Author: Ranjan De Silva

RANJAN L G De SILVA, Executive Team Leadership Catalyst and Coach, is a Partner - Senior Management Consultant - Sensei International. He helps leaders, teams and individuals be more aligned, passionate, emotionally engaged, confident and better communicators, and thereby deliver spectacular results.

Use it or lose it!

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Health Care, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Uncategorized1 Comment

Image created by Menasha De SilvaAfter having returned to my apartment in Dhaka Bangladesh after being away for over 2 weeks, I happened to open my shoes closet and found some of my shoes I had left in the closet in a deteriorated state. I then realized I had not used those shoes over about 6 months and a line that I use in my workshops; ‘use it or lose it’ came to my mind.

There is an on-going battle between positive energy and negative energy all the time.  From a humanistic philosophy point of view, EVIL is LIVE spelt back words. Evil is anti-Life. Evil is negative energy and life is positive energy. The universe is in constant decline due to Evil forces or negative energy. This process is known as Entropy, which is the opposite of Evolution. Evolution requires a higher power that provides positive energy.

The purpose of life is to grow physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

Physical well-being requires positive energy in the form of right nutrition, exercises and rest. The absence of these will result in the decline of physical well-being.

Mental well-being requires positive energy in the form of good attitudes, creative ideas, new value adding learning, development of skills etc. The absence of these will result in the decline of mental well-being.

Continue reading “Use it or lose it!” →

Pope Francis – the Epitaph of humility

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Social networking, Spiritual, World affairsLeave a comment

Pope FrancisIt was late night last Wednesday; I was doing some work on my laptop. After finishing off one task I just logged in to Facebook and saw a photo of the white smoke coming out of the Vatican with a comment ‘We have a Pope’

I immediately switched on the TV and was thrilled to see the live broadcast and the new Pope was about to make his first appearance. I was pleasantly surprised to hear than the new Pope was from South America, I was thrilled to hear that he had chosen the name Francis which is also the name of my late dad. It was mentioned he lived a simple life and had given up his official residence and car back in Argentina and rode the bus with the others and used the opportunity to connect with the masses.

As he walked on to the balcony and looked at the crowd it was easy to see how humble the new Pope was. He was also confident and looked like a man ready for a mission. What a mission it is going to be, given the challenges facing the Catholic Church.

In one of his first sermons he mentioned that we should be ready to repent, accept our faults and ask for forgiveness from those we have harmed.

Meeting the press for the first time Pope Francis was relaxed, confident and full of humour. He told that the name Francis was chosen when the cardinal next to him embraced him and told him ‘don’t forget the poor’ as soon as he was elected.  He then named himself after St Francis of Assisi who devoted his life for the poor, who was known to be committed to peace and who was known to be a reformist of the catholic church.

The event of the election of Pope Francis also created new social media records with over 1.2 billion tweets from all over the world sent out, in relation to this event. This shows that people around the world, specially the young are touched by his election and are filled with hope for a better tomorrow. Pope Francis is known as the Techie Pope as he has his twitter account @pontifex. His holiness who already has 1.9 million Twitter followers sent out just 1 tweet: Dear Friends, I thank you from my heart and I ask you to continue to pray for me.

Everything about Pope Francis in this blog that I was fortunate to experience gives me the feeling that he is an Epitaph of Humility and gives me hope that he will be able to bring diverse groups of people, not only the various denominations of Christians, but also various religious groups together so that we can a live in a united, respectful and peaceful world.

Getting the Best out of Life!

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Health Care, Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships8 Comments

Lee Kwan Yew: Image credits: www.alhaj.wordpress.com
Lee Kwan Yew: Image credits: http://www.alhaj.wordpress.com

I

I took over the leadership of Apollo Hospital in Dhaka a few months ago to continue to stretch my self, to learn a new industry domain [health care] and to learn to lead a team of over 1700 consisting of some of the best medical consultants, specialist, doctors, nurses, patient care assistants, health care managers and other non-medical staff from this part of the world.

It is also a complex and highly responsible job and requires maintaining world-class operations in line with the JCI [joint commission international] standards the foremost health care accreditation in the world. It is only my hospital in Bangladesh and a hand full of hospitals in India, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia can boast of this standard that is tough to get and maintain.

In addition to the above objective the spin off benefit I have got is the ‘wake up call’ regarding life in general. The knowledge I gather everyday being in this operation is amazing and that has made me more pay more attention to myself as well. It is in this backdrop that I received an email from one of my friends on getting the best out of life by Lee Kuan Yew.

 One of the profound lines in a speech given by him was; “The human being needs a challenge, and my advice to every person in Singapore and elsewhere: Keep yourself interested, have a challenge. This made me read the rest of the article, leaving a side a list of other things I had planned to do and I felt really good that I found the time to read it. I am happy to share the entire article in its totality below. Please do take the time to read it. I do not know the source of this article, but I give credit to whoever wrote it and seek permission to re-produce it for the greater good of humanity.

If you’re not interested in the world and the world is not interested in you, the biggest punishment a man can receive is total isolation in a dungeon, black and complete withdrawal of all stimuli, that’s real torture.”

