'Have an achievable goal'

Woman entrepreneur conquers business world:

Sanjeevi Jayasuriya

Being a recognized woman entrepreneur is not an easy task. Directress, TexStyle Lanka Apparels (Pvt) Limited Hemali Bandara conquered the world of business pursuing her childhood skills in needlework and sewing.

Her mother encouraged her to be a career woman and she achieved this in a remarkable manner. She is soft spoken with exceptional mannerisms.

She won the gold award for the Best Woman Exporter 2007/08 conducted by the National Chamber of Exporters. This speaks volumes of her contribution to the world of business.

She was interviewed by Daily News Business.

Q. What is your business and how did you set about it?

A. I function on the directorate of a Textile manufacturing organization.

All the operational activities come under my purview. The organization, Board of Investment approved and ISO 9001: 2008 certified, manufactures and supplies sea and air survival clothing and equipment to overseas buyers.

We have a True Knit Unit as well. We are the only company to have knit and woven units under one roof.

As a core policy, I aggressively look for niche market openings and once located, endeavour to build sound, long lasting links by maintaining stringent quality and strict adherence to contracted deliveries.

Q. How do you balance family life and business?

A. We have two grown up children whom we educated overseas. My husband, Ananda is the Managing Director of the Group. Our son is working for a Multinational Company in UK in the Textile Industry and my daughter is working in our organization.

As such I can easily cope with the domestic requirements that a modern day career woman is confronted with. I also make a concerted effort to complete my work and clear my table before the end of the working day.

This leaves my mind free to concentrate on the family and home for the rest of the time since I can switch from one role to another very easily.

We go on vacations and spend some quality time with the family.

Q. What are the challenges you faced?

A. From my childhood I was good at sewing and needlework. This motivated me to get into the garment industry.

But it was a thorny road at the beginning of my career. As a working mother, I had to take care of my two children when they were young and schooling. I had to couple this with my career in the apparel industry.

I started my career at Hentley Garments, the pioneers of the Garment Industry in Sri Lanka. Later, for many years I was attached to Sri Lanka's foremost US garment liaison buying offices (May Corporation Inc. and Liz Claibourne) working late hours often.

I handled quite a few orders which were placed with leading garment manufacturers in the island.

A few years ago I took up a challenging position as the General Manager of Gabo Apparels, in Mahiyangana, a large BOI approved garment factory. I had the task of controlling the operations from Colombo.

This was very demanding as this company had a large workforce. However, I had a clear vision of how to restructure the factory with the experience I gained over the years. During this period I was successful in winning several awards at district level as well as national level from different Chambers.

The most memorable day during this period was winning the Provincial Gold Award at the 'CNCI Achiever of Industrial Excellence 2003'.

Q. What is your advice to women in business?

A. My advice to working women in business is for them to have an achievable goal and a proper plan to get there. Obviously, one would need the services of professionals in other disciplines to augment the activities.

As I understand the difficulties of balancing home life and work commitments, I advise my employees to leave office on time and come back fresh and happy to work efficiently the following day, unless they have any deadline to meet or important work which should be completed during the day. One must also be very determined to learn from mistakes and generally have a positive attitude as things are not rosy all the time.

Q. Was being a woman an advantage to be in business?

A. I did enjoy some advantages of being a member of the fairer sex. I did get a lot of support and encouragement from my superiors where I worked and also from my husband and the family.

Our culture and the general attitude of the people is that women cannot do most of the things that men do. It was very challenging but at the end of the day the bottomline is that you are just a person and the work is done.

I did have the advantage of having a husband in the same industry who helped me throughout and during difficult times.

Q. What are your achievements in business and family?

A. My husband and I have built a sound organization namely, TexStyle Lanka Group which is diversified and even took the recession in its stride.

Last year I was awarded the Best Woman Exporter Gold Award by the National Chamber of Exporters in Sri Lanka.

My husband and I created history by becoming the first husband and wife duo to win Gold medals at this award ceremony.

Our two children graduated with Honours from the University of Manchester - UK and both hold Masters Degrees in the field of Clothing and Textile technology.

Q. What are your goals?

A. It is very important to have goals in life so that you can move in a particular direction.

I think most of what I set out as goals have now been achieved. I like to see the business grow with the next generation who would no doubt bring about a lot of professionalism into the operation.

Q. What is your contribution to the society?

A. At this stage of life we devote time for religious and charitable activities which I believe make a complete family.

Employment has been provided to a number of workers in a healthy environment conducive to meet our social and economic objectives.

We have given employment to a few disabled workers as well. At present we are working on a project to provide uniforms to schoolchildren in the villages.