Made in Sri Lanka – The elusive brand

Loadstar, a Sri Lankan company partnering with Belgium’s Solideal, happens to be the largest solid tire manufacturer in the world. It also ranks fourth place in air tires, and is now the world’s second largest equipment manufacturer of both rims and tracks. Nippon Maruchi, another Sri Lankan company (with the parent company situated in Japan), processes 55% of the world’s cell phone sensors. Believe it or not, 100% of Motorola’s actuators are processed in here in Sri Lanka.

Haycarb, yet another Sri Lankan company is the world’s largest Activated Carbon manufacturer, producing over 18,000 Metric tones of activated carbon each year. Dankotuwa Procelain, Noritake and other ceramics manufacturers in Sri Lanka have been able to tilt a portion of the world market of ceramics from China to Sri Lanka.

MIT with their stock market software, WS02 with their open source initiatives, Virtusa and all the other IT companies that have sprung up have redirected the flow of software outsourcing and have created a strong name for themselves and Sri Lanka in the world of IT.

Of course, textile companies like Mas Holdings and Brandix need no introduction.

So these examples clearly show that in spite of our industrial sector being comparatively small when compared to the service sector, we have been able to score strong points by concentrating on niches that matter.

Nothing lasts forever though, and with the current turn of events of the country it’s hard to predict what will become of the markets that we hold today. Mr. Shelton Fernando, Managing Director of Nippon Maruchi points out that everywhere we look, we see half completed jobs. Roads without pavements, a capital city without a proper transportation system, an electricity grid that cannot be relied upon, a water supply that is never consistent, etc etc etc. His argument is with an environment as flawed to this extent, how can companies reach out to make products that need nanometer precision?

But perhaps the deciding factor of further industrial development [or the lack there of] would be the reluctance to change the historic brand of Sri Lanka. We love to dwell on the fantasy of a self-reliant agricultural nation that can survive on it own. We live in our glorious past and fail to realize a realistic future. We still believe in the independence of a nation rather than the inter-dependency of a global village.

To create a successful country brand, it should first be created in the minds of the people. India’s authentic brand of culture, America’s brand of freedom, and Australia’s brand of multi-nationalism was instilled in the minds of the people long before they became realities.

I think it’s high time to start.

Ending note: Patriotism and country branding are two different things. Understanding this difference goes a long way. Perhaps even towards worldwide peace & prosperity.

An ingenious sluice.

Wonder whether the brick was included in the original design by Mahaweli.....?

For those who are wondering WTF:
The brick is an easy but effective way to decrease the turbulence and ensure the concrete lasts for a few more years. (ie, the farmers do have a knowledge of Engineering, they're not quite aware of it yet.)

5 things I love about the teacher-strike

The parents are pissed

Ours is a die-hard family-centered society, and children are the sole reason that parents live, breath and sometimes die. So naturally when the second biggest event of their child’s life is about to get fucked up by a bunch of white collar bureaucrats and good-for-nothing union representatives, suddenly the Universe becomes a dark and cruel place full of opportunists and blood sucking vampires.

The students are lost

They have just sat for the supposedly “world’s hardest exam”, and they’re not sure whether they’ll have to sit for it again. Day by day stress accumulates and what we metallurgists call as “fatigue failure” is bound to happen.

In fact it’s a very beautiful sight to see from the naked eye. The initiation of doubt, the progression of stress and the final fracture is worth writing a paper about.

Teachers will have to redefine the word “dignity”

In school, teachers always harp about the useless strikes, picketing and protests that doctors, nurses and University students carry out. I’m wondering if perhaps they would add another profession to their list as well….

Universities are dysfunctional

Last year due to a mix up with the Chemistry paper, the students came about 3 months late. Likewise the University calendar has always been one of the greatest examples of Macrolevel uncertainty (even which Heisenberg couldn’t match).