 MY CONCERN today is, what is it I can tell you which can add to your knowledge about aging and what aging societies can do.

You know more about this subject than I do. A lot of it is out in the media, Internet and books. So I thought the best way would be to take a personal standpoint and tell you how I approach this question of aging.

Continue reading “Getting the Best out of Life!” →

Love is for giving, that’s why we should be forgiving! – my valentines day thoughts!

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, UncategorizedLeave a comment
Image
Image credits: http://www.timeanddate.com

It is great to have Valentines Day, the same way we have mother’s day, father’s day etc. While many commercial enterprises have used these days to make money, it at least reminds us to express our love to our loved ones, at least once a year.

But why celebrate such important days once a year? Why not every day? Why not make every day Valentines day, Mother day, fathers day and perhaps a few new important days such as reach out to enemy’s day, make up with fallen out friends day, get in touch with old friends day etc.

While Valentines Day is about celebrating love by giving surprises such as gifts & visits and special dinners & cruises it is will be great not only to ‘give’ but also to ‘forgive’. After all, love is for giving and that’s why we should be forgiving.

Forgiving is tough if we hold on to the past hurt and pain. Sometimes it is our ego that won’t allow us to forgive. Holding on to the bitterness only creates negative energy in us as we carry those negative feelings in us. Accepting that we are all human, we are not perfect and we all make mistakes helps us in the forgiving process.

Forgiving helps us to repair relationships and therefore it is beneficial to fostering quality relationships, or closure so that we can rejuvenate relationships or move on with confidence.

When the almighty god always forgives us, why not we take a cue and follow suit.

Leadership Lessons from the Clinton Bengazi Hearing

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Relationships, Team Excellence, World affairsLeave a comment

There wHilary Clintonas much to learn watching Hillary Clinton’s appearances last Wednesday to talk about the events in Benghazi that left the US ambassador and 3 others dead, in front of House and Senate committee.

Firstly it was a great example of someone in a senior position being held accountable for her decisions and actions. For her it was an opportunity to bring to a closure her 4 year stint as US Secretary of state on of the most important jobs in the world. Some also say it is the a prelude to the 2016 presidential campaign where she is expected to run for the presidency of the United States of America; an example of long-term planning and taking action now to create the future.

The disciplined approach of the hearing where every member in the hearing committee was given a specific window of opportunity to question Mrs Clinton and they stuck to time without going over-board. They did not continue to argue and go beyond time even if the answers given to the questions were not to their satisfaction.

Once aspect that was significant was the respect. Every senator who questioned her, even from the opposing Republican Party started her by congratulating her for a job well done. It is so important to respect others even if they are our bitter opponents.

In answering the questions thrown at her, Mrs. Clinton showed in-depth knowledge, composure, humility, emotion where relevant, the occasional loss of patience. She displayed good listening skills and was professional in taking responsibility.

As always there are those who think she did a great job and others who think she did some damage to her chances of becoming President of the United States of America. My attempt is not to make a verdict on it but to help us learn from this important event. Continue reading “Leadership Lessons from the Clinton Bengazi Hearing” →

Celebrating a spectacular 2012, filled with amazing learning and growth!

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Social networking, Spiritual, Uncategorized, World affairsLeave a comment

ImageWith the Mayan Calendar reaching the end of its current cycle, 2012 was eventful with the economic downturn continuing and there were many efforts in many countries around the world to get out of it. Then there were the various natural and human made disasters such as the various storms, earthquakes, wars and killings that added more burdens on the leaders grappling with the economic crisis. Political leaders had new challenges to deal with, dividing their attention between the economy and the new challenges.  There were elections in many countries such as the USA, Russia, France, Spain, Egypt and it is hoped that the new leadership will have new vision and a new mindset to solve the challenges faced by the world.

Then there were the celebrations with the Diamond Jubilee of the Queen, The London Olympics, the re-election of Obama, the launch of path breaking communication technology [Quad Core] for smart phones and tablets such as the iPhone 5, iPad 4th Generation, iPad mini, Samsung Galaxy note and Windows 8. And of course the first video on You Tube to reach a billion hits; Gangnam Style!

Continue reading “Celebrating a spectacular 2012, filled with amazing learning and growth!” →

Christmas is for giving, that’s why we should be forgiving

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Personal Excellence, Relationships, SpiritualLeave a comment
Image courtesy of lovingyourchild.com
Image courtesy of lovingyourchild.com

I had a packed 10 days of work in Dhaka and I was scheduled to take a flight back to Colombo on the 24th morning to be with my family for Christmas Eve onwards. I was looking at options to do confession before Christmas mass. I did not want to leave it to the 24th evening, as there was only a little window from my time of arrival, to get home in the traffic that is likely to be heavy given that large crowds will be on the roads doing their last-minute Christmas shopping.

As I was looking at the Christmas schedule issued at the beautiful church I pray at in Banani – Dhaka, I found that confession was scheduled for 10 am on the 24th. My flight was a t 12.45 and it could take up to 1 hour to get to the airport. It was a risky option to do confession at 10 am and try to get to the airport on time given the unpredictable traffic in Dhaka. I called Father Tom, the Parish priest who kindly agreed to come early to do my confession. It was a peaceful confession and I felt cleansed and peaceful as I walked out of the church.

