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Surf Excel ‘Let them learn as kids’ carnival

A truly exciting, entertaining and memorable learning experience on a host of life-skills was in store for the young families who thronged the playground at Swarnapali Girls’ School in Anuradhapura recently.

Surf Excel, the stain-removing detergent from Unilever transformed the venue into an experiential learning carnival where not only children but families enjoyed the spirit-lifting freedom of doing creative stuff with messy, gooey and grimy material.


The participants enjoy themselves.

The fun-packed agenda for the day had an array of activities that went hand-in-hand with the Avurudhu festivities while helping children to get a hands-on experience, for instance, in cooking, polishing the floor, changing a tyre or painting a wall.

The event, aptly named Surf XL Life was a part the brand’s new communication campaign “Let them learn as kids” and was geared to change people’s attitudes towards dirt. Child development experts agree that experiential learning is essential to cultivate the ability to appraise risks and become well-rounded individuals and getting dirty is an integral part of this.

The new communication campaign therefore promotes experiences without the worry of dirt.

Surf XL Life was filled with lots of robust, but grubby activities that ensured learning what life’s all about in an enjoyable way, thanks to the detergent that is always poised to take stains off clothes easily and allow kids to develop without being fussy about getting clothes messy. Surf Excel is committed to changing the way mothers think about dirt-generating activities and make them realize that without stains there is no opportunity to learn as children.

“We were encouraged by the large numbers, as many as about 40,000 men, women and children, that attended the event,” said the Brand Manager for Surf Excel, Shalini Seneviratne.

“The carnival atmosphere enhanced the fun and the learning experience for the children while Mum and Dad were equally entertained and were able to appreciate the importance of letting children learn without being stifled, so that they will not regret when they reach adulthood. This is the concept that truly captures the core values that Surf Excel stands for.”

There were 32 games spread out across the length and breadth of the school playground separated into indoor and outdoor game areas, plus garage game corner.


APBSL elects new Council for 2009-2010

The Association of Professional Bankers of Sri Lanka (APBSL) appointed the new Council for 2009-2010, at its 20th Annual General Meeting held recently.

Ajantha Madurapperuma was elected as the new President and Dimantha N. Seneviratne as the Senior Vice President.


Seated (from left): Manohari Gunawardhena, W.A. Nalani, Buwanekabahu Perera, Dimantha N. Seneviratne, Ajantha Madurapperuma, Parama Dharmawardene, H.M. Hennayake Bandara, Shashi Kandambi Jassim, and Viruli de Silva. Standing (from left): Asanka Ranhotty, Piyal Hennayake, A.M. Thilak Abeysinghe, W.D. Felix Wimalaratne, K.P.N.S. Karunagoda, Felician Perera, Deepal Abeysekera and Nilam Usoof Jumat.

The other office bearers who are all qualified professionals include Parama Dharmawardene as Secretary General, Ms W. A. Nalani, Senior Deputy General Manager, Bank of Ceylon and H. M. Hennayaka Bandara, Additional General Manager, National Savings Bank as Vice Presidents, Ms Viruli De Silva, Relationship Manager, Seylan Bank as Assistant Secretary and Ms Shashi Kandambi Jassim, Senior Manager Corporate Finance, Sampath Bank as Treasurer.

Ajantha Madurapperuma succeeds Buwanekabahu Perera as Immediate Past President of APBSL. Madurrapperuma, a Chartered Financial Analyst, who has Fellowships in Banking and Accountancy, and a MBA, is the Senior Deputy General Manager, Corporate and Foreign Currency Banking at Seylan Bank PLC and Director/CEO of Seylan Bank Asset Management Ltd.

He was the former President of CFA Sri Lanka and the Association of Primary Dealers and has served as Former Senior Vice President, Vice President, Chair of Publications Committee, and Council member of the Association of Professional Bankers Sri Lanka.

Taking over as Senior Vice President, Dimantha N. Seneviratne, is the Chief Risk Officer of HSBC Sri Lanka and Maldives and becomes the first representative from a foreign bank to be elected to this position.

Seneviratne, who holds a BSc degree, MBA and a Fellowship in Banking has served in the Executive Council since 2001 and is currently the longest serving member of the present Council.

