Q: Could you describe the prevailing business climate in Sri Lanka – and how has it impacted entrepreneurs?
A: It has been a challenging period for any company. This is due to business being slow over the last few quarters and the pandemic upending processes around the world.

With the deadly COVID-19 in the air, a great deal of uncertainty looms; and as entrepreneurs, we need to try to reflect on the circumstances and understand what can be done differently to tide us over this crisis.

K&D Group is diversified with businesses in different sectors, which means encountering different problems during this period.

Taking our manufacturing arm as an example, we manufacture various vegetarian products, most of which use imported high quality raw materials. This means we’re unable to fix prices for our products as the US Dollar rate hasn’t been consistent.

High inflation means people’s usual expenditure decreases and many are wary of what they spend on, ensuring that only essentials are given priority.

Another example would be my debt recovery company, for which I’ve won many accolades. Most people are unable to pay their banks and financial institutions at this time. As such, it is up to us to step forward and ask them to pay what they owe while adhering to the highest ethical standards.

An issue that many entrepreneurs face in the present climate is the pressure of saving their teams’ jobs. Unlike businesspeople who look at things with an eye on profits, we can’t simply let people go. So there has been a great deal of pressure to ensure that they retain their jobs.

Q: Should entrepreneurs engage in ‘social entrepreneurship’?
A: Yes. I believe that there are two types of social entrepreneurs – viz. nonprofit and profit seeking. How this works is they’re either nonprofits or blend profit seeking goals while generating positive returns for society. Therefore, they use different metrics.

Social entrepreneurship typically attempts to further broad social, cultural and environmental goals, which are often associated with the voluntary sector in areas such as poverty alleviation, healthcare and community development. A good example of a social entrepreneur would be Otara Gunewardene.

At times, profit making social enterprises may be established to support an organisation’s social or cultural goals but not as ends in themselves. For example, a business that aims to provide housing and employment to the homeless may operate a restaurant, to raise money and employ this group.

Q: How does your group view innovation?
A: With K&D being a diversified group, we look at new ways to enter existing markets and improve standards. As for our main division, when we entered the debt recovery market, we were among the first to begin doing this.

In the debt recovery business, many tend to wonder if you’re ex-military personnel or some ruffian. However, we have established ethical policies and appropriate guidelines for reaching out to debtors, and the manner in which we deal with them has been applauded on countless occasions.

This is one of the reasons we’ve been awarded for innovative market upscaling initiatives – we go above and beyond to create new, improved and better systematic ways to help collect from debtors.

Another initiative that I began long ago – before it became the ‘new normal’ – was the idea of working from home (WFH). I hired debt collectors from even the most remote towns in Sri Lanka and had them come into work on a monthly basis. These people worked in their areas and returned to Colombo only when truly needed.

Our procedures and forward-thinking systems, and ethical work rules, have earned us many awards as well as recognition.

Q: And how would you describe the competition?
A: Being a diversified group means engaging in vetting competitors and studying the various markets we operate in because each has its own competition.

As for the strategies we employ, when it comes to our recovery organisation, we ensure the safety of all the data we store. Confidential data is left in our hands and to prevent financial data pertaining to any banks’ debtors being leaked, we have very strict and safe protocols in place.

Additionally, we have maintained a very good and ethical rapport with all our clients, and even the principals. We have never used any unethical means to acquire or retain business.

Our final strategy is treating staff well. With over 15 years in operation, we consider our teams to be almost family. From upskilling, to rewarding and recognising their hard work, we strive to keep our employees happy because you can only run a successful company if your people are content and looked after.

Q: What are the organisation’s plans for the future?
A: As a group, we operate five companies in a range of sectors from pest control and credit management, to manufacturing and debt recovery. Our plan is for all the smaller arms to become financially stable without depending on the parent company, which is the recovery brand.

In the long run, we have plans to engage in two new areas of business – namely medical services and education. Due to the changes in demographics and technology, we see tremendous potential in these areas.

Moreover, given some of our capabilities, we certainly have an eye to win in these areas.

Gamini Silva
Group Managing Director

 

Telephone 7556344/0777 325590  |  Email info@kanddmgt.com  |  Website www.kanddmgt.com