Finally at the airport I was standing in the line to get my passport stamped at emigration. I had an urge to go to the washroom and I was the next person in line to go to the immigration officer. At that moment a gentleman, who was with his wife and little child asked me if they could go before me as they had just 45 minutes for their flight. Since I still had another 90 mts I agreed to let them go before me. As the family who went to the emigration officer was finishing, an official of the airport escorted 5 persons and went past the line to the emigration officer.

Continue reading “Christmas is for giving, that’s why we should be forgiving” →

Unlocking Sales Potential – Exploring the resources available in inner-space

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Conference learnings, Marketing, Personal Excellence, Relationships, SalesLeave a comment

If I tell you that you can fly, would you agree with me? This is the first question I asked the audience at the Sales Master Class at The Radisson Blu Water Garden In Dhaka Bangladesh on the 20th of October, when I started presenting at the day event, ‘Unlocking Sales Potential’. There were some instant ‘yes’ answers and a few others said ‘no’. The point made by this question was to get the audience thinking about the unlimited potential we are blessed with. With the realization that we can fly in an air craft and aircrafts been made by people using god given brains and resources opened up the minds in the room to the possibilities yet untapped.

Continue reading “Unlocking Sales Potential – Exploring the resources available in inner-space” →

If selling is a dishonest job and if everyone is a salesman, then is everyone dishonest?

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Marketing, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Retail, Sales, Spiritual3 Comments

A Better Way to Sell Book CoverYes this is an interesting dilemma!

It is a generally known perception that selling is a dishonest job as sales people only try to sell a product to a customer, even if the product is not needed by the customer and at any cost to the customer. Most sales books and sales training introduces sales ‘tactics’ that help sales people to ‘sell’ at any cost.

On the other hand it is a known fact that everyone is a salesman from the little child to the grandfather, from the housewife to the corporate executive, from film star to sportsman and from the politician to the priest. They all sell ideas, they sell their value, they sell all the time.

So does it mean everyone is dishonest? The answer is a clear ‘NO’. In fact my belief is that we don’t sell, we help people to buy. We don’t sell, we provide information for people to make the right decision, we don’t sell, we help others become more successful.

It is with attitude in mind that I decided to title my second book [an improved new edit of the first book]; A better way to sell – Mastery of Sales through Mastery of Self. Click here for more details of the book.

Continue reading “If selling is a dishonest job and if everyone is a salesman, then is everyone dishonest?” →

How to master yourself and win in your life

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

When I was first nominated for the ‘Mastery of Self [MS] through Neuron Linguistic Programming [NLP]‘ in 1995 by my employer John Keells Holdings, I never knew what an impact it was going to make in my life. When I first received the notice to attend the workshop I thought it was something to do with computer programming. I was right and wrong. I was right because it was about programming a computer. I was wrong because it was not the desk top or the laptop or the palm top. It was the neck top super computer the most powerful information processing system in the world.

I was fascinated learning about the potential of the brain. I was fascinated learning about the power of the NLP tools to release that potential. I was fascinated by the inspirational impact made on all the participants. It was not a seminar or a workshop but a playshop, an experience where we learn with fun and activity in a child like manner, exploring the wonders of our real potential and talent. Continue reading “How to master yourself and win in your life” →

Job Interview – flying over the critical hurdle

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Personal Excellence, Relationships2 Comments
Image credit: http://www.german-business-etiquette.com/

Yes the job interview is one of the critical hurdles in our lives. So let me try and share some tips from my experience of facing some critical interviews in my life as well as being in hundreds of interview panels.

A successful interview starts at the point you apply for jobs. It is important to apply for the right job that is the best fit for you in line with the purpose of your life. Read my blog post; Living purposefully – path to success and happiness [ http://ranjandesilva.com/2012/07/04/living-purposefully-path-to-success-and-happiness/ ] and getting that dream job – 3 simple steps [http://ranjandesilva.com/2012/06/08/getting-that-dream-job-3-simple-steps/ ] for more insights in this regard.

Once the euphoria of getting invited for the interview settles down you need to get on with getting to know the company and the job you are applying for. When I applied for a job as marketing manager of Keells Foods in the late 80’s there was no access to information at our finger tips like we have now. I found out a friend of mine who is a shareholder of this company, visited him and collected the past 3 years of annual reports and started getting to know the company, reading them in detail. I then got myself introduced to a person who was working in John Keells Holdings [the parent company of Keells Foods] and understood details of the corporate culture and the type of team members they like to have. I immersed myself into the company and started living it in my mind the next few meetings before the final interview with the main board of directors of John Keells Holding. The preparation I went through made me feel comfortable and at home when I went for the interview and it was no surprise that I got the job of Marketing Manager of Keells Foods at the age of 24.

Continue reading “Job Interview – flying over the critical hurdle” →

Business/Donor partnership, the best formula for empowering the poor – The Agora case study

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Marketing, Relationships, Retail, Social Business, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment
The Business/Donor partners working on the Agora SME development project.