Prior to being appointed as Senior Vice President, he was the Assistant Secretary in 2007-2008 and Secretary General in 2008-2009. Dimantha Seneviratne has also served in many sub-committees appointed by the Sri Lanka Bank Association to work closely with the Central Bank, including the Basel II implementation committee. He also chaired various committees under APBSL and counts over 19 years of banking mainly in Corporate Banking and Risk Management.

Parama Dharmawardene, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Bankers, London and an MBA is the Secretary General of APB, is also the President of Trade Finance Association of Bankers.

He is also an Executive Council Member of the Organization of Professional Associations of Sri Lanka, a member of the Banking Committee, International Chamber of Commerce, Sri Lanka and is the Chief Examiner for the subject ‘International Trade Finance’ at the Institute of Bankers Sri Lanka.


‘Union Pay Easy’ from Union Assurance


General Manager Marketing and Distribution, Rukman Weeraratne.

Union Assurance PLC has introduced Union Pay Easy, the fastest and most convenient mode of paying life insurance premiums.

“Union Assurance is a composite insurance company which deals in both life and general insurances. With regard to life insurances customers have to make their premium payments either monthly, quarterly, twice yearly or annually.

Before we introduced Union Pay Easy customers had to make their premium payments either at any one of our Union Assurance branches or through their life insurance adviser.

With the introduction of Union Pay Easy customers now have the convenience of paying their life premiums through any of the appointed outlets which include banks, financial institutions and other institutions in order to pay their life premiums”, said General Manager, Marketing and Distribution, Rukman Weeraratne.

This easy payment service offers 1,045 outlets, which include the Bank of Ceylon, People’s Bank, Sampath Bank, Commercial Bank, DFCC Vardhana Bank, Nations Trust Bank and Keells Super.

The main advantage offered to the customers through Union Pay Easy is that it greatly cuts down on time, by allowing customers to make payments at a selected outlet closest to them. This also allows customers to incorporate making life insurance payments into their day to day activities, and thus providing the maximum convenience to customers.

“What we have focused on is to provide this benefit to our valued customers’ islandwide through our wide chain of outlets.

The institutions which provide their outlets for the Pay Easy system work very closely with us, and in addition to this Union Pay Easy has also become a win-win situation to all parties concerned. However the main beneficiary of this tie will be the consumer,” Weeraratne said.

Union Assurance has always pioneered many innovative solutions with regard to insurance.


Asoka Wathika turns a new chapter in tourism

Today, much work is being done but more work is envisaged to derive the true potential of the Asoka Wathika sites. Tourism Minister Milinda Moragoda, is among the personalities taking a personal interest to promote Ramayanaya sites in India and much credit goes to S. Kalaiselvam of Tourism Development Authority for the gamut of activities undertaken from research to promotion.

In the light of this, it should be the Sri Lankans, more than the Indians, who could eagerly await the screening of Mani Ratnam’s Raavan in India. The developments after the discovery and documenting of 50 odd sites of Asoka Vatika in Sri Lanka would explain why.

Leading actors

Among the current leading actors in India, is Abhishek Bachchan - son of Indian Cinema legend Amithab who plays the role of Raavan, the King of Sri Lanka while rest of the cast include dashing Aishwarya, the famous South Indian Actor Vikram, Nikhil Trivedi, Govinda and Ravi Kishan. This leading cast and the story will make the movie a hit in India from which the Sri Lankan Tourism sector will no doubt benefit.

The hurdles that Mani Ratnam is facing will eventually contribute to the success of the movie with people becoming more and more curious to watch the film.

There were plans for shooting in Kandy and surrounding forest areas in Sri Lanka. Mani Ratnam would have wanted to project the locations where Ravana truly marked his legend.

However shooting has still not taken place in Sri Lanka and let’s hope Mani Ratnam will have a chance to do so for his own interest, that will definitely attract the devotees of Ramayanaya at a time he is said to have run into difficulties in shooting in areas declared by the Indian Government as eco-tourism centres. (Incidentally, only Raavan will probably have a scene with Aishwaraya without a single make for which she is reported to have been refusing).

Fascinating

The association of undersigned with the Ramayana work is so far fascinating and heartening. Choosing AruSri Theatre to choreograph episodes of Ramayanaya and getting them to perform to Indian audiences in Sri Lanka and India gave the authorities an insight into the level of devotion among the devotees.

The enthralling reactions of the visitors to the actors at various emotional moments in the drama reflected how much they would pay attention to the sites where Sita was held captive.

