'Lanka should pay more attention for R&D'
H.D.H Senewiratne
Sri Lankan companies should pay more attention for research and
development as Germany, as incremental innovation creates important
positive product differentiation to enter global markets, said German
Ambassador, Dr. Jürgen Morhard.
"German manufacturers are very close to their customers, especially
their top customers. They are intimately aware of their customers' needs
and have a robust after-sales service orientation, the reason for its
success," Dr. Morhard said at the 9th National Business Excellence Award
2012. The event was organized by the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri
Lanka (NCCSL).
He said that with a return on sales that is often less than 10%, they
have to make a strategic approach, looking to generate profits on long
term, rather than seek a quick killing.
Dr ,Morhard who was the Chief Guest at the awards ceremony, said that
German figures for job creation and export growth in recent years, was a
winning formula that both was profitable and has wider benefits for
society.
"Therefore, Sri Lanka too should follows that concept to achieve high
growth in the export market," he said.
He also said that Benchmarking was a powerful management tool to
evaluate and control performance, to learn, to motivate and of course,
to improve performance.
"But it was also a cause to celebrate and to commemorate the
outstanding collective accomplishments," the German Ambassador said. He
also said that profit is as important to them as to any of their peers
and competitors around the world. However, their continuing success
shows just what a commitment to the long term and freedom from the
demands of powerful external shareholders could achieve.
Therefore, research and development was the need of the hour to be
differentiated and to benchmark export goods among other exports in
other countries. Therefore, Sri Lanka's private sector had been the
backbone of the economy and companies' have to adopt research and
development to be different and innovate, which would help to win all
economic woes in the future, he added. |