Agora established in 2001 with an ultimate aspiration to be the Wal-Mart of the East is an expanding chain of retail outlets in Bangladesh, run by Rahimafrooz Superstores Ltd. Agora now operates 11 outlets, a sourcing and processing centre for commodities and a state of the art distribution centre with 680 employees and 320 suppliers. With an aggressive expansion programme in mind Agora recently migrated to an end to end ERP system powered by SAP and WINCOR NIXDORF.

When Agora started its supermarket [providing food, personal care and household needs] business in 2001, the brand was positioned as the best solution for customers for the purchase of fresh produce [fish, meat, vegetables, fruit and dairy] of high quality at the right price as this was the predominant customer need in the absence of an organized modern trade [supermarket] system. This resulted in Agora investing in cold and chill storage, transport and display facilities. The absence of organized fresh produce supply chain resulted in Agora solely developing fresh produce suppliers. This included training perishable traders who operated in the unorganized wet market on proper sorting, grading, storing &transportation of produce and fundamental disciplines of running a business. We also formed partnerships with farmer associations toward this objective.

As Agora expand, the company realized the need to further build the capacity of small and medium fresh produce suppliers and develop robust supply chains and trading relationships. As Agora was looking for solutions for this important need, a meeting between Ms Parveen Huda of BIF [Business Innovation Facility] and Mr Niaz Rahim of Agora led to the signing of an MOU designed to address Agora’s needs while developing their SME suppliers ensuring the ‘inclusive’ aspect.  The project was funded by DFID, BIF and AGORA and the capacity building expertise was received from one of the world’s leading business consultancies Accenture and PUM from Netherlands.

Continue reading “Business/Donor partnership, the best formula for empowering the poor – The Agora case study” →

Olympics 2012 – ‘Imagine’ the great manifestation of possibility

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Marketing, Relationships, Spiritual, Sports, Team Excellence, World affairs1 Comment
A picture of the Olympic Logo on the Tower Bridge taken from the London Bridge during my visit before the Olympics.

The 2012 Olympics that just concluded was one of the greatest manifestations of possibility that I had experienced.

My family and I were in the UK just before and during the opening ceremony that made us fortunate enough to feel the energy in the country this great spectacle was taking place. We were not able to witness any sporting events at venues at circumstances required us to return end of July, but we were fortunate to be able to witness this great spectacle on TV and the internet.

The first possibility that was manifested was the participation of almost all the countries of the world, 204 in total and every country having both male and female sportsman. All sports had a women’s version as well resulting in some teams such as USA having more women Olympians. What a great equalizer.

It was amazing to see conservative countries such as Saudi Arabia who do not permit women to drive, having women participating. I was fortunate to switch on the TV to see the women’s 800 m heat where Saudi Arabia’s Sarah Attar was running. Although she came last, she got the biggest applause to show that this was a victory for humanity.

World records were many manifesting that there is no end to improving human performance and endurance. Tianna Madison, Allyson Felix, Bianca Knight, Carmelita Jeter of the USA 4x100m relay team establishing a new world record at 40.82 destroying the 27-year old record and Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Yohan Blake, Usain Bolt  of Jamaican 4×100 relay team establishing a new world record at 36.84 will remain in our memories for ever. These amazing human beings showed that we can be individuals stars and teams at the same time.

Continue reading “Olympics 2012 – ‘Imagine’ the great manifestation of possibility” →

Liberating Passion at Agora – Leadership lessons Learnt as CEO of Agora over the last 3 years!

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Marketing, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Retail, Team Excellence4 Comments

ImageLeaving the Agora team was one of the toughest things I had to do. The words, tears, flowers and gifts from the teams in various outlets, office, warehouse and distribution centre was simply heart-warming. I never realized I had made such an impact in the hearts and minds of over 700 team members over the 3 years I led them as their CEO.

After being in Team and Leadership Excellence consulting for 10 years, subsequent to 16 years in corporate life for 16 years as Director for Keells Foods and Keells Super, I took on a new interesting challenge as the CEO of the Agora Supermarket Chain [owned by the highly diversified Rahimafrooz Group] in Bangladesh in July 2009.

This was a 3 year assignment to prepare the company for Rapid expansion. I took over this assignment for 3 reasons; Firstly because Agora was close to my heart as I helped start it as a consultant in 2001 and hence  I considered Agora my own baby and I wanted it to be successful. Secondly because I wanted to validate the guidance I give so many companies around the world as a consultant, by being in the hot seat for a while. And thirdly because I respect the Rahimafrooz Group and the family that owns it for running a company driven by ‘Values’ using ‘world-class’ management methods.

My dream was to make Agora a world-class company, the pride of Bangladesh and I write this blog with a mix of emotions that include happiness, sadness, fear, pride and hope.

