The annual flagship event organised by The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) in Sri Lanka unfolded at the Shangri La, Colombo under the theme “ART of Leading the Shift – Adaptability, Resilience and Transformation”.
The inauguration was attended by over 700 guests including C-Suites, Members, Academics and invitees. The Chief Guest was the State Minister of Finance Eran Wickramaratne and the Guest of Honour was. Sarah Hulton, O.B.E, British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka.
This event was even more significant to the members, as this is the Centenaryyear for CIMA.
The Chairperson of the Summit, Rifka Ziyard FCMA, CGMA, in her welcome speech spoke about why the theme was selected for this year’s event. Rifka mentioned that CIMA has portrayed over the years the importance of embracing change, transforming itself to embed technology and innovation and ensuring the global management accounting profession is fit to meet the future of finance. The summit was curated to address all of these key areas.
Also speaking at the event were Manohari Abeyesekara FCMA, CGMA, Chairperson of the Country Network Panel and Rajeev Mittal, MD of Ui Path, India & SAARC. The event also saw the launch of a RPA Centre of Excellence, where CIMA students and members could learn and try out creating bots at the local office premises.
Minister Eran Wickramaratne, State Minister of Finance in his address mentioned that Cabinet ministers should not be engaged in business. He further added that the public and the private sector should unite to build the economy. He praised CIMA for its Nationalistic thinking further to a request by Manohari Abeyesekara, Chairperson, CIMA Network Panel in Sri Lanka, to remove all travel advisories.
The keynote was delivered by T. V. T. Chari, Former CFO, Axiata Group Bhd., who spoke about Digital Disruption and how smart application of Analytics will help organisations transform themselves to be resilient in the face of the challenges, the fast pace of changes bring about in the business world. He mentioned that as per research 79.4% of executives fear disruption, however all industries are being disrupted from banking, retail, energy, communication, hospitality etc. “The OTT apps such as WhatsApp eating into nearly 90% of voice/SMS revenue was where the communication industry faced disruption” he further added.
The vote of thanks was delivered by the Country Manager for CIMA in Sri Lanka, Zahara Ansary ACMA, CGMA who thanked the local and foreign sponsors, speakers and delegates who attended the summit.
The thought leadership sessions of the Summitwere held on the 5th of September focused on key areas businesses and business leaders should be mindful given the agile pace of change in the environment.
Key leadership traits required in the modern era when having to inspire young leaders of different generations, as well as the repertoire of skills which are in demand today that are futuristic, agile and transformational yet strongly based on sustainable values, were also discussed at the event.
There were over 20 foreign and local resources at the sessions.
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