But University authorities have tried their level best to bring the calendar together and functional. Right now the so-called “June Term” is in August. Can’t wait to see what happens this year.

Industrial research is all but a dream

Due to Universities having different calendars for each and every batch, the professors and other academic staff have to come every day, for every month, for the next few years. (Yippee!)

Sabbatical leave is not an option. Industrial research projects and University-Industry interaction is a tiring venture. And as for vacation work…… there’s no such thing as a vacation.

(Hooray for all the considerate teachers!)

Women & Productivity – How damsels-in-distress can Save the world

It’s usually hard to talk about women, without getting slapped in the face (or raising a set of eyebrows) from both worlds. But putting aside the debate of women’s rights and gender specific roles for another day, I thought I’d talk about something that rarely receives significant attention.

In traditional organizations, the involvement of women in work is either for ornamental reasons (receptionist, secretary etc) or on the rationale of cheap labour (garment workers, proof readers etc). Since women do spend a lot of time decorating themselves and since society doesn’t expect them to play the role of the breadwinner of the family, this works well enough. But society also expects women to look after the babies, which usually doesn’t work very well for them in career development.

Yet we all know the positive sides of the feminine brain. There’s this thing called Intuition, there’s the ever popular Maternal instinct, and last but not least the beloved ‘blonde innocence’ that almost always manages to take the seriousness away from death-defying moments.

Women are therefore great for managerial positions in any organization. We recently visited Loadstar, the largest solid tyre manufacturing factory in the world [surprisingly situated in SL], and even though most of the heavy work was carried out by men, there were women involved in the higher and middle management.

I’m generalizing here, but most women have an uncanny knack for public relations and have the ability to get things done- quickly and effectively. They are not afraid to be wrong, and they’re not afraid to stop and ask for directions; which also makes them flexible leaders.

Most of all, women bring the important factor of gender dynamics to an organization. There was an interesting presentation by Prof. (Mrs.) Ratnayaka on real life examples of how active participation of girls in the Moratuwa University boosted the overall performance. Interestingly enough this is also portrayed by the relationship between our National GDP and women employment in the past years. Have a look at the statistics if needed.

But women in general, do have their weak points. They are not very skilled at analytical thinking. Don’t get me wrong, they’re superb at lateral thinking, seeking out patterns and building up stories. But their strong creative Right brain, usually suppresses their analytical Left brain, and hence discourages them to engage in tasks such as mathematics or heavy scientific reasoning.

This is one of the grounds that you don’t find many girls opting to do mathematics for A’Ls. And one of the many reasons you don’t find many women engineers among the decision making positions in the country. But why should something very insignificant like mathematics be hindrance to learn Engineering? (After all, not all of us are specializing in rocket science)

So, we thought we’d try to make a difference. Starting on the first week of September we’ll be conducting a programme called “Inspiring Prospective Women Engineers” for the Grade 11 students in five girls’ schools in Colombo. The Women Engineers Forum of the IESL will help us by giving their resource persons.

Hopefully we’ll inspire some of the girls to follow upon a path of Science & Engineering and perhaps persuade them to get actively involved in the development of the country. Even though we won't be able to make a huge cultural paradigm shift, we'll at least give hope to the young women who want to escape from the typical damsel-in-distress stereotype and explore the unknown.

Dian Gomes and Niranjan De Silva on one stage….

Thinking is not some thing that Sri Lankans are very fond of. We love to blame, talk, and choose not to act. But when it comes to conscious thinking, it’s usually considered a severe hell breaking sin.

Well, come to think of it, Lucifer and the fallen angles were sentenced because of their excessive thinking and questioning of God, so I guess technically, thinking is a sin.

But the problem is we are a so-called Buddhist country, and inadvertently we are supposed to have awakened and lucid thoughts that transcend the society to a plane peace and prosperity. (No irony intended, but who am I to think on behalf of my readers…)

A bunch of young men and women are trying to turn the tables on this matter. On a very humble level they are organizing a one-day session on "Think on your feet". It's all for a good cause too; in aid of enhancing communication skills of engineering undergraduates.