Firstly I am extremely happy that we together created a company with a positive work culture that was built on the ‘Ultimate Aspiration’, ‘Values’, ‘Agora Aponjon Promise’ [Aponjon is the Bangla word for ‘dear one’ or ‘near one’ and this is the promise we deliver to our ‘guests’ or ‘Aponjon’], quality policy, good leadership, supportive team work and passionate team members. We also made the company profitable building on this culture and taking measures to improve the brand image, value to our guests, business knowledge, planning and execution. We also invested in a brand new state of the art distribution centre, new outlets and a new ERP system [SAP and WINCOR NIXDOEF]. All this helped the company to become profitable for the first time in my first year in office and become a leading revenue and profit contributor of the Rahimafrooz Group [the group that owns Agora an many other companies] providing better benefits and promotional opportunities to Agora’s team members.

Continue reading “Liberating Passion at Agora – Leadership lessons Learnt as CEO of Agora over the last 3 years!” →

A Sri Lanka Node – to develop our beautiful Motherland

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Marketing, Social networking, Sri Lanka, World affairs2 Comments
Image Credit: http://www.stylersu.com/

LMD, Sri Lanka’s leading business magazine should be congratulated for launching the ‘Sri Lankans Overseas’ blog to provide a forum for Sri Lankan’s living overseas to contribute to the nation building effort. Link to the blog: http://lmd.lk/?p=11555

Sri Lanka’s post-war renaissance is in need of the shot-in-the-arm from Sri Lankans living overseas. I would like to summarize the key points made in the various comments made so far;

  1. Wherever we live Sri Lankan’s are Sri Lankans… blood is thicker than water and this is a fact we can’t avoid.
  2. Each of us has our own dreams and goals and for this reason we may have migrated and this is an important factor we need to respect.
  3. It is not about getting everyone to come back to Sri Lanka, it is more about seeing how we can contribute. Some may come back if the opportunities are good and returning meets their life goals, some others can continue to live overseas and help building Sri Lanka.
  4. It is important for us to have Sri Lankans all over the world so that we can sell Sri Lanka through them.
  5. There is also a role to be played by government to facilitate this process by allowing tax breaks, making the process of getting dual citizenship easy etc.

May I suggest an idea that was picked up from NASA Astronaut Ron Garan, who is working on building an open source network named; Unity Node, to connect the 20 million plus social businesses in the world. Ron Garan’s story is amazing and I had the privilege of listening to him at the Social business day in Bangladesh recently; please read; http://ranjandesilva.com/2012/06/29/anything-is-possible-creating-a-world-without-poverty-with-inspiration-from-outer-space-and-inner-space/  if you would like to read this amazing story.

The idea is for someone to create a; Sri Lanka Node to connect all businesses run by Sri Lankans in Sri Lanka and overseas so that we can share resources, share information and help each other to make Sri Lanka one of the best places to live and visit; a little miracle that is happening …

Living Purposefully – path to success and happiness

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Personal Excellence, Spiritual1 Comment

An interesting question that keeps getting asked by my followers and students is; why do we live? Some gone on to ask; how can we make our lives more successful and happy.

The answer lies in the ability of discovering as life changing gift we are all capable of. This blog will helps you to dive into the amazing arena and to come up with the life changing gift we all look for.

 The following story will help us unearthing this life changing gift;

 Martin and Sam lived in a tiny village at a foot of a mountain. Martin was ambitious and he had some mountain climbing skills. His level of health and fitness was above the level of an average person. Sam on the other hand was less ambitious and had not even learnt basic survival skills such as mountain climbing. They always wanted to know what was on the top of the mountain, but they rarely found the time or motivation to go up the mountain as they were so engrossed in their day to day work.

  One day they received a message from an angel that there was a million dollars on top of the mountain with each of their names on it. They had to climb the Assume Mountain within 24 hours [mid night to mid night] on a selected day within one year. They were told that in order to climb the mountain during the given time, they would have to have an above average level of health and they would need to have basic mountain climbing skills. 

Both Martin and Sam considered the million dollars an important thing to have so that they could start a business or an industry and start making a comfortable life for them selves and their families. Martin the more ambitious, skilful in mountain climbing and who was above average in health and fitness, decided to start the journey the very next ay, starting at midnight. 

Continue reading “Living Purposefully – path to success and happiness” →

Anything is possible – Creating a World without Poverty – with inspiration from outer space and inner space!

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Conference learnings, Leadership, Marketing, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Social Business, Social networking, Spiritual, World affairs5 Comments
Inspiring Millions, Creating a better World
With Muhammad Yunus, Ron Garan, M A Muhith & Monica Yunus at Social Business 2012

When I received an invitation from the Yunus Centre to attend the Social Business Day 2012 at Sarvar Bangladesh, I was excited at the prospect of listening to a man who is one of a kind. I had heard of Prof Muhammad Yunus many years ago and had once met him at the Dhaka Airport Business Class Lounge where we had an interesting conversation about the quality of leadership in Bangladesh. Professor Yunus is a Nobel Lauriat for introducing Micro Credit to the world. After its amazing success in Bangladesh, it has been adopted in many countries around the world including the United States of America.

I was also intrigued to know that NASA astronaut Ron Garan will be the key-note speaker. While getting an opportunity to listen to an astronaut was interesting, I never knew the significance of Ron Garan’s presence, his relationship with Professor Yunus who also invented the concept of Social Business that also spread around the world in the same manner micro credit spread.

