OAK- RAY Carvings wins accolade

Sujeewa Suranjana Palliyaguruge, the proprietor of OAK-RAY Wood Carvings (Pvt) Ltd, Kandy was conferred with the second highest award of Entrepreneur of the Year 2011 with the National Gold award at the Annual Sri Lankan Entrepreneur of the Year award scheme organized by the FCCISL in 2011 at its sixteenth successful year. The selection of awards conducted through an island wide and highly competitive scheme purely based on merit and innovativeness of the entrepreneurs.

Sujeewa is most probably one of the fine examples of a young entrepreneur as to how the possession of only the “passion for business” and the absence of all other prerequisites made him from a humble beginning of a pedestrian salesmen to a owner of a multi-million and diversified business network.

Sujeewa started showing his business acumen and willingness to take risks even at the time he was a student at the secondary school level by visiting Himalayan Mountain in India by collecting money from well-wishers in the city of Kandy.

After leaving school, unable to pursue higher education due to lack of required resources, Sujeewa started selling souvenirs to foreign tourist visiting Kandy at tender age 20. With the little income and borrowed money from friends and relatives he started a souvenir shop in 1989 in Kandy.

From the day of that humble beginning, Sujeewa didn’t look back but stride towards high plane of business world by expanding and diversifying his products and services range and diversifying the capital base, turnover and the profitability.

Sujeewa now owns and operate eight different companies which provide services such as tourism and hospitality, export of gem and jewelries, handicraft, silk textiles and garments.

Sujeewa from the very inception has displayed his business acumen by implementing effective business plan with highly focus cooperate objectives in diversifying his business profile and expanding the horizon of his vision towards the innovative entrepreneurship. Achieving excellence and addressing impediments effectively were the two main strong leadership characters where Sujeewa stood above the average businessman of his age and in the trade.

The small restaurant with which he began the business is now expanded to a star class hotel with full pledged facilities in the city of Kandy, the last kingdom of Sri Lanka.

He has recently acquired another hotel in Dambulla known as Palvehera Village Resort which consists of 22 rooms. In the field of hospitality trade which he has now mastered added new ventures such as Gems and Jewelry (two companies), Traditional Sri Lankan Handicrafts and Silk Fabric Processing Units mainly aimed at tourists visiting Sri Lanka. He has also opened a full pledged Reception and Functioning Hall to serve the general public. He has also purchased required lands for construction of new hotels in Sigiriya, Trincomale, Ranboda, Nuweraeliya, Kurunagala and Tissmaharamaya, tourist attracted regions in the country.

During the course of building and expanding his current business portfolios, Sujeewa had to encountered many and varied difficulties such as lack of capital, insufficient technical knowledge, insufficient knowledge on government rules and regulations, none-availability of proper direction and entrepreneurship skill and difficulties for supplying materials.

In respect of business innovation Sujeewa utilized materials which are mostly abundantly available but not commonly used in the past for manufacturing of handicrafts, pottery and jewelry items.

In the management of the business, Sujeewa was very much aware the aspiration and the needs of his employees as he himself began his career from a very low level of the ladder.

Even without proper training on management skill and techniques, Sujeewa adopted innovative and modern techniques to motivate his employees through participatory management and recognizing the skill of his employees.

He has also received the award of the best Entrepreneur of the Central province in four occasions in the years 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2010. He was also awarded the best Entrepreneur of the Central province in the years 2004 and 2005 by the Sinhalese Trade Front of Kandy, a local trade association.