Channa Manoharan describes the must-haves for professionals
Q: How would you define professional services?
Advisory Leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers
A: Professional services help create or add value to organisations and individuals, anticipating problems and finding solutions, adding key insights and making a difference to clients by means of effectiveness and/or innovation. Trust, honesty and expertise are imperative ingredients inbuilt in professional services.
Q: How do you assess Sri Lanka’s professional services?
A: These are exciting times to be in the professional services space in Sri Lanka, as growth prospects are immense. With consistent growth, Sri Lankan organisations are poised to deal with opportunities and challenges resulting from domestic and global trends.
Hence, entities must offer professional services that are relevant and responsive to client needs. Innovation and developing the right talent is core to survival and success, while staying focussed on quality and working on strategies that make sense for the longer term.
Q: Are ethics and governance being given priority, in your view?
A: Yes, but there are expectation and perception gaps, and they must be bridged. There is also a ‘trust deficit’ caused by the economic crisis, given the fallout permeating local experiences as well.
Narrowing this gap and reducing the trust deficit is not a straightforward task. Both government and business will have to refocus on behavioural elements that create or destroy trust, coupled with intensifying regulation and strengthening institutions.
Businesses must take leadership in building the trust agenda, and make apt investments for better societal engagement at a more personal level, with greater breadth and depth.
Q: Going forward, can professional services be a key driver of Sri Lanka’s economic progress?
A: Sri Lankan professional services firms can contribute by becoming large service providers, catering to growing regional and international demand in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) or Business Process Management (BPM) space. And there is potential in regional markets, through collaboration and overseas investments.
Social and economic trends create challenges and opportunities for government and the private sector. Given that the Sri Lankan economy will not be shielded from such global trends, businesses must employ strategies to exploit opportunities, and face challenges arising from uncertainty and risks. Consequently, businesses will seek advice from professional services entities, for advice and assistance on issues impacting them, from strategy to execution.
Q: What more needs to be done to achieve those goals, then?
A: In the BPM space, the trade chambers need to engage with government, investing in creating country visibility in key markets.
Sri Lanka’s credentials and capabilities in knowledge process outsourcing, legal process outsourcing, finance and accounting, architecture and engineering services need to be showcased and promoted aggressively.
This requires investment by the state, with industry inputs. Also, the talent pool must possess the right skill sets. Hence, investment-creating new qualifications, and continuously upgrading curricula in universities and professional bodies, should be supported by both the public and private sectors.
Additional capacity should be created in state universities, whilst encouraging private sector investments.
Q: What are the strengths and opportunities of our professional services?
A: The most notable strengths of Sri Lankan professionals include the quality of education, and the skill sets and work ethic delivered not only at home, but also in international markets.
Mature economies are seeking opportunities to transform their business models and, therefore, focussing on efficiency and innovation. Therein lies the opportunity for Sri Lankan professionals to leverage on their skill sets, to cater to such demand.
Which is why I see opportunities for professionals in all spheres, whether it be finance, legal, engineering, architecture or IT. But we can only be successful if our professionals possess a global outlook and business acumen, and can continuously fine-tune their skill sets to be on a par with market expectations.
Q: In your view, how must the state support the development of professional services?
A: Government should be in the business of policing the economic activity of the country. It must govern regulations. The catalyst for growth should be the private sector, guided by professionals in their respective fields of expertise.
The country needs to be positioned internationally as being conducive to doing business. Which is why the Government should focus on good governance, a consistent economic policy framework and robust regulation. This promotes and protects investments, creating a favourable social and business environment.
Investment in creating and attracting world-class educational institutions is an area the Government should focus on, to create a dynamic talent pool; in addition to adequate investments in R&D, to facilitate innovation; and public and private partnerships in infrastructure.
The interviewee is Chief Operating Officer and
Thanks LMD