It was amazing to discover that Ron Garan took Muhammad Yunus’s book; ‘Creating a World without Poverty’ with him during his 5 1/2 month in space. The book therefore travelled 65,340,224 miles in 2,624 orbits during 164 days in space together with Ron. Ron Also took with him the Bangladesh national flag to honour the motherland of Professor Yunus.

Continue reading “Anything is possible – Creating a World without Poverty – with inspiration from outer space and inner space!” →

Getting that dream Job – 3 simple steps!

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Personal Excellence19 Comments

I wish I had a job at Google, I hear some cool stuff about how people enjoy themselves. I wish I had a job in the UN, I hear I employees get to travel a lot. I wish I can join the Cabin crew at Emirates, I hear they pay really well. These are the types of dreams shared with me by so many who have sought my guidance at workshops, coaching session and on the social media networks.

So let me tell you how. First of all let me tell you achieving dreams are possible and it needs a lot of patience, dedication, hard work and perseverance. Those who have those dream jobs did not get their overnight.  Soichiro Honda, the founder of the Honda motor corporation was a mechanic at Toyota when he dreamt that one day he will make his own car. He enrolled in a programme at Toyota designed to promote innovation and worked on a prototype which if accepted would bear his name with a profit share, an alternate path to making his own car. It took him 8 years of sacrifice, hardship, bombs and earthquakes to start making Honda motor cycles as a first step towards making cars. When people tell that Honda was an overnight success, he would have perhaps said, yes it is an overnight success that took me 8 years! See my YouTube video on http://ranjandesilva.com/videoandaudio/  to hear the full story of Honda’s path to success.

Some who we think are in dream jobs are dreaming about other jobs. This is because of human nature which wants to constantly improve and do better and there is nothing wrong with that too. However those who come into the correct arena will next think of going up the hierarchy in that arena.

So what are the 3 simple steps to getting your dream job? Continue reading “Getting that dream Job – 3 simple steps!” →

Understanding & making ourselves understood! – The key to quality relationships and success!

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Personal Excellence3 Comments

 Can you give me some advice on how to stay peaceful, when very close people around me are  not supporting me at all? They can’t understand me and my mentality. This is a recent request for advice I received from one of my Facebook followers. There have been many such laments from people of various age groups and social situations and I felt it is good to share some thoughts on this for those who need the support.

The first attitude required when going through this challenge is to accept that everyone is ‘right’ from their point of view and conditions of life. When there is a gap or polarity in the points of views then one sees the other persons mentality, opinion, orientation, behaviours etc. ‘wrong’, ‘immoral’, ‘crazy’, ‘stupid’ etc. When there are billions of people living in this world with different mentalities, attitudes and points of view, if we try to make others understand that we are right and they are wrong, then we are on to a futile project that can damage relationships, create hostility and even wars!

So what is the alternative?

Continue reading “Understanding & making ourselves understood! – The key to quality relationships and success!” →

Examination Stress into Success

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Personal Excellence5 Comments
Image
Image Credit: http://www.nyulocal.com

A diamond is a piece of coal put under pressure! Those out   there preparing for exams are like that piece of coal waiting to shine like the diamond you deserve to be. So here are a few thoughts, concepts, ideas and tools for those preparing for any type of examinations.

When I first heard the definition for stress it blew me away, when I first heard the definition of stress my stress just went out of the window, when I first heard the definition of stress I started looking at challenges in a totally different way.

Ready! Here we go! Stress is the negative interpretation of pressure! Yes that’s it. Short, sweet and simple. Everyone has pressure. The journey from life to death is filled with pressure. If we look at that pressure negatively and start whining about it, it becomes stress.

Those who have become successful in life know that pressure is good for them. Pressure helps us to stretch ourselves, pressure helps us to expand our capacity, and pressure helps us to value ourselves more. Successful persons look at over-load of work as a result of them being over-demanded. Successful persons consider that they are blessed with responsibility rather than being stressed, successful persons consider that their capacity is being developed rather than pressurised.

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Point Of Light

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Personal Excellence, Spiritual7 Comments

It had been a lonely holy week for me this year in Dhaka away from my loving family. As I left my apartment for the Easter vigil in the beautiful church nearby, I remembered   that I need to take a candle with me for the Easter blessing.

The previous year I went to church hoping to buy a candle there, but I could not find one. As I was following the mass and when the light was being shared from the Easter candle, a gentleman who was next to me offered me a candle. I did accept with gratitude, thanking god for the gift.

As I was pondering where I could buy one this time, I remembered I had a bundle of new candles in my apartment which I had purchased to use for the ‘point of light’ exercise I conduct during my ‘Mastery of Self’ playshops’ [We name our training workshop, playshops, due to the childlike atmosphere we create to speed up learning in a fun manner].

When I reached for the candles, something told me I need to take two candles, not just one and I know it was my inner need to pay back the favour I received last year.

As the light was been passed in church today I looked around but did not see anyone without a candle and a tinge of disappointment went through my soul. After receiving the light I turned to the gentleman standing to my right  to pass on the light and low and behold he did not have a candle with him. I offered him the extra candle I had and the joy I felt is unexplainable.