The organizing committee is the Gavel Club (affiliated to Toastmasters International) of the Moratuwa University.

The topics are as follows:

Mr. M. Z. Saleem –General Manager of SLT: "Think Differently"
Mr. Dev Wijethunge –Professional Trainer: "Communicate with Confidence"
Mr. Dian Gomez – Managing Director of MAS Intimates and CEO of Unichela:

"Leadership and Building World Class Teams"

Mr. Niranjan de Silva –CEO of Metropolitan Computers.: "How to do a winning corporate presentation".

Stale-mate. Should we Interfere……?

Poverty usually comes with a fair amount of laziness. I’m not implying that the rich are not-lazy, but simply that the poor people can rise above the food chain with a little effort. One might point out the lack of opportunities among the poor, but intelligence and creativity are traits inherent in all of us (or which can be developed).

We recently visited a small town near Dehiattakandia, and from the atmosphere you can immediately feel the staleness of the place. We talked to the village leaders (and did a quick RRA), and we immediately came to realize the insanely bureaucratic way that the villagers were treated by the officials. We also noticed that the most of the villagers are also lethargic to do something on their own.

But taking all this into account, and ignoring the arrogance of the authorities, we took 19 handpicked farmers to see a tissue cultured banana cultivation farm and lab in Hambanthota. The Colombo University owned farm was impressively working with enthusiastic farmers (people from the down-south are usually energetic) to mass produce bananas.

Our farmers will be receiving their own tissue cultured banana plants in October and will be guided by the field agents in Hambanthota lab, who have volunteered to travel all the way and monitor the process.

But apart from all this, the village lacks heavily on facilities and infra-structure. There’s no point of even talking about the authorities (well in their defense, the country is bankrupt, so they can’t really do nothin), but at least the villagers should be able to stand up together and build their village. They’ve lived together for more than 20 years! Yet all they do is blame each other and curse the authorities.

My question is should we interfere further? Or should we let evolution take its path? (For the better or for worse)

Ending note: Not all the villagers are lethargic. There are a few who have been inspirational in bringing change to the village. But they carry the whole weight of the village, much like our country as a whole.

Permanent workers too lazy……. Jobs are outsourced

We were greeted by the largest Glass manufacturing factory with open arms and black flags…... Apparently, the workers are on some sort of strike. The management doesn’t care though, they’ve outsourced the security division and the transport division, and the productivity have since increased to the point that its cheaper for them to keep the permanent workers on their lazy bums doing nothing, while the contractors handle the work on time. (low quality video is given below)

Totally agree with this concept. In the future, we should all have freelance jobs, and get paid on a contract basis rather than an hourly wage. “Down with nine-to-five jobs. Hail the free work force!” I wonder if I can get the buggers who are screaming to uphold free-education to campaign something like this.

Most jobs today do not require the person to be present on the desk, and correspondence can be done through email or chatting (which works fine with most people nowadays). In essence, organizations can be virtual, while of course there will have to be a person at the reception desk and back office to manage all the stuff; probably the CEO.

To the organization, this brings productivity, without long term commitments. To the individuals this brings flexibility, free time and the option to work at three or four different places without getting fired.

Today most people live to do their job. I’m fairly sure it’s supposed to be the other way around.

Ampara District…. [30km from Thoppigala] why on Earth did we choose the place?

Suriyapokuna is the name of the small village near Dehiattakandia. We've planned to do a Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), full video and photography survey, chemical analysis of the drinking water sources in the village, giving shoes to the students in the Suriyapokuna Maha Vidyalaya and taking the farmers out to Hambantota to see the Tissue-cultured banana farm and lab.

Sounds a lot doesn’t it? But hold on to your shoes, it doesn’t stop there. Our long term plans include donating solar powered white LEDs and solving their drinking water problem by means of building a tube well or by rainwater harvesting. But I’m going too far.

