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From left: Celeste Daily Founder and Managing Director Janik Jayasuriya, Nihal Hettiarachchi & Company Managing Partner Dinuk Hettiarachchi, Sirocco Group of Companies Managing Director Suren Chandraratna and Moderator Peter D\u2019Almeida\u00a0<\/p>\n
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By Divya Thotawatte\u00a0<\/p>\n
The much-anticipated I AM COYLE Leadership Forum was held this week, bringing together some of Sri Lanka\u2019s most respected businessmen to inspire and celebrate their creativity, resilience, and spirit of enterprise.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Organised by the Chamber of Lankan Entrepreneurs (COYLE), this year\u2019s forum featured a panel of three leading business figures from Sri Lanka: Sirocco Group Managing Director Suren Chandraratna, Nihal Hettiarachchi and Co and RHN Ventures Chairman Managing Partner Dinuk Hettiarachchi, and Celeste Founder and CEO Janik Jayasuriya. Adding a global perspective to the discussion, renowned international cricketer and coach Jason Gillespie delivered the event\u2019s keynote address.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The event drew a packed audience of business leaders, professionals, and aspiring entrepreneurs, as well as a visiting delegation from New Zealand. The speakers shared insights and lessons learnt from their distinct entrepreneurial journeys, highlighting the importance of resilience, reinvention, and calculated risks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gillespie, in his keynote titled: \u2018A builder of teams and business,\u2019 reflected on his journey from a sports-loving kid in Sydney to representing Australia at the highest level, sharing how setbacks and self-belief shaped his career. He recalled a moment when people had laughed at him when he shared his dream to play international cricket by the time he was 21.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAll they saw was a scrawny skinny teenager who bowled medium pace in the fourth grade. I\u2019ve always referred to this as my light bulb moment. I call it that because I realised at that moment that I needed to change.\u201d Gillespie explained that this ridicule transformed his outlook and strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Confidence came from evidence, from the planning, the preparation, and execution, he said. Gillespie also emphasised that the key to success, in sport or life, lay in \u201ctrust, communication, teamwork, empathy, and clarity of roles.\u201d He said that cultivating those qualities would give \u201cyourself, your team, and your business the very best chance of success.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s forum explored the dual concepts of entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship, empowering both business owners and professionals to add value, drive innovation, and make meaningful change within their organisations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chandraratna shared his inspiring journey in his session titled, \u2018Forged by Struggle, Defined by Purpose,\u2019 a testament to perseverance and purposeful growth. Hettiarachchi spoke on \u2018Balancing Legacy with a Vision for Tomorrow,\u2019 delving into the delicate balance between heritage and innovation. Jayasuriya\u2019s session was titled, \u2018Born in Crisis, Built for the Future\u2019, exploring the art of thriving in uncertainty and transforming adversity into opportunity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Chandraratna spoke about his early years, describing how his leadership was born in hardship where home and school were rough proving grounds. \u201cEither I was the hunter, or I was the hunted. And there were kids who went home without dinner. It made me more humane. It made me want to help them.\u201d This combination of compassion and toughness had later influenced and become part of his leadership style, with purpose being the key driver of his entrepreneurship.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He also emphasised that true entrepreneurship meant always finding another way. He shared a moment from his private life where he faced rejection: when his daughter\u2019s school application was rejected, he had not only constantly reapplied and tried multiple ways to satisfy the conditions, he had even written a book about his family legacy to be able to qualify. Such resilience and creativity were also necessary for being an entrepreneurial leader, he highlighted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hettiarachchi explained that, for him, leadership and entrepreneurship were not rebellion, but a natural extension of his curiosity. \u201cEven during my schooling career, I always wanted to do something, build something, be part of it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Influenced by his parents\u2019 example, he had been drawn to leadership early on and remained driven by the question of adapting new ideas locally. He explained that insecurity was ineffective in entrepreneurship, and that business success rested not on being a specialist, but on building strong and smart teams. \u201cYou just need the right people, sometimes smarter than you, and the confidence to let them lead.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jayasuriya\u2019s story reflected entrepreneurship under real-world pressure. When the pandemic paralysed his hospitality business, he decided not to pause and pivoted overnight into delivering essential goods. \u201cIt was purely situational\u2026 If I had to go back and do a feasibility study or plan it out, I don\u2019t think I would have started.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The early months of the business had taught him that leadership was not about control, but about momentum, where making fast decisions and ownership were key. Additionally, having a team that cared for the business had been the spine of the operation, he said, highlighting that \u201ceven today, if a complaint comes in at 2:00 a.m., the team reacts immediately. They care. That\u2019s in our DNA.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition to the speeches and discussions with business leaders, the forum also spotlighted audience members with interactive activities designed to help them share their ideas and engage in collaborative problem-solving. Through these sessions and activities, the forum encouraged a mindset of shared leadership which recognises and empowers leadership at all levels of the workplace.<\/p>\n
– Pix by Sameera Wijesinghe\u00a0<\/p>\n
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