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Hatred ceases not by hatred but by love!

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Relationships, Spiritual, World affairs3 Comments
Image from: kulmiyenews.com

The run up to the day of the US sponsored UNHCR vote against Sri Lanka, the results of the vote and the aftermath had been an emotional event for many Sri Lankans around the world. As I was pondering on the details, an incident that happened 60 years ago came into my mind. It was the ‘Treaty of Peace with Japan’ between Japan and part of the allied powers officially signed by 48 nations on September 8, 1951, at the war memorial opera house in San Fransisco on April 28, 1952.

According to Wikipidia, a major player in providing support for a post-war free Japan was the delegation from Ceylon (now known as Sri Lanka). While many were reluctant to allow a free Japan capable of aggressive action and insisted that the terms of surrender should be rigidly enforced in an attempt to break the spirit of the Japanese nation, the Ceylonese Finance Minister J. R. Jayawardena spoke in defense for a free Japan and informed the conference of Ceylon’s refusal to accept the payment of reparations that would harm Japan’s economy. His reason was “We in Ceylon were fortunate that we were not invaded, but the damage caused by air raids, by the stationing of enormous armies under the South-East Asia Command, and by the slaughter-tapping of one of our main commodities, rubber, when we were the only producer of natural rubber for the Allies, entitles us to ask that the damage so caused should be repaired. We do not intend to do so for we believe in the words of the Great Teacher [Buddha] whose message has ennobled the lives of countless millions in Asia that ‘hatred ceases not by hatred but by love’.” He ended the same speech by saying “This treaty is as magnanimous as it is just to a defeated foe. We extend to Japan the hand of friendship and trust that with the closing of this chapter in the history of man, the last page of which we write today, and with the beginning of the new one, the first page of which we dictate tomorrow, her people and ours may march together to enjoy the full dignity of human life in peace and prosperity”.

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Making of a Marketer!

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Conference learnings, Leadership, Marketing, Personal Excellence1 Comment

Great Marketers in the Making. Click image for more pictures of the conference

Sri Lanka’s future is in good hands! This is the feeling I had as soon as I walked into the ballroom of Colombo’s Galadari Hotel on the 17th of March 2012. This feeling became stronger as the day went by to see the enthusiasm with which the 270 CIM students participating in the conference absorbed the wisdom dished out by the 4 Chartered Marketers of the Chartered Institute of Marketing [CIM] who had reached the top in organizations and the panel discussion that followed.

Deepal Sooriyaarachchi who spoke first outlined what it takes to be a ‘Future Proof Marketer’. He talked about the importance of knowing your strengths and improvement areas and making sure that marketing is the right profession for you. Then he went on to talk about the importance of knowing your job, profession and the company well so that you can market your products with confidence. Managing your career with the 4 essential steps of learning, mastering, managing and leading was highlighted as one of the essential requirements. Knowing your team was highlighted as essential for success as it is vital to have good team work for success.  To top it up it was important to know your market and the world we operate in. While all of these aspects were important, I felt the key message was the need to have a firm set of ‘values’ and live by them remembering that we are human and we need to add value to humanity all the time.

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Leadership Lessons from Sri Lankan Cricket

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Sports, Team Excellence3 Comments

Image
Image credits: http://www.espncricinfo.com

As we take a short breather from the hectic cricket season where Sri Lanka played in South Africa, Australia and Bangladesh over the last 3 months with ups and down bringing joy and sadness to millions of Sri Lankans around the world, the leadership lessons have been tremendous.

The world cup loss to India on the 2nd of April 2011, which was surrounded with controversy [that I will not comment on as I do not have the required information to do], the resignation of the captain and the financial crisis of the cricket board had left the team in turmoil.

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The Forest Fire of Compassion for the freedom from Kony

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Spiritual, World affairs3 Comments

As I sat down at my laptop this evening with a list of tasks to finish, I logged on to Facebook to see what’s been going on in the cyber world. I was lucky to see my two elder daughters online and started chatting with them. Both of them recommended I watch the video they had posted on their walls, Kony 2012.

So I put aside the tasks I had planned and started watching this 29.59 mts movie. It is a relatively long time for one single YouTube movie but I started watching it with many interruptions as I went on. When I started watching this there were 1,835,637 views and when I finished watching it about an hour later there were 4,285,557 views. It’s just 2 days on YouTube. By the time I finish writing this it could be 10 million! See the movie embedded below.

It bought a few tears to my eyes and awakened my consciousness to an important responsibility I have as a citizen of the world. It inspired me to write this blog with my list of tasks for the evening still pending.

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Asian Retail – Changing Life Styles

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Conference learnings, Marketing, Retail5 Comments

I first attended the Asia Retail Congress in February 2011 where I had the privilege of accompanying the Managing Director of Rahimafrooz Superstores Bangladesh, the operators of the Agora Supermarket Chain to receive the retail excellence award.

I was delighted to be invited to be in the advisory panel of the Asia Retail congress 2012 and to be a speaker as I had lots to share from my experience of making Agora a winning supermarket chain during the last 31 months as the Chief Executive Officer [CEO] of Rahimafrooz Superstores.