If all goes well, this Friday we’ll be heading off to Suriyapokuna, in the Ampara District and implement what we can. We have the full support of the Mahaweli Authority, the local Govi Samithi and the principal of the local school.

These are the teams who have agreed to go;

Earth Resource Team

Nimani and her team will lead 20 of the most energetic farmers in the area (hand picked by the leader of the Govi Samithi) and visit the Hamabanthota tissue cultured banana farm .

Computer Engineering Team

Hiranya will look into the computers in the Suriyapokuna Maha Vidyalaya and install software targeted for the children and teachers. (Eg. Microsoft Student, ICTA Sinhala package, NIE software) He will also conduct an interactive workshop for the teachers on Saturday.

Chemical Engineering Team

Dilan will take samples of the drinking water sources of the village, take them back to the lab at Ratmalana and conduct several tests. Then Dr. Ajith de Alwis will help us create a suitable filter for the villagers to use. This filter will be used distributed (probably sold at non-profit basis) in Phase II of the development plan.

Photographic/ video & Survey Team

After the rapid rural appraisal (RRA) which will be done with the help of the villagers on Friday evening, the photographic & video team will be divided into 3-5 groups and be asked to cover the whole village on separate routes. The team will also be vigilant of the water scarcity of the area and select a suitable spot for a tube well or equivalent. Soil samples will also be taken to asses the geological condition of the area.

That’s pretty much it.

It’s been hard to contact the village, because cell phone networks have been disabled due to security reasons. Thoppigala is 20-30km away and the Army I guess is taking no chances to leave the communication links open. Our only communication with the village has been through the CDMA phone. A young, helpful and energetic guy called Chaminda runs the small communication joint in the village and has been contacting all the officials for us, including the Govi Samithi leaders and Principal of the school.

It takes about 8-10 hours to drive from Colombo to Suriyapokuna. So I’ve been wondering why the hell we didn’t choose any other place. I guess it’s the feel of adventure, and sense of doing something no one else dares to do. There’s no real imposing security threat in Suriyapokuna, and no LTTE attacks have been recorded for the last 20 years, but it is considered a boarder village and that thought alone motivates us to do something important to the place.

We’re spending night at the houses of the villagers. The girls will get a separate house belonging to an old couple, while the guys will be staying at an abandoned house. At first we thought of booking the Mahaweli circuit bungalow, but the rates are premium there (at least for us), so we thought against it. It’ll be interesting, to say at the least. We're expecting harsh conditions and planning on taking our own drinking water. (At least we'll survive the first day)

Since we’re staying there for three days, we’ll get first hand experience on how they live. Surprisingly, I'm looking forward to this...

Control Theory & Utopia

We Engineers are NOT subtle creatures that tend to dwell upon the complexities of social science. We believe that if there is a problem, there is always a solution.

That’s our motto; Always.

The solution may not be 100% accurate, but we deduce the maximum error which may be induced, and take precautions such as safety factors and what not, to compensate for our lack of in depth analysis.

If we are picky about the output, we would have some sort of feedback mechanism that would tell us when to start, stop or fluctuate the process, so that the output is smooth and stable. And hence we give birth to Systems! (More on this later)

Anyway, I’m not trying to superimpose Control Theory on the minds of the sound and peaceful Sri Lankan Blogging Community. Rather I’m trying to get a feedback from you all, so that the Community Service projects we do, might turn out to be smooth and stable.

So let me introduce myself. I’m R. Due to some severe miscalculation on the part of the Board of Directors, I have been put in charge of the Community Service projects that are being done through the small club of a very insignificant University.

So let’s look into some our quantumly minute Community activities…. I do not guarantee that this will be an adventure of a lifetime, nor a rhetorical tale of a naive community worker that ends with a transcending message. But I do hope that this diary would be useful to anyone working towards similar goals.