The last group that visited Sri Lanka consisted of businessmen, traders, government officials but it is difficult to identify their social standing until one gets to know them personally. In this kind of a journey, everyone is equal and they seek no luxury for their stay during the pilgrimage. This is an advantage for Sri Lankan tour operators when setting up of itineraries.

Doing business with Indian buyers is not easy. They are hard negotiators. They have all the information at their finger tips. Doing the sales calls is even difficult.

The heat, Mumbai traffic, language barriers , could make one get tired much faster than the true distance the energy can take you. Such a strategy is necessary for us to know exactly is happening in the marketplace before the strategies are developed and plans are activated.

The buyers accept the fact that Sri Lanka’s tourists attractions are unmatchable. Sri Lanka is truly a ‘small miracle’ , but just that the consumers were bombarded for decades with misinformation and disinformation.

When the conflict comes to an end in a foreseeable future, we could well see the influx of tourists from India to experience ‘ being, seeing and doing’. But onething that specifically aroused the attention of these leading Indian buyers were Ramayana sites for which the packages were requested immediately over the counter.

The Ramayana needs no elaboration which they say is ‘Way of Life’ for Hindus in India. Ramayana has fascinated many generations and people in Sri Lanka who believe King Ravana’s legacy with many sites connected to Ramayana, ownership of which is claimed by the people living in the vicinity.

Valid descriptions

The locations have valid descriptions. They fall in line with the Ramayana episodes from the place of Seeta ‘s captivity to the battlefields where the armies from both sides clashed, and the last stage when Lord Rama shot Ravana to death. The ten-headed king is depicted by Abhishek in Mani Ratnam ‘ Raavan’ as the emblem of the movie.

As Kalaiselvam says, there is no need to re-establish the authenticity of the locations. People in the areas relate the epic. Seetha Devi’s ‘Agni Pariksha’ is still considered valid in villages.

(The writer is attached to the Sri Lanka Convention Bureau - a subsidiary of the Ministry of Tourism.)


Marketing and selling in tough economic conditions:

Advertising in a recession

The cry heard in most organizations is “cut the advertising budget.”


Teleseenmarketing

Is this the right thing to do? Should organizations indiscriminately cut their advertising budgets in tough times? These are some of the questions that I will endeavour to answer.

* Don’t stop advertising your products and services. The reason is simple. In difficult times, you need to keep your brand in focus, inside your customers head. As rivals retrench or cut their advertising budgets, you’ll gain a greater ‘share of voice’ by advertising. Further, you will be able to negotiate better rates with media owners. Use the clutter free environment to your advantage.

* Use your advertising budget wisely. For example, instead of 30 second TV and Radio commercials, go for 15-20 second commercials.

This will enable you to maintain the desired frequency, without additional costs. You could even experiment with 5-10 second commercials for a quick message.

* Try and create word-of-mouth (WOM) advertising online, through social networking sites and blogs. More and more products and services are moving in this direction, as target audiences become online addicted. Further, online advertising is more cost-effective.

* Know your target customers and their behaviour patterns. How are they responding to the downturn? What are they spending and most importantly, what do they want?

* Whilst advertising to reach loyal customers, in a downturn, you may want to target your disloyal customers as well. These disloyal customers patronize your products / services, but also patronize competitive products / services. (Spending more money).

* By keeping your brand in focus through regular advertising, you cut through the gloom and send out a powerful message to the market that you are thinking long-term.

* In a downturn it is imperative that you measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. When budgets are tight, your advertising has to do the job. Certain advertising campaigns will be difficult to measure, but nevertheless every attempt must be made to do so.


Online advertising promote your website aggressively and keep it updated with relevant information.

* The focus of advertising campaigns should be to reassure your customers and show how you can meet their needs. Cut out the flashy and gimmicky ads and project reliability.

* Consider non-conventional mediums of advertising, such as transit, online and even subliminal advertising.

* In tough times a ‘powerful brand’ can be the advertising medium. By simply making the brand available and visible, valuable advertising mileage can be obtained.

* Employees too could be used to advertise and promote products and services. The good news is that this is virtually free advertising. (Provided employees are motivated and happy).

* Promote your website aggressively and keep it updated with relevant information. Accessibility and easy navigation are vital prerequisites for web advertising success.

The answer in a recessionary period is not to cut advertising budgets, but to rationalize expenditure. Look at cost-effective mediums, root out flashy themes and measure the effectiveness of your advertising rupees.