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Marketers are great CEO’s in the making!

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Marketing, Personal Excellence, Team Excellence2 Comments

Yes, marketers are great CEO’s in the making. The level of success is dependent on the understanding of the complexity of the job and the steps that needs to be taken to get to the top.

Marketing is one of the most challenging, interesting and rewarding jobs!

The needs and attitude towards marketing is different from various perspectives; firstly the practitioner, who has taken the brunt of it, tasted the successes or licked their wounds, the practitioner’s boss, the CEO who calls the shots and the marketing consultant who brings a second opinion.

Let me speak from the vantage point of someone who has played all three roles. Firstly practicing marketing as the Marketing Director of Keells Foods & Keels Super and Pizza Hut in Sri Lanka. Secondly, as the Managing Director of my own company and next the Chief Executive Officer of Rahimafrooz Superstores Ltd. Bangladesh. Finally, providing, strategy, marketing and leadership consultancy for companies in over 20 countries.

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How do we break the chains holding us back!

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Personal Excellence3 Comments

I was fascinated to see the video of Susan Boyle in Britain’s got talent 2009. Since the release of this video on ‘YouTube’ there have been over 100 million views of various versions of this video so far. What fascinates so many people is the manner in which a 47-year-old, unimpressive, unsophisticated woman who was written off, ridiculed and laughed off by the audience and the judges the moment she walked on to the stage, stunned the audience singing ’I Dreamed a Dream from Le Miserables’.

This is an inspiring story of the ability we have to break the chains that hold us back. A baby elephant is tied with a chain to a tree to keep it from wandering away. Wanting to be free, it pulls the chain and finds it too difficult to break. What we don’t realise is that the elephant when fully grown, continues to be tied by the same chain. The elephant moves trees and topples rocks. Scientifically it is proven that the elephant has the strength to break the chain. But it does not break the chain that it was tied to from the time it was a baby. The reason for this is simply because the elephant is conditioned to accept the chain as unbreakable. This will continue until someday the elephant breaks that chain by accident due to external pressure or for survival.

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Hardware or the Software … in so many aspects of life?

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Personal Excellence, Team Excellence1 Comment

Recently I stumbled upon a TedX video of David Damberger titled: What happens when an NGO admits failure. It is a real eye opener for NGO’s who spends money in providing infrastructure such as tube wells. What they forget to do is investing some money on maintaining such infrastructure by employing people, training them and providing a source of funding and following up. David talks about how he saw this happening and making the same mistake himself. He sees how the tube wells provided were unusable a few years later due to this issue.

A success story in this aspect is the foundation for goodness run by Kushil Gunasekara in southern Sri Lanka. A village names ‘Seenigama’ he was fostering got completely wiped out due to the Tsunami on the 26th of December 2004. He got the support of various donors, well-wishers and those who were affected and re-built the village. He made it sustainable through various activities such as running 2 BPO’s and other industries and the village is a thriving one now. They have produced 6 national players for Sri Lanka in various sports among other achievements. It is a fascinating story and you can see their details at http://www.unconditionalcompassion.org/indexc.php.

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Celebrating the life of the father of a genius!

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Spiritual2 Comments

I was saddened to see an email from my business partner, friend, brother and coach, this morning about the loss of his father. I feel for this loss personally as I love and respect him and I knew his father had a special influence in making him the genius he is.

Unfortunately he could not be by his side before his death or attend the funeral as there was not enough time for him and his wife to get back on time for the funeral as the Islamic traditions require burial within 24 hours.

I can imagine the pain his mum was going through after losing her sister a few days ago and now her husband. It may also be tough for her not having her son by her side. I can also imagine what he may be going through, not been able to bid good bye to his father and not been able to be there.

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My first personal website …. finally!

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Social networking, Team Excellence1 Comment

This is my own site that will help build my personal brand. I have had 220 visits to the site in the first 24 hours and half of them were through Facebook. Thank you for the interest shown in my site. Please visit regularly and remember to follow my blog in addition to watching videos, reading articles, checking out the photos of my work, checking out what my clients tell about me etc. I will also be loading more articles, audios, videos etc. I welcome your feedback and would like to use this to share ideas for the greater good of people. Wish you Excellence!

Experiences and insights during my journeys to guide business leaders – in and out of work!

On By Ranjan De SilvaIn Leadership, Marketing, Personal Excellence, Relationships, Social networking, Spiritual, Team ExcellenceLeave a comment

I have been learning a life time and this has really accelerated over the last 14 years as a leadership and team development consultant, coach, catalyst and trainer. While I have resisted blogging all this time to avoid adding to the clutter, I have been inundated with requests for my blog. The requests have sky rocketed after I uploaded the video of one of presentations in Dubai at the ‘Unleashing your DNA’ seminar, where I spoke on the topic; ‘Gearing up for excellence’. There have been almost 500 views of this video in 2 weeks.

My work takes me to many countries and I am blessed to meet people from many cultures, stay in various hotels, see new place and eat in various restaurants. These travels and teachings give me many experiences and insights and I wish to share these with those I am blessed to interact with.

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