibility to them so they can be addressed by the decision-makers and resolved promptly.

• In staying updated on the latest and greatest business strategies, I have got a great coach for a boss. I’ve learnt so much that I didn’t know. The power of determination to never fail the person who believes that you can make a difference should never be underestimated. 
• In terms of being updated on other fronts; I get the local news alerts on my phone. I occasionally read relevant articles on Harvard Business Publishing, listen to TED talks, have some intellectual conversations under different topics on Reddit, and talk to my family members living around the globe about their take on the world.

• I’ve got a great support system back at home. I’ve got a ‘killer’ bunch of siblings with a ‘sick’ sense for competition J. This keeps all of us in our family on our toes in everything we do both at work and at home.

To reminiscence a bit about my early days at Elephant House; I was first interviewed by Mr Ajit Gunawardana and was assigned to CCS as a management trainee. At the time, CCS stock was trading at around LKR 70 and the economy was suffering severely with over 22% inflation. Most of our distributors were collapsing, some were holding bare minimum stock and some others were overstocked for having ‘big hearts’. Mr Jit Gunaratne, our President at the time, had the task of turning around the company. He initiated an operations review meeting, what most of the veterans at CCS came to call the ‘Thursday meeting’ or the ‘@-home’. 

I was given the task, along with another management trainee, to bring visibility to the operational ‘issues’ in production, sales and distribution. Between the two of us, we discussed and agreed that the best way to approach the situation was to present the information as an opportunity rather than a threat. So instead of reporting operational ‘issues’, we started to report ‘efficiencies’, through the introduction of key KPIs. The concepts of order fill rate, pack fill rate, bullwhip effect was fresh off the pages of my MBA textbook named ‘designing and managing the supply chain by author Simchi Levi’. Initially,  there was much debate and confusion around the difference between the order fill rate and pack fill rate! Getting the stock balance data on a weekly basis from over 80 distributors through a fax machine wasn’t a walk in the park, but I ensured that the data was complete and accurate by the time I had to present it to Mr Gunaratne every Thursday. The technological limitations at that time was a big challenge, yet perseverance and the thrill of receiving the opportunity to apply theory in the real world helped overcome most of the barriers I faced. It was a great start for a successful and satisfying career.

I always say “Yes” to challenges. I have a strong belief that everything can always be done in a better way, so I look forward to making improvements in everything I get my hands on. 

I would never have been successful without the support of my boss, my colleagues and everyone I work with. They are the real secret of my success story.
The word “NO” is not in my vocabulary. I like to accept any job without saying “No”. I believe that knowledge in combination with technology can improve our current ‘ways of working’. I listen to people at any level in our company, I am thorough in following up which helps me get things are done and I try to be at the right place at the right time. I consider myself to be emotionally intelligent which has helped me to have a good work-place relationship with almost everyone I work with!  I have always helped anyone whenever and wherever I can. I learn from my mistakes and take measures to ensure that I won’t repeat it ever again.

I start my day by planning and prioritizing my work. I use ARCI to delegate my work.  I use technological tools such as OneNote and Google Keep for task planning.

I spend at least an hour a day trying to learn something new. YouTube, business articles, newsletters, google are the main sources. 

My life partner and my closest family members understand me fully. I believe that rest is important for efficiency. So I spend my weekend relaxing. It gives me energy for yet another sprint-week.

The JKH Management training program changed my whole life and helped me effectively merge into the corporate world. I am a better and stronger person than I was before because of the opportunities given to me by the JKH MT program. Last but not least, I am reporting to a very supportive leadership here at CCS who had always helped and coached me to do a better job.