Do not forget that winners move in different directions to losers. When others indiscriminately cut back advertising, winners will do the opposite and reap the benefits in a relatively uncluttered advertising medium.


ILO marks 90th anniversary with global dialogue

Decent work and fair globalization:

Amid the worst financial and jobs crisis since the Great Depression, the International Labour Organization (ILO) will mark its 90th anniversary from April 21-28.

During this period, there will be a global convergence on the common theme of social dialogue on decent work for a fair globalization in commemorative events in more than 100 countries.

This launches a global dialogue aimed at fostering hope and action for an embattled world of work.

Events

Local events will take many forms, from dialogues involving labour, employers and Governments to heads of state, parliamentarians, academics and civil society.

These will include ratification of international labour standards, the launch of Decent Work Country Program, and technical workshops exploring solutions to the financial crisis, to job fairs and the award of Government decent work prizes.

A new volume entitled “The ILO and the Quest for Social Justice, 1919-2009” will also be launched on this occasion.

The events are being held against what ILO Director-General, Juan Somavia, in a statement issued for the anniversary, describes as “a backdrop of rising unemployment and underemployment, business closures, deteriorating conditions of work and the undermining of respect for rights at work, along with growing inequality, poverty and insecurity.”

“We mark this anniversary at a time of profound economic and social upheaval,” Somavia said, adding that “the universal message, the mandate and the method of the ILO will be expressed locally.”

For the ILO, crisis has always announced change. The Organization was founded in the aftermath of World War I on the principle that “universal and lasting peace can be established only if it is based on social justice”, as expressed in its Constitution.

In the nine decades since then, the ILO has responded to many crises through the world of work with timeless values, consistent policy messages and practical action aimed at the pursuit of social justice.

Representation

The instruments developed within the tripartite ILO - with the direct representation of governments, employers and workers - have been the basis for much of the world’s labour legislation and have guided key developments in the world of work.

They cover conditions of work, occupational safety and health, social security, employment promotion, human resource development and the fundamental goals of freedom of association and collective bargaining, abolition of forced and child labour and non discrimination, The ILO’s instruments have also focused on specific groups including indigenous peoples, migrant workers and disabled workers.

The ILO engages with constituents in its 182 member States in diverse activities covering normative activities, research, policy advisory services, information sharing and technical cooperation.

The contemporary expression of the ILO’s historic mission is embodied in the concept of Decent Work, defined as opportunities for all women and men to obtain productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.

Social protection

The ILO’s Decent Work Agenda has been strongly endorsed at global, regional and national levels. It is centred on employment and enterprise, rights at work, social protection and social dialogue.

This is the basis for a balanced approach to action that responds both to people’s enduring need for decent work and to the imperative of productive growth and sustainable development.

“Through war and peace, depression and economic growth, governments, workers and employers have continued to come together in dialogue around our table of shared values: that work must be a source of dignity; that labour is not a commodity; and that poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere”, the ILO Director-General underlined.

“These values and action were recognized by the Nobel Peace Prize in 1969. Those values continue to guide and define our work today.”

In 2004, the World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalization set up by the ILO anticipated many dimensions of the current crisis, given the trajectory of the prevailing model of globalization which produced global imbalances characterized by the Commission as being “morally unacceptable and politically unsustainable.”

Noting that the celebration was an opportunity to reaffirm the ILO’s fundamental values and take action to confront the uncertainties working families and enterprises are facing today, Somavia said.

“Together, let us make the policy choices that sustain the goal of decent work; and together, let us advance the cause of decent work for social justice and a fair globalization. That’s our mission, our mandate and our responsibility.”

Productive recovery

The ILO has advocated a decent work approach to the crisis based on a productive recovery.

It has proposed a number of measures that bring together employment creation, including green jobs, sustainable enterprises; increased social protection; and upholding standards and fundamental principles and rights at work in integrated approaches while harnessing the creative power of dialogue to find inclusive responses.

As a concrete and practical initiative, Somavia proposes that the annual International Labour Conference to be held in Geneva in June agree to a Global Jobs Pact that would boost economic recovery and the construction of a new pattern of fairer and more inclusive globalization, focusing on the Decent Work Agenda.

On this occasion, the ILO reiterates its call for global action for decent work and invites all advocates of a people-centred, balanced and sustainable course for the future to mobilize for decent work.

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